As Summer draws to a close and Autumn officially begins we know that businesses and their marketing teams are already planning ahead for their successful Christmas Marketing  campaigns.

Preparation, product selection, creative campaigns and Black Friday are now the four words and phrases for a successful Christmas period.

Campaign Narrative

Product marketing is essential and a basic building block or all PR plans but it can often be the hardest thing to get right. However, without a good over-arching campaign narrative, retailers can concede a lot of ground to their competitors.

A great example in the Christmas advertising wars of recent years has been the success of John Lewis who spend millions on their festive TV adverts.

They have taken their approach to a new level by also building an entire spin-off campaign around the central characters of their adverts, such as #MontyThePenguin, and by hiring popular music artists to perform the soundtrack that targets the lucrative Christmas number one spot.

But, as we are all aware, you don’t need millions of pounds to run a great Christmas campaign as a well thought through creative, PR and content marketing strategy can produce string results for those with more modest budgets.

Plan for Black Friday

Ahead of last Christmas we had many discussions with digital marketers and e-tailers who were skeptical about the potential value of the so-called Black Friday as some felt it seemed like an American idea being forced on the UK.

Some were worried it would be a damp squib, others that it would cannibalise Christmas sales. But as we now know, British consumers lapped up the whole Black Friday concept as a pre-Christmas shopping event.

Last year saw many retailers and e-tailers declaring Black Friday to be their biggest one-off sales day !

This year we know that retailers are taking Black Friday very seriously and we’re seeing huge amounts of marketing spend in this area, dwarfing last year’s activity.

We think the discount retailers that will again ‘win’ Black Friday this year and it is a unique opportunity to also generate greater brand awareness as the premium brands tend sit back and view from the sidelines.

TV Adverts

In the UK, TV ads from retailers such as John Lewis and M&S have gained iconic status in the run-up to Christmas.

With 65pc of shoppers admitting that Christmas TV ads are effective – compared to around a quarter of people who say that they are influenced by retailers’ own magazines, promotional leaflets and newspaper/magazine adverts, and social media having even less of an impact – it’s no surprise that retail companies are keen to get their ads on TV screens as soon as possible.

As Christmas shopping and planning seems to begin earlier each year there is a strong motivation for retailers to produce Christmas ads, even though there are still more than two months until it’s time to rip the wrapping off those presents !

In fact, as Shoppercentric discovered, two thirds of shoppers readily admit to being influenced by Christmas TV adverts – vastly more than any other advertising medium.

If you are interested in discussing a potential TV or online advert then please contact us and we’d love to find out about your product and company and work with you to develop an idea.

Square Elephant Productions is a highly experienced and creative advertising agency and Video Production Company and we can offer some of the best Christmas Campaigns that are tailored to your budget, and within the required time.

Our teams are able to offer a full service so that we can work with you to create, write, clear, film, edit and voice your advert and we also offer animated options.