I remember working in New York in August and hearing from people working at top brands about how busy they were doing photo shoots for holiday campaigns. After all, these ads and having the right brand images seen in the glossy magazines was everything. This year, while marketing platforms have changed, the need for high quality assets is more important than ever. Now is the time to jump into action to produce the best holiday campaign, no matter what your industry is.
October, November, December, or OND as it is known in the wine industry, is the biggest opportunity to generate revenue in the entire year and due to this year’s events, it is a critical time to make up, potentially a year’s worth of revenue. With six weeks until October, now is the time to get your holiday marketing strategy finalized, execute on those photo shoots and plan to deploy your holiday strategy at every level. This year, people will want humor, comforts and familiarity. Allow your brand personality to shine, connect with your customer highlight what people love about your brand.
The following are items you should execute on now to be able to maximize this opportunity.
- Devise a conversational calendar for OND with key opportunities to connect with customers such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s. Add in other unique opportunities in keeping with your brand. Decide if you are going to produce a holiday catalog, printed, or digital.
- Prepare to maximize holiday gifting opportunities which can be featured on your home page, in emails and on social media. Package wrapping and personalization would be advantageous for luxury brands.
- Support your retail channel. If you are selling via retailers plan your gift boxes, point of sale displays and shelf talkers now.
- Schedule your photo shoot guided by appropriate reference photos and props. This shoot will enable you to have custom still and video assets you can deploy on your website, social media and email marketing throughout your holiday campaign.
- Schedule post production on a select few photos are key and plan out what you will use where. Move into execution mode for any assets that need extra design time such as catalogs.
- Don’t forget holiday cards for key clients, customers. These can be physical or digital depending on your customer base and level of luxury you are executing at.
- List shipping dates and deadlines in order for delivery prior to November 26 and December 25.
- Segment customers if possible so that your most loyal, highest spenders feel special this holiday. This could include a small gift, handwritten notes, exclusive opportunities.
- Produce a holiday catalog that gets mailed to customers in October. This can be a lucrative way to start them thinking about stocking up for the holidays or where to get their gifts from.
- Lock in a schedule: If you use a social media tool or email platform that allows you to pre-schedule communications you could schedule these in advance. No matter what happens the emails will go out.
While we are living in uncertain times, it is still important to keep basic functions of your business going and do your best to execute at the highest level possible. World class brands do not leave these items to the last minute. For more info or help with execution please reach out.