What lessons can we learn from Christmas advertising campaigns?

What lessons can we learn from Christmas advertising campaigns?

The holiday season is both the most lucrative and stressful time of year for businesses. During this time, businesses compete with one another and must meet the demand of their consumers.

Even the most skilled marketing professionals can make mistakes. It is something that every brand must deal with.

This article contains five lessons that you can learn from Christmas marketing failures.

Lesson 1 - Activate your campaign at the right time

Although Christmas is a very special time of the year for many, competition becomes tough between competitors during this period.

For example, this holiday period marks the time from Thanksgiving to the New Year in the USA, Canada, and other parts of the world. This includes Christmas, Hanukah, New Year's Eve and the beginning of the New Year. However, there’s also Halloween, Black Friday and Cyber Monday to consider just before this period.

Companies often prepare special offers for these events, and holiday marketing usually kicks off in October. We have nearly three months of unending sales and deals, which, although great for business, can be problematic as it can be easy to miss one of these campaigns during the holiday stream.

You will need a well-planned content strategy to ensure all of the above campaigns are a success.

Instead of acknowledging these days individually, Chocolate Trading Company made the mistake of combining all of these holidays on Twitter.

In early October, they released two separate Christmas and Halloween offers on the same day. Launching a Halloween campaign is excellent, however, it was too early to also release a Christmas offer as well.

Unfortunately, both posts received very few responses, which resulted in a double failure. Had the company chosen to focus all of their efforts on the Halloween promotion first, it would have been far more successful.

Lesson 2 - Keep your customer service team well prepared

Is you customer service team ready to support the holiday rush? Many businesses need to give more thought to this question. Your customers will not be patient when waiting to receive their orders. Poor customer service will only put your customers off while fuelling their anger.

Commenting on social media platforms is the best way to communicate with brands. If your customer service team isn’t doing a very good job, you'll see many negative comments on your holiday posts. Your followers wont hesitate to leave damaging comments who are more than happy to steal the Christmas spirit from your social media pages.

Lesson 3: Create a content plan

Every marketing activity should have a specific goal.

Set up a content strategy for your holiday campaigns. It is important to decide when and what content you will publish. Also, how often will you post, and in what formats? You should also identify key metrics that will help you measure the success of each campaign.

Many brands act as if they can win customers simply by giving them discounts for Christmas, but that's not the truth. All content should be attractive and convincing so the users can engage with your holiday campaigns.

Lesson 4: Be cautious with Christmas hashtags

Social media users are the first to react when it begins to look more like Christmas. Every day, they generate gigabytes worth of Christmas-like photos and Reel videos. Both brands and individuals use hashtags to navigate the sea of holiday-inspired memorabilia.

Put yourself in your customer's shoes to understand why this tactic is not always a good idea.

Imagine that you are hosting a Christmas party for family and friends. You will need to search for holiday recipes and decoration ideas. Also, it would help if you choose the right outfit. On Instagram, you can search for posts with hashtags such as #christmasdecor, #christmasdecorations, #christmasoutfit, and #christmascookies.

While its okay to use hashtags in your own social media posts, don’t overdo it. Use one or two, but ensure they’re relevant.

Lesson 5: Disable the loudspeaker in socials

Another common error in social Christmas campaigns is the need for original content or authenticity. Social pages should be used to communicate with your audience and not just announce sales and offers.

Many brands repost the same content throughout the holiday season to grab people's attention. however, some users find this  annoying, and it's not very effective!

The Bottom Line

We won't judge you even if you make marketing mistakes this year. After reading this article, we hope you will make more careful decisions before choosing your Christmas advertising campaign. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Contact EWM, our leading web development agency, for professional support with your next digital campaign.