seasonal-and-moment-marketing — Claude Code skill: moment calendar

---
name: seasonal-and-moment-marketing
description: >-
  The annual moment-planning skill -- map the few seasonal/cultural/commercial moments that
  genuinely fit your brand, gate them for fit + authenticity, tier by weight, and plan far in
  advance. Use when someone wants a seasonal/holiday content plan, a moment calendar, to plan
  Black Friday/holiday content, or to decide whether to post for a holiday/awareness day. The
  planned counterpart to trend-jacking's reactivity: silence on the wrong day beats noise on the
  wrong topic. Uses the DATES framework. Reads brand-profile + audience-research first. The agent
  builds the calendar, gates fit + authenticity, tiers, plans lead-time, feeds content-calendar.
  Big moments route to campaign-and-launch-planning + paid; the reactive half to trend-jacking.
  WoopSocial schedules ahead -- it does not pick moments, judge authenticity, or run paid. Never
  join identity/cause moments without year-round standing; never fabricate. Distinct from
  trend-jacking, content-calendar, and campaign-and-launch-planning.
version: 1.0.0
---

# seasonal-and-moment-marketing

The **annual moment-planning** skill — map the few moments that fit, gate them for **fit + authenticity**,
**tier** by weight, and **plan far ahead.** The planned counterpart to `trend-jacking`. The agent **plans**;
big commercial moments → `campaign-and-launch-planning`; **WoopSocial schedules the planned content ahead.**

## The POV: the few that fit, planned early — not every internet holiday
Brands fail the calendar two ways: **ignore it** (miss the tailwind of moments that already have attention) or
**blanket-post every "national [x] day"** (hollow, off-brand spam → sometimes backlash). The top-1% move:
**"not every holiday deserves a post, and not every brand deserves a voice in every conversation."** Pick the
**few that fit your brand + audience + commercial calendar**, tier them, and **plan in advance** — the
predictable counterpart to `trend-jacking`'s reactivity. The question is **"does this make sense for our
brand, audience, and goals?"** — *silence on the wrong day beats noise on the wrong topic.*

## Read these first
1. **brand-profile** — voice/identity/standing.
2. **audience-research** — what the audience cares about + when.

## The framework: DATES
(Depth: `references/the-dates-framework.md`.)
- **D — Decide the moments that matter:** build YOUR brand's calendar (seasons, retail anchors, relevant
  awareness months, industry events, milestones) — not every internet holiday.
- **A — Audit for fit + standing:** fit gate (brand/audience/goals) + authenticity gate (identity/cause
  moments need **genuine year-round commitment**; "why us, why this moment?" or **stay quiet** — no
  rainbow-washing).
- **T — Tier by weight + sensitivity:** Tier 1 commercial/fun (go) · Tier 2 authentic-alignment-required ·
  Tier 3 cultural/solemn (non-promotional respect). Big commercial = a campaign → `campaign-and-launch-
  planning`.
- **E — Engineer it early:** 8–12 weeks ahead (major) / 2–4 (minor); run big moments as a multi-week series,
  not one post.
- **S — Slot it in + measure:** feed the `content-calendar`; **schedule ahead via WoopSocial**; leave ~50%
  open for `trend-jacking`; measure vs the moment's goal; quarterly review.

## The reality (verify-quarterly)
Lead times: major 8–12 wk / minor 2–4 wk; brief Back-to-School in May, Halloween in Aug; quarterly (13-wk)
cycles. Biggest-ROI moments: Christmas, **BFCM (Nov 27 / Nov 30 2026)**, **Halloween (Oct 31 — Saturday)**,
Valentine's, Mother's — run as a **multi-week series**; **BFCM = a dedicated campaign + paid** (organic
doesn't carry it; social ≈16% of holiday e-commerce traffic). Authenticity gate: Pride/MLK/Juneteenth/Earth
Day need **year-round standing** ("why us, why this moment?" or stay quiet — rainbow-washing/authenticity-
theater backlash; a sale on a solemn/identity day is tone-deaf). Tier by category + brand-safety (safe/
sensitive/caution). Plan around seasons, retail anchors, awareness months, industry events (CES/MWC), major
cultural/sporting moments (Olympics/World Cup cycles, awards shows — confirm what's actually upcoming;
these rotate), milestones. Go beyond "happy [day]"; measure vs the goal:
`references/seasonal-moments-2026-reality.md`. The two gates, the tier table, the lead-time table, the
per-moment plan, the WoopSocial flow + worked examples: `references/building-the-moment-calendar.md`.

## Honest scope (never violate)
- **The agent** builds the **moment calendar**, runs the **fit + authenticity gate**, **tiers**, **plans the
  angle + lead-time**, and feeds the **`content-calendar`.**
- **Routing:** big commercial moments → `campaign-and-launch-planning` (+ paid); the reactive ~50% →
  `trend-jacking`; the cultural craft → `meme-and-culture`; the visual → `image-prompt`/`design-and-templates`.
- **WoopSocial** **schedules the planned content in advance.** It does **NOT** pick which moments fit, **judge
  authenticity**, build the calendar, or **run paid amplification.**
- **The few that fit > blanket-posting.** **Never** participate in identity/cause moments **without genuine
  year-round standing**; **non-promotional respect** for solemn days; **plan ahead**; **measure vs the goal**;
  **never fabricate.** (Scope, distinctions + connections: `references/scope-and-connections.md`.)

## Distinct from its siblings (route correctly)
**seasonal-and-moment-marketing (this)** = the **PLANNED, advance-planned** moment map · **trend-jacking** =
the **REACTIVE** counterpart (the ~50% open calendar — two halves of one calendar) · **content-calendar** =
the operational scheduling **system** (this feeds it) · **campaign-and-launch-planning** = the multi-post arc
(big moments route there) · **batch-content-plan** = batch production · **meme-and-culture** = the
cultural-moment **craft** (this picks **which** moments) · **social-strategy**/**content-pillars** = the
overall plan (this is the time-anchored layer).

## Where this connects
Reads first: **brand-profile** + **audience-research.** Feeds: **content-calendar** (moments → the grid),
**batch-content-plan**. Routes to: **campaign-and-launch-planning** (big commercial + paid), **trend-jacking**
(the reactive half), **meme-and-culture** (cultural craft), **image-prompt**/**design-and-templates** (the
visual), **email-and-newsletter** (the moment on owned channels). Publishes via: the **planned content** →
**scheduling-and-queue → WoopSocial** (scheduled **ahead**). Measure with: native + **analytics-and-reporting**
against the moment's goal (never fabricated). Moment selection, authenticity judgment + paid stay human/native.

## Definition of done
A brand moment calendar built from the few moments that genuinely fit (seasons, retail anchors, relevant
awareness months, industry events, milestones — not every internet holiday), each passed through the fit +
authenticity gate (no identity/cause participation without real year-round standing; "why us, why this
moment?" or sit out) and tiered by weight + sensitivity (commercial/fun vs authentic-alignment vs cultural/
solemn non-promotional); big commercial moments scoped as multi-week campaigns via campaign-and-launch-planning
(+ paid), planned 8–12 weeks ahead (2–4 for minor) with an angle beyond "happy [day]"; fed into the
content-calendar and scheduled ahead via WoopSocial, with ~50% left open for trend-jacking; measured against
each moment's goal and reviewed quarterly; nothing fabricated; correctly distinguished from trend-jacking,
content-calendar, and campaign-and-launch-planning.