Love them or hate them, we believe that a great seasonal marketing campaign is an effective way of connecting with new and existing customers. In this insight, I’m going into detail on how your brand can cut through all year round.
Whether it’s a religious holiday like Christmas or Easter, or a more modern invention like ‘Veganuary’ or Star Wars Day (May the 4th be with you) we’re no stranger to brand’s jumping on the holiday bandwagon with seasonal marketing campaigns.
Larger brands even have the power to add their own events to the marketing calendar such as Amazon’s Prime Day, or Apple’s WWDC.
But with increased marketing saturation during these periods, it can seem an overwhelming challenge to create something original that will stand out.
So how can you set your brand apart and create a seasonal marketing campaign that cuts through? Here are a few things we’ve learned about seasonal marketing campaigns…
1. Crafting a seasonal marketing plan
It’s important to create a seasonal marketing plan that is achievable and aligned with the rest of your marketing and business goals.
There are so many cultural holidays and awareness days that you couldn’t possibly target marketing activity at all of them, so you need to carefully pick and choose which holidays you include in your seasonal marketing plan.
The number of holidays you choose to target and which ones they are will communicate something about your brand and it’s important to be aware of that.
Some brands choose to target as many holidays as possible, such as Threerooms, communicating the diversity of our design ability. Whereas, some brands choose to target just a single holiday to build a strong association with that day, such as Coca Cola and Christmas.
When you’re deciding on which holidays to include in your seasonal marketing plan consider your marketing goals and messages, your target audience and your broader business goals and objectives.
You could choose holidays that are:
Most relevant to your customers
Most relevant to your brand/products
Satisfy your sales or operational goals (perhaps you need a marketing push in your off-season).
2. Creating a seasonal campaign that cuts through
Don’t do half a job
The biggest marker of the mediocre seasonal campaign is an over-reliance on surface-level cliches. If your campaign is built on nothing more than the usual tropes of the particular holiday then it’ll only succeed in blending into the noise.
You need to be imaginative with the imagery, wording and idea of your campaign.
Use the cliché wisely
Cliches are simply stereotypes that have become over-used. They are like well-worn paths, not ineffective at communicating a message, just obvious and easy.
Use of the cliché is not necessarily to be avoided as they allow you to easily and effectively tap into the shared common narrative of the holiday.
The best seasonal campaigns use well-known holiday memes as a jumping-off point, but then go on to say something more substantial.
Consider a creative partner
Creating eye-catching content
Need help creating eye-catching and original visuals to make the most of your seasonal marketing plan? Threerooms are experts when it comes to creating content that cuts through.
Support with brand and creative strategy
Our brand strategy services get to the heart of your business and your target market. Through discovery workshops and team exercises, we can tease out invaluable insights about your brand and your target audience, giving you the tools to target them effectively.
Get in touch and we’ll look forward to working with you on your next seasonal marketing campaign.
Retention campaigns
It’s important to recognise and engage with existing customers and clients all year round, obviously, but the holidays provide a unique opportunity to connect with your existing customers in a new way, keeping your brand top of their mind.
Seasonal internal or retention campaigns can be planned in much the same way as external ones and can be as simple as adapting the messaging in your external campaign to speak to your loyal customers.
Change up your call-to-action
As consumers, we get the feeling that your holiday campaign is different from your regular campaigns. It’s important to capitalise on this by using the seasonal marketing campaign to offer your audience something new.
A new call-to-action can be an effective way for your seasonal marketing campaign to cut through and stand out, especially if it relates specifically to the content of your campaign.
This is something that will very much depend on the business and context, as well as on the campaign content. Here are a few new call-to-actions that you could consider:
Enter to win
Find out how we can help you
Visit us in person
Try a free sample
Buy a voucher
Make their day
Now you have everything you need to create seasonal marketing materials that cut through! It’s time to start crafting your seasonal marketing plan and January is the perfect time to begin.
A specialist brand agency
An award-winning branding agency, Threerooms has spent over 15 years making brands stronger and businesses more successful. Whether modernising brands with meaning or crafting effective marketing campaigns, our amazing team is focused on delivering brand transformation while providing exceptional customer service.
Want to work together? Get in touch today.
