Christmas Marketing Campaigns - Doing It Right

November and December heralds (like the proverbial angel) the start of the Christmas marketing campaign season. Christmas marketing means that some people can be fed up by the 1st December of overplayed Christmas carols and the inevitable playing of Wham Christmas hits.

Other Christmas campaigns are greeted as welcome signs that the festive period has properly begun. The unveiling of the latest John Lewis advert or the Coca Cola truck tour are celebrated across the UK.

Christmas is peak season for many businesses around the world. Here at Parallax, we’re in the thick of it at the minute, working hard on behalf of our clients to come up with some exciting campaigns that promote services and boost sales.

John Lewis – Christmas Marketing Done Right

Craig Inglis, now Marketing Director at the brand, was instrumental in boosting the profile of John Lewis at Christmas. His first year making his presence felt was 2008 with the understated advert which also featured the song ‘From Me To You’ by The Beatles. He told Marketing that the advert deliberately avoided overt displays of consumerism, a tactic which has paid off as sales have soared since, with 2012 seeing a sales increase of 44.3% compared to the year before.

Music plays an integral part to the John Lewis campaign at Christmas time. Acoustic covers of classic hits really helps to impart a feeling of familiarity and warmth. 2011’s The Long Wait was their most popular advert, featuring the beautiful cover of The Smiths’ ‘Please Please Let Me Get What I Want’ by Slow Moving Millie.

Working with our clients Lemoncake over the past few months on their production music library has really given us an appreciation of how music is used in adverts to great effect.

Asda Fight Back – ‘Gimmick’ Free Christmas Advertising

Not every Christmas campaign is about creative, film-like content and subtle hints. Asda this year have come out with all guns blazing hoping to take down competitors with their new adverts. The bold commercial attacks its rivals, coming out on prime time TV during the X Factor for maximum exposure.

The advert features four snowmen, three small, skinny, sad ones which represent Morrisons, Tesco and Sainsbury’s, and the larger, smiling one wearing Asda’s trademark bright green.

With ‘no gimmicks, no promotions and no celebrity filled features’, Adsa promise that instead of spending vast amounts of money on expensive advertising campaigns, they’re passing the savings onto customers, promising prices that are 10% lower.

This strategy is a brave one for Asda, as traditionally it can seem ‘bad form’ to attack your competitors ‘weaknesses’ as opposed to promoting your strengths. However, the fierce competition between the top four supermarket brands means that decisive action has to be taken. Time will tell if this strategy pays off.

How It’s Done: Your Christmas Marketing Campaign

There are a number of elements to think of when planning your Christmas marketing campaign. Firstly, plan ahead. December 1st should be mid-flow to your campaign, not the start of it. Traditionally in the UK Christmas marketing steps up a gear following November 11, Remembrance Day.

Looking at last year’s strategy is a good starting point for any marketing plan for Christmas. Examine what worked and what didn’t.

• What keywords did you target and which ones were more successful?
• What clickthrough rates did your emails have?
• Which products sold well?
• What did your competitors do?

Here are some hints and tips for you to get the most out of your Christmas campaign.

Loyalty Should Pay

Customers who you have already won are more likely to come back as you’ve already got their attention. Remind them of your brand with a bonus such as a money off voucher or a discount code which they can use at the checkout.

Loyalty schemes are a great way of retaining customers and getting them to spend more. While Amazon have release few facts about their Amazon Prime service, a market analyst from Macquarie, Ben Schachter, carried out a self-analysis and discovered that his household placed seven times more Amazon orders after choosing Prime.

Less Is More?

While showy adverts that are full of glitz and commercial appeal can be effective, so too can understated adverts. Waitrose have gone with the same strategy for two years in a row which focuses on their ‘Giving Something Back’ campaign. This advert, focusing on their charitable side, led to a sales increase of 4.3 per cent last year.
One the other hand, Sainsbury’s went all-out with their pantomime themed advert starring ever-chipper Jamie Oliver in 2011 and saw an increase in sales of 4.8 per cent compared with the previous year.
The key factor is to know your audience and tailor your campaign to meet their needs and demands. This way you can be sure to get the best response.

Make It Easier

One of the peskiest parts of Christmas is the time it takes to wrap everything, especially for families with lots of children and mountains of presents. Make life easier for them with a free postage and free gift wrap offer, allowing people to send ready wrapped presents exactly where they need to be without issue. Value-add ideas like this will keep your existing customers happy and may tempt new ones over your competitors who may not offer these conveniences.

Social Media

One of the best tools at your disposal is social media. Google+ used Christmas favourites Wallace and Gromit as part of their marketing strategy last Christmas. Giveaways on Facebook and Twitter which people can enter by sharing gets users to promote your products for you. Ask people to choose what they want from a range, get people to leave great reviews and make sure you are constantly engaging with customers. Social media give great ROI in comparison to traditional marketing tactics, so should be a high priority this year.

Website Optimisation

More and more people are using mobile devices to access the web. If you are an ecommerce business, make sure that your website is responsive for ease of use on any device and that the shopping process is as streamlined as possible. If you have a large range, think about developing an app which shows your products in the best possible light.

Timing is Everything

Boxing Day is the most popular shopping day of the year in the UK, with 2012 accumulating 113 million visits on retail websites. Mondays are more popular shopping days with a 12 per cent increase in site visitors.

Your Christmas campaign should start off slowly, building to a peak which makes sure that the content goes in front of customers when they are ready to spend some money. Remind them how close its getting with ‘number of days to go’ and ‘buy now to guarantee delivery for Christmas’ messaging.

For help with your digital marketing strategy get in touch.