A Study Of Calendar Usage In The Workplace 2011 - Promotional ...

Introduction
It just seemed like the other day we heard predictions or talk about how paper calendars would one day
disappear from the workplace and be replaced with electronic options. Today at work and at home we
have an amazing array of electronic options to keep track of our day‐to‐day activities. Calendars are now
available on our phones, PDAs, computers and online. In a 2000 study by Belotti and Smith, it was found
that despite the availability of new technology, people still tended to use paper calendars, day timers,
desk pads and such to keep track of their ever‐ changing schedules. Several other studies also found that
while there was a general acceptance and use of online and offline applications to keep track of
appointments, the paper calendars still played a very important role in personal information
management.
That was more than 10 years ago. Here we are a decade later and we still ponder about the role of
paper calendars in the workplace. Of particular interest to the promotional products industry is the role
of the advertising calendar. Calendars, more specifically advertising calendars, have been a mainstay in
the promotional products industry for a long time and point to our industry’s origins. In 2009,
advertising or promotional calendars made up a 7.14‐percent share of the $15.64 billion dollar pie of
promotional products sales in the U.S., or approximately $1.12 billion in revenue. With revenues ranging
from $1.07 billion to $1.43 billion over the past six years, this study is the second of two studies that
examine the role of calendars in the home and the work place.
It is reasonable to assume that technology changes the way we manage our personal information and
schedules at work. The studies by Belotti and Smith in 2000 found that paper calendars still played a
larger role than they imagined it would back then. Now, 10 years later, with even more options such as
PDAs, cell‐phone calendars, iPad calendars, Outlook calendars and the Google calendar, it is even more
important to evaluate the role of the traditional paper calendar in the workplace. So PPAI and the
Calendar Advertising Council decided it was time to revisit and evaluate the role of the physical calendar
in a research study that looked at calendar usage among U.S. businesses. With calendars playing a very
large role in the promotional products industry, this investigation was critical to the future of various
types of advertising calendars that exist in printed form in our industry.
© 2011 Promotional Products Association International. All material in this report is proprietary and may not be reproduced in any form without the written permission of PPAI.
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