Marketing Calendar Malaysia 2027: Key Dates, Sales Peaks and the Lead Times to Plan Them

Quick answer: Five commercial peaks carry most of 2027 for Malaysian brands. Chinese New Year on 6 and 7 February, with a replacement holiday on Monday 8 February in most states. Ramadan and Hari Raya Aidilfitri, with Ramadan expected to run 8 February to 9 March and Aidilfitri expected on 10 and 11 March. Merdeka and Malaysia Day on 31 August and 16 September. Deepavali on 28 October. And the Q4 ecommerce run of 9.9, 10.10, 11.11 and 12.12, with 11.11 on Thursday 11 November the biggest online day. Two collide: Ramadan is expected to begin on the Monday most states take as their Chinese New Year replacement holiday, so January and February creative must be approved before mid December 2026. Start SEO and content three to four months out, book paid budget four to six weeks ahead, lock creative three weeks ahead.

Most downloadable marketing calendars are American or British, with nothing on Thaipusam or Gawai. This one covers Malaysia in 2027: the dates, their scope, the ecommerce peaks and the lead times behind them.

Why a Malaysian marketing calendar works differently

Holidays move. Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Aidiladha, Awal Muharram, Maulidur Rasul and Ramadan follow the Islamic lunar calendar and are confirmed by official moon sighting. Build campaigns that survive a one day shift.

Holidays differ by state. New Year’s Day is not a public holiday in Johor, Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis or Terengganu. Deepavali is observed everywhere except Sarawak. Thaipusam covers eight states and territories.

The audience is not one audience. Department of Statistics Malaysia put the population at 34.4 million in the first quarter of 2026: Malays 58.3 per cent, other Bumiputera 12.3 per cent, Chinese 22.1 per cent, Indians 6.5 per cent.

DOSM linked the 11.2 per cent rise in second quarter 2026 services revenue to RM714.7 billion partly to “higher household spending and mobility during festive celebrations”. Ecommerce income that quarter was RM338 billion.

The 2027 Malaysian marketing calendar, month by month

Every public holiday below comes from the official 2027 Jadual Hari Kelepasan Am Persekutuan dan Negeri, published 20 August 2026, cross-checked against JAKIM’s Takwim 2027.

“Scope” says whether a date is federal, state, or commercial. “Start prep” is when the brief is written, not when the campaign launches.

Dates marked expected follow the Islamic lunar calendar and are confirmed by moon sighting and royal declaration close to the time. The gazette flags Awal Ramadan, both Hari Raya Aidilfitri days, both Aidiladha days and Deepavali as “tertakluk kepada perubahan”, subject to change.

Only Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu run a Friday and Saturday weekend. Johor moved back to Saturday and Sunday on 1 January 2025.

Date (2027)	Day	What it is	Scope	Who it matters to	Start prep by
1 Jan	Fri	New Year’s Day	State holiday in every state except Johor, Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis and Terengganu	Fitness, education, finance, F&B, travel	Early Nov 2026
1 Jan	Fri	1.1 sale	Ecommerce	Marketplace and D2C sellers	Late Nov 2026
4 Jan	Mon	2027 school session opens for both Kumpulan A and Kumpulan B states	National, not a holiday	Stationery, uniforms, tuition, devices, telcos	Nov 2026
6 Jan	Wed	Israk and Mikraj	Kedah, Negeri Sembilan, Perlis, Terengganu	Local retail, staffing and delivery SLAs	Dec 2026
14 Jan	Thu	YDPB Negeri Sembilan’s Birthday	Negeri Sembilan	Local retail and services	Dec 2026
22 Jan	Fri	Thaipusam	Johor, Kedah, KL, Negeri Sembilan, Penang, Perak, Putrajaya, Selangor	Hindu community brands, F&B, transport, retail near temple routes	Early Dec 2026
24 Jan	Sun	Thaipusam holiday	Kedah	Local retail	Early Dec 2026
1 Feb	Mon	Federal Territory Day	KL, Labuan, Putrajaya	KL and Putrajaya retail, F&B, events	Mid Dec 2026
2 Feb	Tue	2.2 sale	Ecommerce, no holiday	Marketplace sellers	Late Dec 2026
6 to 7 Feb	Sat, Sun	Chinese New Year, Year of the Fire Goat. Most Saturday and Sunday weekend states take a replacement day on Mon 8 Feb	Federal	Retail, F&B, gifting, travel, banking, property, auto	Mid Nov 2026
8 Feb	Mon	Awal Ramadan (expected), state holiday in Johor and Kedah. Ramadan expected to run 8 Feb to 9 Mar	State holiday, national behaviour change	F&B, grocery, fashion, home, telcos, charity	Mid Dec 2026
14 Feb	Sun	Valentine’s Day	Commercial, not a holiday	F&B, gifting, beauty, jewellery, hotels	Late Dec 2026
20 Feb	Sat	Independence Declaration Day	Melaka	Melaka tourism, F&B, retail	Jan 2027
24 Feb	Wed	Nuzul Al-Quran (expected)	State holiday everywhere except Johor, Kedah, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Sabah and Sarawak	Staffing, delivery SLAs, respectful content	Jan 2027
8 Feb to 9 Mar		Ramadan bazaar season (expected)	National, not a holiday	F&B, FMCG, payments, logistics, fashion	Dec 2026
3 Mar	Wed	3.3 sale, deep in the Ramadan shopping window	Ecommerce, no holiday	Marketplace sellers	Mid Jan 2027
4 Mar	Thu	Installation of Sultan of Terengganu	Terengganu	Local retail and services	Jan 2027
Late Feb to 9 Mar		Raya shopping peak and balik kampung travel (expected)	National, not a holiday	Fashion, home, auto, grocery, telcos, travel, petrol	Dec 2026
10 to 11 Mar	Wed, Thu	Hari Raya Aidilfitri (expected)	Federal	Almost every consumer category	Mid Dec 2026
12 Mar	Fri	Hari Raya Aidilfitri day three (expected)	State holiday, Melaka only	Melaka retail, F&B, staffing	Mid Dec 2026
Mid Mar to Apr		Raya open house season (expected)	National, not a holiday	F&B, catering, gifting, home, appliances	Jan 2027
23 Mar	Tue	Sultan of Johor’s Birthday	Johor	Johor retail and services	Feb 2027
26 Mar	Fri	Good Friday	Sabah, Sarawak	East Malaysia retail, churches, F&B	Feb 2027
30 Mar	Tue	Sabah Governor’s Birthday	Sabah	Sabah retail and services	Feb 2027
4 Apr	Sun	4.4 sale	Ecommerce, no holiday	Marketplace sellers	Mid Feb 2027
26 Apr	Mon	Sultan of Terengganu’s Birthday	Terengganu	Terengganu retail	Mar 2027
1 May	Sat	Labour Day	Federal	Retail, F&B, travel, home improvement	Mar 2027
2 May	Sun	Labour Day holiday	Kelantan, Terengganu	Local staffing	Mar 2027
5 May	Wed	5.5 sale	Ecommerce, no holiday	Marketplace sellers	Mid Mar 2027
9 May	Sun	Mother’s Day	Commercial, not a holiday	F&B, beauty, jewellery, flowers, health, hotels	Mid Mar 2027
16 May	Sun	Arafat Day (expected)	Kelantan, Terengganu	Local staffing	Apr 2027
17 May	Mon	Hari Raya Aidiladha (expected)	Federal	Grocery, F&B, charity, travel	Mar 2027
17 May	Mon	Raja Perlis’ Birthday	Perlis	Perlis retail	Apr 2027
18 May	Tue	Aidiladha holiday (expected)	Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis, Terengganu	Local staffing	Apr 2027
20 May	Thu	Wesak Day	Federal	Buddhist community brands, F&B, travel, vegetarian and wellness	Apr 2027
22 May	Sat	Hari Hol Pahang	Pahang	Pahang retail	Apr 2027
30 to 31 May	Sun, Mon	Harvest Festival (Pesta Kaamatan)	Labuan, Sabah	Sabah retail, F&B, travel, telcos	Mar 2027
Mid-year		Mid-year school break, dates not yet announced by the Ministry of Education	National, not a holiday	Travel, hotels, attractions, F&B, kids categories	Mar 2027
1 to 2 Jun	Tue, Wed	Hari Gawai	Sarawak	Sarawak retail, F&B, travel, telcos	Apr 2027
6 Jun	Sun	Awal Muharram (expected). Falls on a Sunday, and 7 Jun is already a holiday, so confirm the replacement day when it is announced	Federal	Staffing, respectful content	Apr 2027
6 Jun	Sun	6.6 sale	Ecommerce, no holiday	Marketplace sellers	Mid Apr 2027
7 Jun	Mon	Agong’s Birthday	Federal	Retail, travel, F&B	Apr 2027
20 Jun	Sun	Father’s Day	Commercial, not a holiday	Electronics, auto, grooming, F&B, tools	Late Apr 2027
20 Jun	Sun	Sultan of Kedah’s Birthday	Kedah	Kedah retail	May 2027
7 Jul	Wed	7.7 sale and mid-year clearance	Ecommerce, no holiday	Marketplace and D2C sellers	Mid May 2027
7 Jul	Wed	Georgetown World Heritage City Day	Penang	Penang tourism, F&B, retail	May 2027
10 Jul	Sat	Penang Governor’s Birthday	Penang	Penang retail	May 2027
11 Jul	Sun	Hari Hol Almarhum Sultan Iskandar	Johor	Johor retail	May 2027
22 Jul	Thu	Sarawak Day	Sarawak	Sarawak retail, F&B, events	May 2027
30 Jul	Fri	Sultan of Pahang’s Birthday	Pahang	Pahang retail	Jun 2027
8 Aug	Sun	8.8 sale	Ecommerce, no holiday	Marketplace sellers	Mid Jun 2027
15 Aug	Sun	Maulidur Rasul (expected). Replacement day on Mon 16 Aug in the Saturday and Sunday weekend states	Federal	Staffing, respectful content	Jun 2027
24 Aug	Tue	Melaka Governor’s Birthday	Melaka	Melaka retail and tourism	Jun 2027
31 Aug	Tue	Merdeka Day	Federal	Retail, auto, telcos, F&B, travel, banking	Late Jun 2027
Mid to late Aug		Merdeka promotional season, a retail convention rather than a fixed campaign	Retail and ecommerce	Most consumer categories	Late Jun 2027
9 Sep	Thu	9.9 sale, the first big Q4 ecommerce peak	Ecommerce, no holiday	Marketplace and D2C sellers	Mid Jul 2027
16 Sep	Thu	Malaysia Day	Federal	Retail, travel, East Malaysia campaigns	Jul 2027
29 to 30 Sep	Wed, Thu	Sultan of Kelantan’s Birthday and holiday	Kelantan	Kelantan retail	Aug 2027
9 Oct	Sat	Sarawak Governor’s Birthday	Sarawak	Sarawak retail	Aug 2027
10 Oct	Sun	10.10 sale	Ecommerce, no holiday	Marketplace sellers	Mid Aug 2027
28 Oct	Thu	Deepavali (flagged as subject to change in the gazette)	Federal, observed in every state except Sarawak	Fashion, jewellery, home, grocery, F&B, auto, travel	Early Aug 2027
5 Nov	Fri	Sultan of Perak’s Birthday	Perak	Perak retail	Sep 2027
Late Oct to mid Nov		11.11 campaign window, peaking Thursday 11 Nov	Ecommerce, no holiday	Every online seller	Early Sep 2027
26 Nov	Fri	Black Friday	Global, commercial	Electronics, fashion, travel, software, D2C	Mid Sep 2027
29 Nov	Mon	Cyber Monday	Global, commercial	Electronics, software, D2C	Mid Sep 2027
Year end		Year end school break, dates not yet announced by the Ministry of Education	National, not a holiday	Travel, hotels, attractions, kids categories	Aug 2027
11 Dec	Sat	Sultan of Selangor’s Birthday	Selangor	Selangor retail	Oct 2027
11 to 14 Dec	Sat to Tue	12.12 sale and year end clearance	Ecommerce, no holiday	Every online seller	Early Oct 2027
24 Dec	Fri	Christmas Eve	Sabah	Sabah retail, F&B, hotels	Oct 2027
25 Dec	Sat	Christmas Day	Federal	Retail, F&B, hotels, gifting, travel	Late Sep 2027
26 Dec	Sun	Christmas holiday	Kelantan, Terengganu	Local staffing	Oct 2027
26 to 27 Dec	Sun, Mon	Israk and Mikraj and holiday	Kedah, Negeri Sembilan, Perlis, Terengganu	Local staffing	Nov 2027
31 Dec	Fri	New Year’s Eve	Commercial, not a holiday	F&B, hotels, events, fitness, subscriptions	Oct 2027

How to use the state column. If you sell nationally online, state only dates affect logistics, not creative. If you have outlets or field teams, they change opening hours, staffing and delivery.

Ecommerce and retail peaks, with the lead times behind them

Campaign windows run far longer than the headline date suggests. Shopee Malaysia ran its 2025 11.11 Big Sale from 26 October to 14 November, with a creator showcase on 1 and 2 November; Lazada Malaysia’s ran 10 to 13 November 2025. Lazada’s 12.12 ran 11 to 14 December, Shopee’s peaked across 11 and 12 December.

So the window opens about two weeks early, traffic spikes at 12am, 12pm and 8pm, and a tail runs two to four days after. Neither platform publishes a forward calendar, so the 2027 windows below are projections from verified 2025 behaviour, not announced dates.

Peak (2027)	Typical campaign window	Creative locked	Budget booked and campaigns built	Stock, pricing and landing pages live
Chinese New Year, 6 to 8 Feb	Mid Jan to 8 Feb	8 Jan	11 Jan	15 Jan
Ramadan and Raya, 8 Feb to 11 Mar	1 Feb to 11 Mar	15 Jan	18 Jan	25 Jan
Raya open house, mid Mar to Apr	12 Mar to 30 Apr	26 Feb	1 Mar	8 Mar
Mother’s Day, 9 May	19 Apr to 9 May	12 Apr	15 Apr	19 Apr
Mid-year clearance and 7.7	24 Jun to 11 Jul	11 Jun	16 Jun	23 Jun
Merdeka season, around 31 Aug	Mid to late Aug (retail convention, no fixed dates)	30 Jul	4 Aug	9 Aug
9.9	26 Aug to 11 Sep (projected)	9 Aug	14 Aug	23 Aug
10.10	27 Sep to 12 Oct (projected)	13 Sep	18 Sep	24 Sep
Deepavali, 28 Oct	7 to 28 Oct	24 Sep	29 Sep	6 Oct
11.11	26 Oct to 14 Nov (projected)	8 Oct	13 Oct	21 Oct
Black Friday and Cyber Monday, 26 to 29 Nov	19 to 29 Nov	29 Oct	3 Nov	12 Nov
12.12 and year end	1 to 14 Dec (projected)	12 Nov	17 Nov	26 Nov

What each deadline means:

• Creative locked. Final copy and artwork, all sizes and languages, legal and brand sign off done.
• Budget booked. Finance approval, platform funding and campaign structure built in Meta, Google and TikTok.
• Pages and stock live. Time to be crawled and checked on a real phone. Structural store work is an ecommerce development job, not a campaign task.

How to build the calendar

Step 1: lock the fixed points before anything creative

Open a blank sheet in October or November and add, in order: public holidays by state, school terms, your own launches, marketplace campaign dates, and the commercial dates for your category.

Then mark the collisions. Chinese New Year on 6 to 8 February sits two days before Ramadan is expected to start, compressing two of the year’s biggest campaigns into one production block. Valentine’s Day on 14 February falls in the first week of Ramadan.

Step 2: choose how many campaigns you can actually run

Putting twelve campaigns on the calendar with a team that can run five is the commonest planning mistake. A workable shape for a small team:

Tier	How many in a year	What it means
Tentpole	3 to 4	Full campaign. New creative, paid across channels, dedicated landing page, PR or partnerships, measured on revenue
Supporting	6 to 8	Adapted creative, paid on one or two channels, existing pages refreshed, measured on leads or sales
Tactical	Monthly	Organic social, email, a promo code, a blog post. No new production
Always on	Continuous	SEO content, search ads on core terms, remarketing, email flows

Pick tentpoles by where your revenue is, not by which festival is biggest nationally.

Step 3: assign channels to each campaign

Put the channel plan in the calendar, so nobody has to ask what “CNY campaign” includes.

Channel	Best used for	Build time before launch
SEO and content	Demand that exists months early: gift guides, buying guides, “when is” queries	12 to 16 weeks
Paid search and Shopping	Capturing intent during the peak	4 weeks
Meta and Instagram	Reach, retargeting, catalogue sales	3 to 4 weeks
TikTok and TikTok Shop	Discovery, short video, live selling	4 to 6 weeks, longer if creators are involved
Marketplace ads and vouchers	Shopee and Lazada peak days	Per the platform’s registration deadline
Email and WhatsApp	Owned audience, highest return per ringgit	2 weeks
Influencers and creators	Awareness and proof, especially festive	6 to 8 weeks
PR and partnerships	Tentpoles only	8 to 12 weeks

Our guides on social media platforms in Malaysia, selling on TikTok in Malaysia and WhatsApp marketing go deeper.

Step 4: split the budget across the year before you spend any of it

Two clusters, February to March and September to December, carry a disproportionate share of the year for most retail and ecommerce brands. Split the budget to match.

Period	Share of annual paid budget	Reasoning
Jan to Mar	30 per cent	CNY plus Ramadan and Raya in the same quarter in 2027
Apr to Jun	15 per cent	Open house season, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, mid-year holidays
Jul to Sep	20 per cent	Mid-year clearance, Merdeka, 9.9, Malaysia Day
Oct to Dec	25 per cent	Deepavali, 10.10, 11.11, Black Friday, 12.12, Christmas
Reserve	10 per cent	Unspent, released quarterly for what is working

Treat those percentages as a starting point. Pull last year’s revenue by month and move the money to where your sales happened; our digital marketing benchmarks page beats a generic global average. The reserve lets you back a campaign that is working in week two.

Step 5: write one campaign brief per campaign

One page, written by the campaign owner, approved before any creative work begins.

Brief field	What goes in it
Campaign name and code	Used in every UTM, file name and invoice
Dates	Campaign window, peak day, end date
Objective	One sentence, one number, one deadline
Target	Who, in plain words, plus the audience definition in each ad platform
Offer	Exact discount, voucher, bundle or message. Include the terms
Key message	One line a stranger could repeat after reading it once
Languages	Which assets in Bahasa Malaysia, English, Chinese
Channels and split	Where the money goes and roughly how much
Assets required	Every size and format, with the platform each is for
Landing page	The URL, and who is building it
Tracking	UTM pattern, conversion events, what counts as success
Deadlines	Brief, first draft, review, final approval, live
Owner and approver	Two names. Not a department
What we will not do	The scope cut, written down, so it stops coming back

Step 6: set an approval workflow with dates, not vibes

The biggest cause of late campaigns is approval, not production. Turn approval into dated slots.

Stage	Owner	Working days before launch
Brief approved	Marketing lead	35
Concepts presented	Creative	28
Concept chosen	Marketing lead and business owner	25
First draft of all assets	Creative and copy	18
Review round one	Marketing lead	15
Legal, brand and cultural review	Named reviewer	12
Final assets delivered	Creative	10
Campaigns built and landing pages live	Media and web	7
Final check on mobile, tracking verified	Marketing lead	3
Launch	Media	0

One reviewer per round, not a committee. A missed slot moves the launch date, it does not compress the next stage.

Step 7: name an owner for every row

Role	Owns
Marketing lead	The calendar itself, priorities, final approval, budget reallocation
Campaign owner	One campaign end to end, from brief to post-campaign review
Content and SEO	Always on content, seasonal pages, publishing three to four months ahead of each peak
Paid media	Budget pacing, campaign builds, bids, daily checks during peaks
Creative	Concepts, artwork, video, all sizes and languages, asset library
Web and ecommerce	Landing pages, site speed, stock and pricing accuracy, checkout
Data and reporting	Tracking setup, dashboards, the post-campaign review pack
Cultural reviewer	A named person who checks tone, language and imagery for every festive campaign

That last role is not optional here, and it should not be whoever wrote the copy.

Planning for a multi-ethnic, multi-faith market

Getting this wrong costs more than getting it right earns.

During Ramadan (expected 8 February to 9 March 2027, with Aidilfitri expected on 10 March):

• Move food and drink imagery, and promotions built around eating, out of daytime hours.
• Late evening and early morning are real engagement windows. Check last Ramadan’s analytics.
• Keep “sale” language measured against campaigns about family and giving.
• Avoid launches and competitor comparisons during Nuzul Al-Quran and the last ten nights.

Across festivals generally:

• Greetings must be specific. “Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri” and “Gong Xi Fa Cai” are not interchangeable.
• Check imagery with someone who celebrates the festival.
• Keep alcohol, pork and immodest imagery out of Muslim-facing creative, placements included.
• Deepavali is a holiday in every state except Sarawak, so plan Sarawak separately.
• National brands skip Pesta Kaamatan and Gawai, so a good East Malaysia campaign stands out.

Language mix. English is the practical default for B2B and urban Klang Valley, Bahasa Malaysia reaches further nationally and in the Ramadan and Raya window, and Chinese matters for CNY and much of the Penang, KL and Johor consumer base. Write in the audience’s language rather than translating.

Mourning and national events. When a period of mourning is declared, pause scheduled posts and ads the same day.

Always on work versus campaign bursts

Always on work is what makes campaigns cheap.

Always on	Campaign burst
SEO content published year round	Festive landing pages and seasonal hubs
Search ads on your core commercial terms	Peak day budget increases and sale specific ads
Remarketing and catalogue ads	New creative for a specific offer
Email and WhatsApp flows	Campaign sends and voucher drops
Reviews, content and Google Business Profile upkeep	PR, creators, partnerships

A page published in late October has almost no chance of ranking for an 11.11 query, so SEO and content start three to four months out. Build the festive page in August and link it from your homepage and category pages.

The same applies to content clusters: a Raya gift guide live since December outperforms one published in February. Our guides on content marketing and digital marketing strategy cover how the layers fit together.

Keep festive pages live all year at a stable URL and update them annually, so they keep their rankings.

Planning paid media around peak season cost

Google’s explanation of the Ads auction lists what decides your position and price: “your bids, the quality of your ads, and website, the Ad Rank thresholds, the competitiveness of an auction, the context of the person’s search, as well as the expected impact of assets”. Competitiveness is the part that moves during a peak, and Meta and TikTok run auctions too. No credible national figure exists.

Before the peak:

• Pull your own cost per click, cost per thousand impressions and cost per acquisition for the same weeks last year.
• Build retargeting pools, customer lists and lookalikes in the quiet weeks, when they cost less.
• Run awareness and traffic early, then retarget that warm audience during the peak.
• Set a realistic target return. A quiet week’s target usually stops the platform spending.
• Move budget into owned channels. Email and WhatsApp cost the same in November as in June.

During the peak:

• Check pacing daily, not weekly.
• Watch frequency in a compressed window.
• Keep the reserve available for whatever is working by day three.
• Do not launch structural changes mid-peak.

After the peak: costs settle within a week or two, often the cheapest remarketing of the quarter. Our performance marketing and social media advertising teams plan those weeks as part of the campaign, and the Shopping ads feed needs its own deadline.

The template: columns to copy into your own sheet

One sheet, one row per campaign. It stops two people building the same asset twice.

Column	What goes in it	Example
Campaign ID	Short unique code, used in every UTM	RAYA27
Campaign name	Plain name everyone uses	Raya 2027 main campaign
Tier	Tentpole, supporting, tactical, always on	Tentpole
Occasion	The date or event it is built around	Hari Raya Aidilfitri
Date confirmed?	Fixed, or expected pending moon sighting	Expected
Campaign start and end	Live window	1 Feb to 11 Mar 2027
Peak date	The day that matters most	10 Mar 2027
Objective	One sentence with a number	RM400,000 revenue from the Raya range
Primary KPI	The one number you report on	Revenue
Target audience	Plain description	Malay families, 25 to 45, nationwide
Languages	Which assets in which language	BM primary, EN secondary
Channels	Where it runs	Meta, TikTok, Google Search, Shopee, email
Budget	Total, then split by channel	RM60,000
Offer	Exact mechanic and terms	20 per cent off, minimum RM150, 1 Feb to 11 Mar
Landing page URL	The destination	/raya/
Assets required	Every deliverable, one per line	6 statics, 3 videos, 2 emails, 1 landing page
Brief due	Date	18 Dec 2026
Creative due	Date	15 Jan 2027
Approval due	Date	20 Jan 2027
Live date	Date	1 Feb 2027
Owner	One name
Approver	One name
Status	Not started, in brief, in production, in review, approved, live, closed
Dependencies	Stock, pricing, platform registration, creator contracts	Shopee campaign registration by 20 Jan
Result	Filled in after the review
Notes for next year	The honest one

Two extra tabs earn their keep: a date reference tab and an asset library tab listing every finished file.

Measurement: what to review after every campaign

Do the review within ten working days, booked when you book the launch.

What to review	Where it comes from	What to do with it
Revenue or leads against the objective	Analytics, ecommerce platform, CRM	Decide whether the campaign repeats next year
Spend against budget, by channel	Ad platforms and finance	Rebalance next year’s split
Cost per acquisition against your own last-year figure	Ad platforms	Sets the realistic target for next year
Which creative and which language won	Ad platforms	Brief next year’s creative from the winner
Landing page conversion rate and mobile speed	Analytics and PageSpeed	Feeds the CRO backlog
Organic traffic to the seasonal page	Search Console	Decide whether to keep the page live all year
Which day and hour peaked	Analytics	Adjust next year’s budget pacing
Owned channel contribution	Email and WhatsApp reports	Shows how much of the peak you did not pay for
What slipped, and why	The team, honestly	The only input that improves the workflow
New customers versus repeat	CRM or platform	Tells you whether the discount bought anything lasting

Write the answers into the “notes for next year” column the same week. That column is why year two is easier than year one.

Common mistakes on Malaysian marketing calendars

1. Copying a US calendar. It misses Thaipusam, Gawai and Kaamatan entirely.
2. Treating expected Islamic dates as fixed. Build so a one day shift costs nothing.
3. Planning Raya in January. The creative should already be approved.
4. Ignoring state holidays in operations. Next day delivery into a closed state creates the complaint, not the sale.
5. Running English only. In the Raya window especially, this leaves reach on the table.
6. Booking all the budget into peak weeks. No reserve, no way to back a winner.
7. Publishing the seasonal page two weeks out. Too late for organic search.
8. Skipping the post-campaign review. Next year’s plan becomes a guess again.
9. No named cultural reviewer. Tone problems are cheap before launch, expensive after.
10. A calendar nobody can see. If it lives on one laptop, it is not a calendar.

Frequently asked questions

When should I start planning my 2027 marketing calendar?

Now, if you have not. September to November 2026 is the right window. Chinese New Year falls on 6 to 8 February 2027 and Ramadan is expected to start around 8 February, so the creative for both needs to be briefed by mid December 2026 and approved by mid January 2027. Anything involving SEO content for a February peak should already be in production.

Which Malaysian dates should a small business actually plan for?

Pick four or five, not twenty. For most consumer businesses that is Chinese New Year, Ramadan and Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Merdeka and Malaysia Day, Deepavali, and the 11.11 and 12.12 ecommerce peaks. For B2B, school terms and public holiday clusters matter more than festivals, because they decide when decision makers are at their desks.

Are the 2027 Hari Raya dates confirmed?

They are gazetted but not final. The official 2027 schedule lists Hari Raya Aidilfitri on 10 and 11 March and Aidiladha on 17 and 18 May, and JAKIM’s Takwim 2027 agrees. The gazette marks them “tertakluk kepada perubahan”, subject to change, because moon sighting and royal declaration settle them close to the time. Some international sites list Aidilfitri a day earlier, using an astronomical criterion rather than Malaysia’s Imkanur-rukyah standard. Use the JAKIM dates and confirm before anything is printed.

How do I handle public holidays that differ by state?

Keep two views of the calendar. A marketing view for creative and media, which is mostly national, and an operations view by state for staffing, opening hours, delivery promises and customer service cover. New Year’s Day is not a holiday in five states and Deepavali is not observed in Sarawak, so a national assumption will be wrong somewhere.

Should we advertise during Ramadan?

Yes, and Malaysian spending in the Ramadan and Raya window is substantial. What changes is tone and timing, not whether you show up. Move food imagery to sahur and iftar hours, lead with family, preparation and giving rather than discount volume, and have a named reviewer check every asset before launch.

Do ad costs really rise during 11.11 and 12.12?

Auction platforms price by competition, and Google lists “the competitiveness of an auction” among the factors setting your position and price. When every advertiser in your category raises budgets for the same fortnight, the clearing price moves. No single national figure exists for how much. Compare your own cost per acquisition for the same weeks last year, build retargeting audiences in the cheap weeks beforehand, and shift more of the peak into email and WhatsApp.

What language should our campaigns run in?

Match the audience and the occasion rather than defaulting to English. Bahasa Malaysia carries further nationally and particularly during Ramadan and Raya, English suits B2B and urban Klang Valley, and Chinese matters for CNY and a large share of the Penang, KL and Johor consumer base. Write natively in each language instead of translating, and test both versions against the same audience before the peak.

How far ahead does SEO content need to start before a peak?

Three to four months for a new page, longer on a competitive term. A gift guide published in late October will not rank for an 11.11 query. Build seasonal pages in the quiet months, keep them at the same URL year after year, and refresh rather than rebuild them.

The bottom line

A marketing calendar is not a list of festivals. It is a set of deadlines working backwards from dates you do not control, some not final until days beforehand and some applying in only half the country. Lock the fixed points for 2027, count how many campaigns your team can deliver, put the budget where your revenue sits, and publish seasonal pages months before anyone searches for them.

Want help building and running the 2027 plan? Request a quote from our performance marketing team, or ask about our free digital marketing audit worth RM300.