The venue year: what to plan, and how far ahead
Half the Mother's Day work we're asked for arrives inside two weeks of the day. Some of it arrives on the day. Nothing about Mother's Day is a surprise — it's the second Sunday in May, every year, forever. This is the calendar, and the honest lead times for each kind of job.
On this page
On this page
Venue marketing isn't unpredictable. Roughly eighty per cent of a club's year is known twelve months out — the same public holidays, the same seasonal menus, the same finals, the same Melbourne Cup, the same Christmas functions. What makes it feel chaotic is that the work gets requested at the last minute, which is also when it's most expensive, least considered and most likely to go out with a typo.
If you only read one thing
- Book the fixed dates twelve months out. Anzac Day, Mother's Day, Melbourne Cup and Christmas don't move. Put them in now, not in April.
- Print needs weeks, not days. Anything going to a printer has a hard deadline you can't negotiate with.
- Video needs a month. Shoot, edit, your approval, then scheduling. Not a week.
- One conversation a quarter beats twelve panics a year. Half an hour every three months and most of this looks after itself.
- Tell us the deadline in the request. Every time. We can't prioritise around a date we don't know.
Across the venues we work with, April and May are consistently our two busiest months — roughly three times the volume of March. That isn't three times the demand appearing out of nowhere; it's Anzac Day, Mother's Day and the start of winter trading all being organised at once, in the fortnight before they happen. The same work spread over the preceding three months is calmer, cheaper and better.
01 — Lead timesHow long things actually take
These are the lead times we'd ask for to do a job properly, without anyone working late. They're guidance rather than a rule — we'll always tell you what's possible when you ask, and we do plenty of quick turnarounds. But if you're planning, plan to these.
| What you want | Ask us | Why it takes that long |
|---|---|---|
| Social post, artwork already exists | 1–2 business days | Resize, caption, schedule. The quickest thing we do. |
| New social artwork | 3–5 business days | Design, your review, one round of changes, then sized for each platform. |
| Screen artwork for your venue displays | 3–5 business days | Portrait and landscape versions, then scheduled onto the right players. |
| Poster or A-frame to print in-house | 1 week | Design plus approval, then you print it. Add a day if you need a proof. |
| Anything going to a commercial printer | 2–3 weeks | Design, approval, print-ready artwork, the printer's own queue, then delivery. The printer's deadline is not negotiable and it's usually the bit people forget. |
| Menus (print + digital + web) | 2–3 weeks | Same words in five or six places, and they all have to match. See the menu guide. |
| Photo shoot | 2–3 weeks | Scheduling around your trade and our run, then editing. Food shoots need the kitchen's cooperation on the day. |
| Video or reel | 3–4 weeks | Shoot day, edit, your review, changes, then scheduling. Rushing this is where bad video comes from. |
| Drone work | 3–4 weeks | As above, plus weather. Aerial work needs a suitable day and there may not be one this week. |
| A full campaign across several channels | 4–6 weeks | Concept, artwork set, screens, socials, print, website, and a schedule that lands in the right order. |
| New page or section on your website | 1–2 weeks | Build, staged preview, your approval, then publish. See the website guide. |
| New screen, kiosk or display hardware | 4–8 weeks | Order, delivery, configuration, install window, and any cabling or power that has to happen first. |
These lead times assume you come back to us reasonably quickly. If your artwork has to go to a GM who's on leave, or be tabled at a monthly board meeting, that's the real constraint — and it's often two or three weeks on its own. Work backwards from the event, through your own approval chain, and then tell us when you need it.
02 — The calendarThe year, month by month
A general shape for a club or pub in northern NSW and south-east Queensland. Yours will differ — but if you've got nothing, start here.
Dates that move each year — Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Melbourne Cup, school holidays — are worth confirming against the current year's calendar rather than assuming. Public holidays differ between NSW and Queensland, which matters if you're near the border.
03 — The big fourThe ones that need real notice
Everything else can flex. These four can't, because they carry the most trade and the most expectation.
Anzac Day — start in February
Not just artwork. Two-up, dawn service arrangements, sub-branch coordination, trading hours, commemorative content, and for RSL clubs a tone that has to be right. It also lands in the same fortnight as Easter in many years, so both compete for the same design and print time. Six to eight weeks.
Be aware that commemorative content deserves more care than a normal promotion — the RSL has protocols around the use of imagery and wording, and your sub-branch will have views. Get that conversation started early rather than approving artwork in the last week.
Mother's Day — start in March
The single most-booked day of the year for a lot of venues, and the one we most often get asked about with a fortnight to go. You need bookings open early (people book Mother's Day weeks ahead — if your promotion goes up two weeks out, they've already booked somewhere else), a set menu, hampers or vouchers, and artwork across screens, socials, print and your website. Six to eight weeks.
Melbourne Cup — start in September
Sweeps, fashions on the field, a set menu, big-screen arrangements, and often the year's biggest single-day lunch. Corporate and group bookings start looking in early October. Six weeks.
Worth noting: if your promotion touches gaming in any way, that has its own restrictions — see what not to film for the imagery side, and check anything gaming-related with your compliance manager before it's designed rather than after.
Christmas — start in July
This is the one people find hardest to believe. Christmas function enquiries begin in July and August, and by September the venues that market early have taken the bookings. You need function packages and pricing, a booking process, artwork, raffles and hampers organised, a roster of Christmas events, and trading hours published across every channel. Three to four months, and function marketing live by August.
04 — Your calendarYour own dates matter more than the national ones
Every venue we work with has a second calendar that matters more to its members than Valentine's Day ever will, and it's the one most likely to be forgotten until the week of:
- Sub-club seasons and championships — bowls, golf, fishing, croquet, darts. Opening days, club championships, presentation nights, honour boards to update.
- AGM and election season — notices with statutory deadlines, nomination periods, annual reports. These have legal dates, not preferred ones, and they need to go up on time.
- Membership renewal cycle — the single biggest revenue moment of the year for many clubs, and it wants a proper run-up, not one email.
- Recurring weeklies — raffles, members' draws, trivia, bingo, live music, courtesy bus. These need artwork refreshed a few times a year, not left up until the photo looks a decade old.
- Local events — shows, festivals, race days, market days, school events, charity days your club supports. Often your best-performing content, because it's genuinely local.
- Menu changeovers — usually two or four a year. Each one is a print run, a website update, digital boards and socials.
- Anniversaries and milestones — the club's founding year, a life member's honour, a renovation reopening. Genuinely good content that always gets remembered too late.
05 — Doing itBuilding the calendar once, properly
Block out an hour, once
One person, a wall calendar or a spreadsheet, and last year's diary. Last year's function book and POS reports will tell you which days actually mattered.
Put the immovable dates in first
Public holidays, the big four, your AGM, renewal dates, sub-club seasons. These are facts, not plans.
Work backwards from each one
Event date, minus your approval time, minus our lead time. That's the date the request has to reach us. Write that date on the calendar, not the event date — it's the one that matters.
Name an owner for each
Not "marketing". A person. The most common reason a promotion misses is that it was everybody's job.
Share it with us
Send it through, however rough. We'll flag anything that's going to be tight, and we can start the recurring pieces well ahead instead of reacting.
Review it quarterly, for half an hour
Four short conversations a year is the whole discipline. What's coming in the next three months, what worked last quarter, what needs refreshing. That's it.
If sitting down and building a year's calendar sounds like a job you'll never get to, say so — it's a conversation we're happy to run, and it's easily the highest-value half-hour in the whole relationship. Venues that plan a quarter ahead get better work out of us for the same money, because we're designing instead of scrambling.
06 — RealityWhen you're already late
It happens, and we're not going to lecture you about it when there's a Saturday to save. What helps:
- Say it's urgent and say why, with the actual date. "Needed by Thursday for Saturday's function" tells us everything.
- Send final copy, signed off. When time is short, the thing that kills a deadline is a second round of wording changes. Get it right before it comes to us.
- Accept fewer channels done well. Screens and socials can move fast. Print cannot. Better to skip the printed poster than to have everything arrive rushed.
- Reuse last year's. If it worked, a date change on proven artwork is a fraction of the work of something new — and often performs better than a rushed original.
- Ring rather than email. If it's genuinely tight, thirty seconds on the phone beats an email sitting in a queue.
What we'd ask in return: when the dust settles, put next year's version of that date in the calendar before you forget the pain. That's how the cycle actually breaks.
07 — QuestionsThe ones we get asked
Can't you just remember these for us?
For recurring pieces we largely do — and if we're running your socials we'll prompt you. But we can't know that your bowls presentation night moved, that the board wants a members' draw relaunch, or that your renewal date shifted. The fixed national dates we can carry; your venue's calendar needs you.
How far ahead is too far?
There isn't really a too far for planning. There is for artwork — designing Christmas in March means it may not match the menu or pricing you land on. Plan a year out, brief a quarter out, and design six to eight weeks out for the big ones.
What if the details aren't confirmed yet?
Tell us anyway. "Mother's Day set menu, price to be confirmed, two sittings, roughly this shape" is enough for us to start on layout and imagery so only the numbers need dropping in at the end. Waiting until everything is locked is what turns a six-week job into a six-day one.
Does earlier cost less?
Often, yes — not because we charge a rush fee, but because early work needs fewer rounds, gets designed once rather than redone, and can be batched with other jobs. A late request also tends to spawn more of them as things get missed.
We're a small venue with no marketing person. Where do we start?
Four dates. Anzac Day, Mother's Day, Melbourne Cup, Christmas. Get those four right and you've covered most of the trade that's actually available to you. Add your renewal date and your AGM. That's a perfectly respectable calendar and it takes twenty minutes to write down.
Should we do something for every occasion?
No. Doing four things well beats twelve things thinly, and members can tell the difference. Pick what suits your venue and your members — a bowls club and a family pub should not have the same calendar.
08 — Print thisThe planner
Stick it inside the office door or in the front of the function diary. Fill in your own dates in the right-hand column.
Venue year planner — brief us by these dates
Cyberry Know-How · cyberry.com.au/know-how
The big four — brief us by
- Anzac Day → February
- Mother's Day → March
- Melbourne Cup → September
- Christmas functions → July
Lead times
- Social post from existing artwork → 1–2 days
- New artwork (social or screens) → 3–5 days
- Commercial print → 2–3 weeks
- Photo shoot → 2–3 weeks
- Video or drone → 3–4 weeks
- Full campaign → 4–6 weeks
- New screen or kiosk → 4–8 weeks
Our own dates — fill these in
- AGM / election notices
- Membership renewal opens
- Sub-club season openings
- Club championships
- Presentation nights
- Menu changeovers
- Local shows & festivals
- Anniversaries & milestones
Every request needs
- The real deadline, as a date
- Final wording, signed off
- An owner's name
Last reviewed 25 July 2026. Lead times are what we'd ask for to do a job properly — they're planning guidance, not a service commitment, and we'll always tell you what's actually possible when you ask. Moveable dates and public holidays differ by state and by year; confirm them against the current calendar.
Half an hour, four times a year
Let's map your next quarter.
Send us your dates — however rough — and we'll tell you what's tight, what can be batched, and what should start now.