There are so many Christmas advertisements overseas, this is what brands should do to break through in marketing!

Every Christmas is a time for brands to conduct concentrated marketing. This year’s Christmas is coming. For overseas brands, how can they do a good job of brand marketing during Christmas so that users are willing to receive marketing information but not feel bored? In this article, the author summarizes the brand marketing guide for Christmas. Let’s take a look.

Christmas, which has attracted much attention from overseas brands, is coming! At this time, all businesses are doing year-end promotions, and the overseas market is full of countless advertising information, coupons, and discount codes, which makes people dazzled and difficult to choose.

So, as the Christmas season approaches, how can overseas brands effectively influence users during Christmas without making users feel disturbed by advertisements? The following Christmas marketing guide is for you.

1. Christmas preferences of overseas users

1. Price is the key factor in buying

As purse strings get tighter, value for money is naturally top of mind. 60% of consumers say the price of goods is the most important factor in their Christmas shopping this year. Notably, the number of people who value price is about three times higher than the range of choice (22%) and fast delivery (19%).

Furthermore, the data shows that nearly a third of consumers plan to start Christmas shopping earlier than last year, with 29% intending to start before the end of August. This willingness is not surprising given the current situation, as nearly a third of consumers attribute this early start and organization of Christmas activities to the impact of rising living costs.

2. Christmas gifts > Holiday decorations

Compared to traditional Christmas decorations, such as Christmas trees and Santa hats, today's European and American consumers are willing to spend more money to buy gifts for others during holidays and other special occasions.

The study found that more than a third of shoppers plan to buy more holiday gifts at Christmas in 2022. For Chinese brands going overseas, bracelets, scarves, etc. with Chinese characteristics will become popular products for Christmas promotions under this trend.

Therefore, overseas brands can combine Christmas with the selling points of their products and sell them as Christmas gifts. At the same time, sellers also need to pay attention to advertising and operations on social media. Data shows that in the European and American markets, 87% of post-00s said they hope to be inspired by social media when buying holiday gifts.

3. Social media becomes the new generation of online shopping platform

A research report from e-commerce management platform Salsify shows that consumers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and France will not shop on a specific channel.

Instead, consumers will choose to compare shopping channels on different platforms. It is predicted that by 2026, global social media platform sales will reach approximately US$2.9 trillion. Platforms such as Tiktok, Instagram and Facebook have become a new generation of online shopping platforms, and social media marketing activities have driven traffic.

In view of this, it is recommended that overseas brands increase their social media marketing efforts. For example, they can consider cooperating with KOLs, relying on the highly sticky fan base of KOLs and the compatibility of social media and e-commerce to attract traffic to their own cross-border retail websites, rather than being limited to competing head-on with big brands on third parties such as Amazon.

So, how should overseas brands leverage internet celebrity marketing strategies to gain traffic and boost sales?

2. Creative Direction of Christmas KOL Marketing Content

Direction 1: Using Christmas elements

Christmas hats, Christmas trees, Christmas songs, Santa Claus... these are all essential elements in Christmas marketing. Combining these elements with your own influencer marketing activities (creative reorganization) will inevitably produce a different chemical effect.

In 2017, Mulberry, a top British leather goods brand, used the famous Christmas carol "The twelve days of Christmas" as the story framework and produced a short film for the brand's new Christmas bags in a creative and fashionable way.

At the same time, Mulberry also adapted the famous lyrics in the carol "My True Love sent to me" into the hashtag #MyTrueLoveGavetoMe on social networks, and invited Park and Cube and other celebrities to implant Mulberry products in the lyrics, triggering a new round of heated discussion and forwarding~

Direction 2: Practical gift list

Consumers search for holiday gift ideas to decide what to get their family and friends, with the majority turning to social media for inspiration.

Overseas brands can work with KOLs to package their products as Christmas gifts and make them into videos, interesting images or GIFs to post on social media.

Club Ride Apparel Facebook shares outdoor cycling blogger Zach Overholt's holiday gift list👇

Direction 3: Practical gift list

During Christmas, people not only care about their own gifts, but also want to know what others have received.

It is understood that the most watched Christmas unboxing video on YouTube has attracted more than 63 million viewers. The video content is three children unpacking Christmas gifts that fill an entire room. The video is even divided into parts 1, 2, and 3. During the unboxing process, the children introduce their favorite toy products one by one.

For example, during Christmas in 2019, Calvin Klein invited several lifestyle celebrities such as Emili Sindlev and Kay to post unboxing videos on their social media accounts #CKHOLIDAY#MYCALVINS. This operation not only gained a lot of attention for Calvin Klein, but also amplified the surprise and carnival atmosphere of the festival, bringing very ideal sales conversion.

Direction 4: Limited-time special offers and rush purchase strategies

If a user sees your product promotion information and spends a long time browsing your entire event, and although he is tempted, he does not immediately take purchasing action, in this case, the probability of user churn is usually very high.

For these hesitant and procrastinating users, merchants need to provide them with an incentive and reason to buy immediately, such as a limited-time sale.

Overseas brands can use countdowns or highlight discount periods on social media to enhance their sense of urgency and convey a sense of urgency so that they can take action immediately. At the same time, they can cooperate with KOLs to carry out various forms of marketing activities on social media. For example, they can launch lucky draws for participating topics, formulate exclusive discounts for KOLs, and launch Christmas limited editions for KOLs to promote products.

Direction 5:

Convey a warm and welcoming atmosphere

Holidays evoke a range of emotions and memories. In addition to using creative and authentic content, overseas marketing can take advantage of consumers’ shopping emotions and empathy. When doing Christmas influencer marketing, the themes or content on social media can be made more in line with consumers’ emotions. For example, “Thank you to someone”, “Give parents and children precious gifts”, etc.

Italian brand Ferrero ran a Christmas influencer campaign in 2020, #SayItWithGold, featuring creators such as Melbourne Foodie, Ethel Diessa, Nikole Smith, etc. The content of the campaign encouraged viewers to recall all the wonderful things their loved ones did for them and how they could make their Christmas happier, especially in 2020 – the year of Covid.

Direction 6: Stimulate festival UGC

Whenever Christmas is around the corner, overseas netizens are extremely enthusiastic about sharing and posting holiday-related content on social media. At this time, grasping the psychological characteristics of users' willingness to spread relevant content and seizing the opportunity will bring unexpected communication effects to the brand.

1) Use trending hashtags

From Christmas makeup tutorials, gift guides, recipe sharing, home decoration, etc., overseas brands can add topic tags such as #MerryChristmas (Merry Christmas) and #Santa (Santa Claus) to give users brand-related suggestions during the Christmas period.

2) Interact with users through games

Help users and engage with them in new ways through easy-to-create content and interactive games on social media, such as TikTok brand challenges, filters, etc.

3) Encourage users to create video content

For example, social media users who follow the #FoodTok topic may have been looking for simple recipes, food tips, or even creative ways to use leftovers. Brands can use content to inspire or invite users to create their own recipe content and gain exposure in it.

4) Create a hot topic

For example, Starbucks' paper cup designs during the Christmas season every year can attract a small wave of fans. In the Christmas season of 2017, Starbucks launched the Give Good campaign, giving users the initiative by offering a paper cup that allows users to doodle creatively. This campaign caused a strong response and extensive interaction on social media such as Instagram, and successfully accumulated a large amount of creative and high-quality UGC content for the brand.

Starbucks Give Good Christmas cup by starbucks Instagram👆

3. Things to note when marketing with KOLs during Christmas

You can take inspiration from the above campaigns to enhance your Christmas influencer marketing strategy!

But before you delve into Christmas influencer marketing, keep in mind a few things:

1. Start early: Start your campaign a few months before the season begins to get the most results;
2. Focus on what’s important to your audience: Use your audience’s pain points to drive sales;
3. Engage emotions: Figure out how to target your audience’s emotions and position your product to keep them engaged;
4. Collaborate with multiple influencers: Instead of collaborating with a few influencers with a lot of followers, it’s better to look for smaller microbloggers with fewer followers and then collaborate with hundreds of them.
5. Communicate your brand message clearly: Be aware of the unique message your brand might want to convey to your customers and use that to drive your content strategy;
6. Give influencers creative freedom: Give your creators enough freedom to create authentic content that your audience will like, without being too controlling of the content.

Author: Inpander

Source: WeChat official account: "Inpander Going Global (ID: gh_eeba4131474f)"