With the holiday season just around the corner, companies everywhere are gearing up their marketing efforts. But in an increasingly competitive landscape, it’s not enough to just offer discounts or sales anymore. Today’s most cutting-edge companies are embracing original and inventive holiday marketing ideas to meaningfully connect with their target audience during the most wonderful time of the year. If you’re looking for some inspiration to help your brand stand out this holiday season, check out the cool marketing examples we’ve rounded up below.
Top Holiday Marketing Ideas
Holiday Cards
Cards are a traditional staple of holiday marketing, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be fresh or fun — there are tons of different ways to play with the content and the format to create something clever and memorable. Whether you choose to do something classic or innovative, heartfelt or playful, modern or retro, it’s a perfect opportunity to express your brand.
One holiday card I really enjoyed working on a few years back was for my client Anaplan, a company that makes cloud-based planning software. They wanted a card that could be sent to employees as well as clients both in print and digitally. Since Anaplan is a global company, they would have to translate it into a few different languages, meaning my team and I couldn’t use any decorative lettering. We ended up choosing a mixed media design that incorporated a handcrafted element. We got a big foam board, cut out a bunch of holes, and stuck in Christmas lights in the shape of their logo. We knew that image would work well for printed cards, but we also thought it could be fun to make it into a gif for digital applications — so we did a photoshoot of the logo with the lights turned both on and off, creating an animated gif with flashing light bulbs. The end result was a cool, unique card with a personalized feel due to its handmade touches.
It’s worth mentioning, though, that a holiday card doesn’t always have to be a card in the traditional sense. This example from creative agency Red & Co. — a wine bottle with a “drunken love letter” on the label, customized for each of their clients — is one of the best holiday marketing ideas I’ve seen. Mira Kaddoura, Red & Co. founder and executive creative director, explained: "This industry can be hard on us and our clients, so we thought a funny, cheerful, (pretend) drunken holiday card would make our clients laugh a little and remind them of what we’ve been able to do together."
You could even do a hologram like the image seen below. I know it looks intimidating, but holograms are actually surprisingly easy to make. They’re really inexpensive, too — all you need is a projector.
Ad Campaigns
Today, it seems like nearly every company does a campaign around the holidays. This does make it a bit more of a challenge to grab people’s attention, but it doesn’t mean it’s not worth pursuing — it just means you need to make yours stand out.
One of the more memorable holiday marketing campaigns I worked on in the last few years was a Black Friday campaign for Udemy, an online learning platform. This stuck out for a couple of reasons, one of which was the “shop smart” concept the campaign touted. Over the years, retailers have struggled with the fact that today’s consumers are more hesitant to buy physical goods. People are choosing to simplify rather than load up on items that will sit around in their closet or garage untouched. We decided to capitalize on that trend for this campaign — instead of buying some shiny new toy you’ll never use, why not invest in your skill set and your career? Udemy offered a special of $10 courses throughout the whole week, targeted toward career-minded individuals hoping to climb the corporate ladder as well as businesses interested in employee professional development.
Another thing that set this campaign apart was the use of bright colors. Just about every other company with a Black Friday campaign used a black color scheme to play off of the name, so these colorful ads really stood out in comparison. We chose colors and typography that reflected Udemy’s brand, and the 3D gravity free objects we featured were universal enough that they worked for all of the different courses the company offered and segments they targeted.
Microsites
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of people working from their offices has drastically decreased. For B2B companies that like to send their clients and prospects physical pieces, this has posed a special challenge. The good news? There are other holiday marketing ideas that work just as well. Microsites, for example, are a fun and flexible digital option — plus, they can provide you with a ton of valuable data.
One of the best examples of a holiday-themed microsite I’ve seen comes from Emotive Brand, a brand strategy and design agency I’ve worked with in the past. They created an interactive A-Z dictionary of emotions for brands who might need help “unwrapping” their feelings. Every time you mouse over a word, you trigger a little representative animation. You can click on each word to get a definition of it as well as a quote featuring it. At the end, they have a few paragraphs explaining the concept behind it:
“These 50 feelings are a selection from 301 emotions we use to help our clients build successful brands. For each entry, we have paired graphic design and animation with quotes from our team and influential thinkers. The result is a visual metaphor that aims to not only illustrate the emotion, but bring it to life.”
It’s an amazing way to drive home the unique value proposition that the agency offers, and such a creative idea. If you decide to create a microsite, remember that it doesn’t have to be some cookie cutter landing page for a holiday deal — a playful, unique direction will be way more engaging.
Social Media
Social media is one of the best holiday marketing ideas because it’s so accessible. Everyone from small mom-and-pop shops to big corporations can put together a few fun social posts, regardless of their budget. And because social media is a more casual platform, brands can really let their hair down in a way that humanizes them. It’s the perfect place to post something cute or cheeky that appeals to the digital age.
Holiday social media posts lend themselves well to video — I’ve seen companies share recordings of employees lip-syncing to Christmas carols, funny skits, stop-motion animations, etc. One super easy, low-budget way to leverage video is a holiday ecard from JibJab. Just upload a few photos of your team and you can bring them to life with themes like holiday disco, snowball fight, or office party. And speaking of team photos, another cute option could be sharing pictures of your different team members celebrating the holidays as children.
Whatever you end up choosing, don’t be afraid to have some fun with it. Social media is a channel where audiences respond well to brands embracing their playful side.
Gifts
Of course, you can’t talk about the holidays without mentioning gifts. Sending customers/clients or prospects some branded company swag — as long as it’s useful — can be a thoughtful way to thank them for their support and remind them of what you have to offer.
This year, we created a calendar. It’s a great way to show off what we can do in terms of design, but also a useful gift — just about everyone can use a calendar. And I don’t know about you, but after what a mess 2020 has been, 2021 can’t come quickly enough! We went with a bright, lively design to evoke a cheerful and uplifting mood, and decided to risograph it because this type of printing creates such fun colors, textures, and overlays.
There are tons of other options for cool holiday gifts. The image below, for example, is a gift from Austin-based ad agency GSD&M. GSD&M decided to go beyond the typical holiday gift for something more buzzworthy — literally. The agency sent its clients and partners jars of pure honey, collected from bees it has been hosting on its own rooftop. Everything from the jars to the labels, fonts, colors, embossed note and even the honey-inspired recipes inside were hand-selected and created in-house. Keep an eye out for even more company swag gift ideas in our next blog post!
For many companies, the holiday season is the most critical period of the year. While it can be tough to attract your audience’s attention amidst shopping, travel, and a deluge of marketing efforts from other brands, you’re also presented with an amazing opportunity to get creative and take risks that you might not normally. Hopefully, these holiday marketing ideas will inspire you to pull off something truly special. And if that happens, you won’t just capture your audience’s interest for a month or two — you’ll stick out in their minds for the entire year.
Anastasia Salazar Ltd. is an independent design studio for tailored branding and digital designs. Reach out to learn how we can help you fuel growth and maximize your brand’s impact.