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Malaysian Festive Ad Planner
Every Malaysian advertising window with its date, the six to eight week creative deadline counted back from today, and the point content has to be indexed by to still be found.
Updated December 2026 · AdPlay.ai Team
Malaysia has eight advertising windows a year: Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Chinese New Year, Deepavali, Merdeka and Malaysia Day, and the four double-date mega sales on 9.9, 10.10, 11.11 and 12.12. Creative should be live six to eight weeks before each one, and supporting content indexed earlier still, because search demand starts before the ad ramp does. Four of the eight move each year: Chinese New Year and Hari Raya walk about eleven days earlier annually and are confirmed by moon sighting, so a planner built on last year's dates will be wrong by a fortnight within two cycles.
Most Malaysian marketing calendars list the festivals and stop. The useful question is not when Hari Raya falls, it is whether you still have time to shoot, edit, approve and publish before the buying starts, and that answer changes every day. This planner counts backwards from today for all eight windows at once.
Optional. Picking one links each window to the ad examples we hold for it.
Deadline passed: 10.10 Sale, Deepavali, 11.11 Singles’ Day. The six-week mark has gone, so treat these as a shortened run into the day rather than a full one.
| Window | Falls on | Days away | Creative live between | Content indexed by | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Merdeka | 31 August 2026 | -39 | 6 July 2026 to 20 July 2026 | early July 2026 | Passed this cycle |
| 9.9 Sale | 9 September 2026 | -30 | 15 July 2026 to 29 July 2026 | mid-July 2026 | Passed this cycle |
| 10.10 Sale | 10 October 2026 | 1 | 15 August 2026 to 29 August 2026 | late August 2026 | Deadline passed, shortened run |
| Deepavali | 8 November 2026 | 30 | 13 September 2026 to 27 September 2026 | mid-September 2026 | Deadline passed, shortened run |
| 11.11 Singles’ Day | 11 November 2026 | 33 | 16 September 2026 to 30 September 2026 | early September 2026 | Deadline passed, shortened run |
| 12.12 Sale | 12 December 2026 | 64 | 17 October 2026 to 31 October 2026 | late October 2026 | Not yet |
| Chinese New Year | 6-7 February 2027 | 120 | 12 December 2026 to 26 December 2026 | early December 2026 | Not yet |
| Hari Raya Aidilfitri | 10-11 March 2027 | 152 | 13 January 2027 to 27 January 2027 | late January 2027 | Not yet |
Lunar and Islamic dates move about eleven days earlier each year and are confirmed by moon sighting, so a date more than a year out can shift by a day. Nothing you select here is sent anywhere or stored.
The two deadlines, and why they are different
The creative deadline and the content deadline are not the same date and treating them as one is the most common way a Malaysian festive campaign arrives late. Creative has to be running while people are still deciding, which is the six to eight week band. A page has to be indexed before people start searching, and search demand for a festival begins earlier than the ad ramp does, so a page published inside the creative window has largely missed its own season.
The planner shows both columns for every window. Where they disagree, the content date is the binding one, because it is the one you cannot fix with budget.
Four of the eight windows move every year
The double-date sales are fixed forever: 9.9, 10.10, 11.11 and 12.12 fall on the same days every year, which is exactly why marketplaces chose them. Merdeka and Malaysia Day are fixed too.
Chinese New Year, Hari Raya, Deepavali and the Islamic dates around them are not. Lunar and Islamic calendars run shorter than the Gregorian year, so each festival falls roughly eleven days earlier annually, and Hari Raya is additionally confirmed by moon sighting so its published date can shift by a day. The practical consequence is that a calendar copied from last year is wrong by a fortnight within two cycles, and that the gap between Chinese New Year and Hari Raya changes with it: they sat 31 days apart in 2026 and sit five weeks apart in 2027.
By the numbers
Frequently asked questions
When should Malaysian festive ads go live?
Six to eight weeks before the day, with the supporting content indexed earlier than that. The two deadlines are different jobs: creative has to be running while people are still deciding what to buy, and a page has to be indexed before people start searching, which is earlier again. The planner shows both for every window.
Why do Chinese New Year and Hari Raya dates change every year?
Both follow lunar calendars that run shorter than the Gregorian one, so each falls about eleven days earlier every year. Hari Raya is additionally confirmed by moon sighting, so its published date can move by a day at short notice. The two festivals drift toward each other and apart again: they fell 31 days apart in 2026 and sit five weeks apart in 2027.
What are the Malaysian mega sale dates?
The four double-date sales run on 9 September, 10 October, 11 November and 12 December. They are marketplace events rather than public holidays, so the dates never move, which makes them the only windows in the Malaysian calendar you can plan years ahead without re-checking.
Which Malaysian festive window matters most?
Hari Raya, by a wide margin, and its cluster starts months before the day: the fasting month is itself a distinct buying period with a different creative brief from the festival that follows it. Chinese New Year is the second, and it behaves differently, with buying that has to be delivered before the day rather than during it.
Does this planner know about my industry?
Only in one narrow way. Selecting a vertical links each window to the ad examples this site holds for that category and season, where we have them. It does not change the dates, because the dates are the same for everybody, and it does not recommend a budget, because that is not something a calendar can know.
Are the dates here official?
They are taken from the published federal holiday calendar and re-checked each planning cycle. Malaysian public holidays are set by a mix of federal and state law, so a date can be observed in some states and not others, and a lunar or Islamic date can move by a day after moon sighting. Treat anything more than a year out as a working date rather than a fixture.
What happens if I have missed the window?
The planner says so rather than pretending otherwise. A window whose six-week mark has passed is marked as running late, which is a real state and not a failure: a shortened run into a festival still reaches people who have not finished shopping. What it is not worth doing is publishing a page about a festival during the last fortnight before it and expecting search to find it in time.
Is anything I select sent anywhere?
No. The planner runs entirely in your browser, nothing is transmitted and nothing is stored. The dates it works from are part of this page.
Sources
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