The Ultimate Holiday Sales Checklist Part 2: Prepare Your Web Store
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Christmas and New Year Ads ideas: holiday advertisement examples
Congrats on completing the Black Friday sale! Hopefully, you have managed to reach all your goals and learned the lessons that will help you get even more orders in the future. However, it’s too soon to rest — the next stop is Holiday Sales.
Experts predict that holiday sales in 2021 will more rewarding than last year. According to Deloitte, eCommerce sales will grow 11% to 15% during the holiday season. Holiday shopping is projected to generate from $1.28 to $1.3 trillion.
We’ve already talked about preparing your marketing and online store for holiday sales. We even prepared an 80-Step Holiday Sales Checklist that will walk you through the whole process of sales preparation, from crafting the offer to logistics and analytics:
In this article, let’s take a close look at some Christmas and New Year creative ads to see how your brand can reach out to people this holiday season.
When do Christmas ads start?
There is no single answer to this question, as each business individually decides when to start running Christmas ads. Usually, brands add Xmas decorations to their promo right after the Halloween costumes are put away — on November 1.
The companies who started running their Xmas ads in early November said they “felt that (their ads) were inappropriate.” They admit that it’s essential to align holiday campaigns with those of other brands. Thus, their customers can enjoy Christmas-spirited ads at the appropriate time.
However, some brands start Christmas advertising way before November. For example, British online retailer Very launched their Xmas ads almost 3 months before the actual holiday — on October 1. The brand explained their decision with the user data from their website. The insights suggest that Very’s store visitors started shopping earlier this year.
In their report on Black Friday 2021, Adobe also says there is a tendency for early spending. The company states it was the reason why Black Friday did worse in 2021, with $8.9 billion in sales compared to $9 billion last year.
The sooner you start your holiday sale, the more chances you’ll have to reach out to early shoppers. If you add a Christmas narrative to your promo — the way Very did — you will also be able to connect with customers on an emotional level. This may be even more efficient than offering a discount.
4 must-have components of successful holiday advertising
Before viewing 7 examples of the best Christmas ads, take a look at these key 4 ingredients that make a great holiday ad:
- Emotion: since Christmas is a very emotional holiday, try to convey a special mood in your ads. The stronger positive emotion your ad provokes, the better people will remember your brand.
- Value: don’t focus on the holiday and customers only. Use creative Christmas ads as a brand-building opportunity. In your ads, show what values your business cherishes. People respond very well to family, unity, sharing, and kindness.
- Brand consistency: when creating your ad, make sure the messaging aligns with your brand positioning. If you are a daring brand that talks about street fashion and urban lifestyle, an ad where people wear old-style Christmas sweaters may catch your audience by surprise. Stay true to your brand and explain what Christmas means to you.
- Call-to-action: your holiday ads should encourage people to act. The action can be different: from “Shop now” or “Get your discount” to “Spread kindness,” “Talk to your parents” and “Enjoy the little magic moments.”
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6 inspiring Christmas and New Year creatives
To bring you some inspiration for your Christmas and New Year ads, here are 6 examples from different brands, large and small.
Sidenote: yes, you’re right; big brands do have big budgets many of us can’t afford to invest in Christmas marketing campaigns. However, it doesn’t mean you can’t use their ads as inspiration and adapt their ideas for your business. You don’t have to invest big in short movies — create a short video, a carousel of photos, or even one image.
Emphasizing kindness — Amazon
The holiday season is a very emotional time. Brands use it as an opportunity to connect with their customers on an emotional level. Amazon is one of such brands. Their Christmas ad focuses on kindness as the most incredible gift prioritizing human connection over material gifts.
You can also communicate human values near and dear to your brand in your holiday ad. Such values can be kindness, openness, and acceptance. Write directly about what these values mean to you and why you think they are important. In your visuals, you can illustrate the act of expressing kindness.
This can make a great creative for your brand awareness campaign. It is more likely to resonate with larger audiences, who will notice your brand and may visit your website. Read this article to learn more about brand awareness campaigns and how to benefit from them.
Addressing a pain point — DoorDash
DoorDash, a US food ordering and delivery platform, addressed a common problem many of us face around holidays: what to do if someone gives you a present and you don’t have anything to gift in return. Their ads show how DoorDash users can address this mishap quickly and effortlessly — just with a few taps on their phone.
You don’t necessarily have to focus on the same problem in your holiday ads. The difficulties your audience deals with may be very different from those of DoorDash users. Bring up the challenges that may arise this Christmas and how your brand can help resolve them.
For example, if your customers want to make a grand gesture and buy an expensive Christmas gift but cannot afford it, promote the “Buy now, pay later” option.
For those disappointed with their Christmas gift, offer an exchange option. Allow people who received presents from your shop to bring them back and choose something else in return.
Explore the family connection — Matalan
UK clothing store Matalan talks about family in their ad. The brand encourages people to step away from perfect party planning and embrace “magic moments” with their family and loved ones.
Just like Matalan, you can explore family connections in your Christmas ad copy and visuals. For example, if you offer clothes, you can do what Matalan did — publish family Christmas photos where people wear your brand.
If you sell toys, highlight the magic of parents making their children happy with presents. A jewelry store can emphasize the importance of romantic Christmas gifts.
Promoting holiday sale — The Christmas Light Emporium
Your Christmas creative ads don’t have to aim only at brand awareness. You can directly drive your sales by offering a discount. The Christmas Light Emporium, the US store that offers Christmas lights and decorations, does just that: promotes a holiday deal in their ads copy and visual.
If you decide to go with this type of Christmas campaign, run Retargeting ads. They will help you target people that already visited your store but didn’t buy from you. Offering a discount may become the right nudge to place an order. To effortlessly set up Retargeting on Facebook and Remarketing on Google, automate your ads with Adwisely.
If you run your ads with Adwisely, you can also set up a Special Offer campaign. Thus, you will target people who added a product to a cart up to 180 days ago and/or viewed a product in your store up to 30 days ago.
Helping organize Christmas — Ian’s Christmas Trees
Ian’s Christmas Trees, the US store that sells — you guessed it — Christmas trees, talks directly to their audience about their business. Their ad explains how they can help people get a tree. The creatives illustrate what the brand sells and what steps customers need to take to place an order.
You can use such creatives for your Prospecting campaign. With this tactic, you will deliver ads to people who have checked businesses similar to yours or have common interests with your existing customers. You can also automate your Prospecting ads with Adwisely.
Holiday Gift Guide — Vineyard Vines
Another way to promote a business this holiday season is by offering great content that people can benefit from. Vineyard Vine, a US clothing store, has prepared gift guides and actively promotes them online. Such ads help attract people looking for a present but haven’t made their mind about what to buy.
There are several ways how you can promote your Gift Guide. First, you can create sections on your web store — or add filters — such as Gifts for Him/Her, Gifts for Kids, Gifts for Mom/Dad, etc.
Also, if you have a blog, you can write an article reviewing the best presents for this holiday season and boost it on social media. You can take one step further and include products from your partners in the article. If your partners do the same, it will help your businesses reach out to new audiences.
Conclusion
The holiday season is the time when we become kinder and more generous. We expect this from others — not only from people, but also from businesses. Think about your brand, audience, and use the Christmas campaign ideas listed above to create engaging ads.
Good luck and Happy Holidays 💚