Yes, you did indeed see the word “Christmas” in the title. The sun might be shining bright outside, the BBQ may be fired up and you may have a chilled vino in hand, but now is exactly the right time to start thinking about those festive jingle bells.
With EPOS reporting that nearly a third of Christmas shopping starts before 1st November, it is no surprise that Experian equally reports that 49% of festive campaigns will launch before Halloween – that’s just 66 days away at the time of writing!! EEK!
Video can play a core part of your Christmas campaign, not only helping to improve metrics such as email click through rates and website dwell time but also in adding emotional content that can drive social engagement with your brand during this busy time of year.
So, how can you use your 66 days wisely? Here are a few pointers to help you plan and brief your video content.
1) Think beyond Christmas Day
Your festive video content doesn’t have to be solely focused on Christmas Day. The run up to Christmas is packed with festive occasions and traditions that can have stronger relevance with your brand and return a better boost in your sales.
For Kenwood, “Stir up Sunday” is one such festive tradition.
Also known as Christmas Pudding Day, “Stir up Sunday” is traditionally the day when the homemade Christmas Pudding is made, with each family member taking a turn to stir the pudding and make a festive wish. Falling around the end of November, Kenwood started filming their Christmas Pudding recipe video content in September to ensure that it was ready for “Stir up Sunday.”
2) Think about key shopping dates
The run up to Christmas also sees a number of business and commercial initiatives, such as Black Friday on 25th November and Small Business Saturday on 3rd December.
Black Friday is increasingly becoming the time for shoppers to benefit from cost reductions, particularly on electronic items, to help their Christmas budget go further. Similarly, Small Business Saturday is growing in popularity drawing on the growing trend for shoppers to buy local and are often supported by Christmas fairs.
64% of consumers are more likely to buy a product after having watched a video of it. So, if you’re in electronics or a small business, targeted product demo video content to your customers and prospects prior to these two shopping dates could really give your Christmas sales a push. To ensure your content is ready for this, October shoot days are critical.
3) Don’t forget your customers and old friends
Christmas is a time to say thank you, not just to your existing customers but also to your previous ones too.
It is a perfect time to reach back out to past customers, reminding them that you’re there and to possibly offer a Christmas discount for them to get back in touch and buy again.
DHL Express do this charmingly, capturing the emotion of Christmas giving while reminding existing, past and future customers of the services DHL Express offer over the festive season.
Similarly, there’s something nice about seeing a person, possibly someone you have personally dealt with through the year, wishing you “Festive Tidings” in a video message. Great Ormond Street do this beautifully in their thank you message, getting everyone involved from the hospital cook to the surgeons, from the scientists to the children that are cared for.
Whether it’s a personal message, or an animated, creatively executed one, neither of these are easy to organise especially as year end approaches. October shoot days gives you opportunity to get the whole team in Christmas jumpers. It also allows you to capture stills on the day which can be used to festively theme your website and social media channels in good time.
Don’t wait until it’s cold and snowy outside to plan and launch your Christmas activity. Planning and briefing your video content while the sun is still shining means you are ready to launch as soon as your shoppers are looking to buy. Thought through messaging will help give you standout during a busy time and also gives you the opportunity to tweak it too in the run up to December. Invariably this helps your festive countdown to be a little less stressful – which can only be a good thing!
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