Hacking the Holidays: Best Practices for Your Holiday Marketing Strategies

It’s our favorite time of the year: time to talk about holiday marketing strategies! 

Some holiday ads feature bright lights and modern holiday trees, while others invoke emotions of nostalgia and showcase family traditions. Some tell intricate stories, while others just showcase the latest products. There’s no equation for creating the perfect holiday video — but there are best practices you can follow to make your video successful with your audience. So how should your brand approach holiday marketing? 

Below, we’ll discuss video marketing best practices for the holiday season, how to make the most of your holiday budget, and showcase some video marketing examples to inspire your holiday campaign. Let’s get started! 

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Video Marketing Best Practices for the Holidays

1. Align Your Marketing Strategies

Even though your holiday marketing strategies might look a little different than your average campaign, they should still align with your long-term marketing plan. 

What Should Stay the Same?

• Your branding. While you might add lights, trees, or other holiday elements, your overall branding should remain consistent, allowing your audience to familiarize themselves with your company. 
• Your overall goals. No matter the time of year, keeping your video performance top of mind is critical. When reviewing your holiday metrics, make sure you understand how they tie into your long-term KPI objectives. 
• Research. Before creating your strategy, research the current market, your audience, and consumer behavior. This data can drive your creative strategy and help you effectively reach your consumers. 

2. Understand Your Audience

Before you start creating your holiday marketing strategy (or any video marketing strategy), you need to understand your audience. Some questions to consider include: 

Are My Customers Shopping Early, Last Minute, or Searching for Deals All Year?

As of September, Think with Google found over a third of customers have already started shopping — and 32% of those people have already made a purchase. As you learn more about your 2023 holiday audience and their shopping habits, you can adjust your strategy as needed. And (don’t hate us for this) you can also start a rough outline of next year’s holiday timeline to make sure you reach those early shoppers. 

Where Is My Audience? 

In order to reach your audience, you have to know what platforms and devices they use. By learning about social media platform demographics and other common digital practices of your audience, you can meet them where they are, with the content they want to see. 

With streaming platforms more popular than ever, Connected TV is a powerful way to reach your audience. According to Digiday, “CTV balances linear TV’s storytelling with digital’s targeting and measurement. This allows brands and retailers to reach customers with engaging TV ads more effectively and measure campaign effectiveness — especially during the crucial holiday season.” 

How Does My Product Solve Consumer Problems? 

Use your holiday campaign as an opportunity to show your audience how you can solve their problems. For example, if you’re selling health or wellness products, you can explain how your product helps reduce stress levels during the holiday season. Or, if your audience shops later in the holiday season, you might want to use the New Year angle to show how your product can help customers stick to their resolutions. 

The holiday season is also an excellent time to use user-generated content (UGC)! Instead of telling viewers your product is great, show them by sharing content created by an actual (or “actual”) customer. 

Learn more: Video Marketing for the Holidays: Ideas and Production Tips

3. Use a Holiday-Specific Message 

While this might seem obvious, it’s essential. We looked at some holiday videos made with QuickFrame to find the most effective holiday ads. According to our research, social video ads with holiday messaging were tied to a 58% higher engagement rate during the holiday season than those without a holiday-specific message. 

As you’ll see in the examples below, some brands take a direct approach to their holiday messaging. For example, some brands have holiday-inspired video content, on-screen text, and in their voiceovers. Other messages, however, take a more subtle approach. For example, some only mention the holidays in their voiceover messaging, which plays on evergreen video content. 

Whether subtle or direct, a holiday-specific message can help you drive engagement and increase conversions. 

4. Get Creative

In addition to living in a digital world where they’re inundated by content almost nonstop, many consumers are also facing (or worried about facing) an economic downturn. Because of this, they’re monitoring their spending, so you’ll have to work a little harder to get their attention this year. According to a 2022 Statista report, 40% of US consumers expect prices to be high, so they plan to compare brands and products more than normal during the holiday season. 

If you want to connect with your audience, you’ve got to create unique video content that engages with your target audiences and drives them to take action. MNTN suggests standing out this holiday season with: 

• Content showing gratitude for your loyal customers.
• Educational content. 
• Exclusive and time-sensitive content. 

Learn more about these strategies here. 

5. Create an Emotional Appeal

When you think about your favorite video content, it’s likely your favorite because it made you feel something. Maybe it inspired you or made you feel understood — no matter what feeling it was, you likely connected with it in one way or another. 

The Emotional Effectiveness of Advertisement, a study published in 2020, found that “providing an emotional message in publicity increases the audience’s attention to the advertisement, and the product enhances the product’s appeal and generates a higher level of brand recall.” 

During the holidays, you may want to focus on promoting joy, nostalgia, empathy, hope, or a similar positive emotion through your video content. These emotions can help viewers connect with your brand — and remember you as a brand whose ad made them smile. 

Make the Most of Your Holiday Budget 

We know this year is full of economic challenges, so your holiday marketing budget might not be as hearty as you’d like. Even so, we’ve got three ways you can make the most of your budget and create successful holiday marketing strategies.

Plan, Plan, Plan

Did we say it enough? Seriously — you need to plan your video production. The more you have prepared ahead of time, the smoother the entire process can be. 

To prepare for a successful production, you should: 

• Understand why you’re creating content in the first place. Once you know the purpose behind your campaign, it’ll drive all other elements of the production process. 
• Create an effective brief. With a great creative brief, you can alleviate any production headaches down the line. 
• List out all of the content you need to capture during production. What shots do you know you need from this shoot? By having a list to reference, your team can ensure nothing gets overlooked. 

While these are, of course, just a few examples of what to prepare, they’re a great start. By keeping your team organized, you can avoid mistakes and stay within your budget. 

Capture As Much Content As Possible

When planning your video production, you’ll want to think ahead. With a thorough shot list and understanding of your project’s goals, you can ensure you get the most out of every video shoot. 

Think about the location you’re in and how you can use it for multiple purposes and shots. For example, if you’re filming in a house, you should consider the different rooms and spaces around you. You might be able to capture content in the kitchen, office, and backyard. While these three spaces are in the same location, they can provide three different backdrops for your content. 

Take Advantage of Post-Production

One way brands miss out on content is by failing to use the post-production process. With audio, CTA, and end card swaps (to name a few), you can edit your original content to reach new audiences and fit onto new platforms. This is especially true if you’re looking to use related content across platforms with similar video features, such as Snapchat, Instagram, or TikTok. 

While curating a video library is a long-term goal, there’s no better time than right now to get started. By holding onto your video content, you might be able to use it in future campaigns. Plus, as we’ve seen over the last few years, there could be short periods of time when businesses are entirely unable to create new video content due to safety regulations, so you’ll want to have some available just in case.

7 Holiday Video Marketing Examples

From nostalgic holiday ads to social media videos, your brand can pull holiday marketing inspiration from anywhere — but here are some of our favorite examples.

Ben Bridge Jeweler 

This Ben Bridge ad is an excellent example of how you can tell an uplifting holiday story while simultaneously promoting your products.

Why We Love It

• It features classic holiday ad elements. From the bright holiday string lights to opening gifts under the tree, this Ben Bridge advertisement features classic holiday elements to keep the audience engaged. 
• It uses emotional appeal. By showcasing the family’s older videos and photos — and even including one of the photos as an ornament on the holiday tree — the story comes full circle. This effective storytelling allows viewers to experience this joyful family moment and want to recreate it for themselves. 
• It cleverly showcases the products. In addition to creating a joyful holiday environment within the ad, Ben Bridge cleverly showcases their products by naturally inserting them into a holiday tradition.

Bombas

This creative Bombas ad shows how to create an effective and eye-catching social media video.

Why We Love It

• Bombas uses a clear holiday message. At the beginning of the ad, “Tis the season” appears on-screen to hook the audience for the holiday message that continues throughout the ad. 
• They show off the product in a creative way. By showing people wearing Bombas socks in common holiday settings, they quickly tell a holiday story while highlighting their products. 
• They’ve optimized the video for social media. This ad is quick, engaging, and features a social media-focused call to action (CTA), making it perfect for platforms like Instagram and Snapchat.

Care/of 

If you’re looking to create video content with the New Year in mind, this Care/of ad might give you some inspiration for January 1st ads. 

Why We Love It

• It has a subtle, yet effective holiday message. While this video only briefly mentions New Year’s resolutions, it’s still clear this video was created for the holiday season. 
• It provides clear next steps. While not every video needs a call to action, this video provides clear next steps, encouraging viewers to visit their website and learn more about the brand. 
• It showcases a simple user experience. In addition to discussing the benefits of Care/of, this video displays the simple and personalized user experience customers can expect. 

Owlet

Your holiday advertisements don’t have to be long or include intricate stories to be effective. This quick Owlet ad features a direct holiday message to engage with their target audience. 

Why We Love It

• Owlet understands their consumers’ problems. By addressing a common problem for many of their consumers, Owlet can get (and keep) their attention throughout the video. 
• It’s short and sweet. This video is a perfect example of creating a short video with a significant impact. With background music, product video, and on-screen text, Owlet creates a holiday-inspired video to stand out from their competitors. 
• They showcase the product and benefits (without actually talking about either). While on-screen text appears in the video, not much is said. Even so, consumers know they aren’t just buying a monitor — they understand they’re also buying peace of mind. 

Poshmark

With a simple premise and subtle holiday decorations, Poshmark creates a holiday video to walk viewers through a quick user experience. 

Why We Love It

• It’s simple and effective. This relatable video example is built with just background music, video content, and a little on-screen text. Many are afraid their holiday videos have to be intricate, but this is a great example of a simple video that’s still effective. 
• It showcases the user experience. Once the video created a relatable experience for viewers, it walks them through a simplified version of the user experience. While they, of course, can’t capture the whole experience in this seven-second video, it still gives new users an idea of what to expect from Poshmark. 
• It features subtle holiday elements. By using these subtle elements, this video isn’t tied to a specific date, which allows Poshmark to widen the window of time they can share this video. 

Freshpet

With humor and creativity, Freshpet engages with their audience through video content that leaves viewers wanting more.

Why We Love It

• Freshpet knows their audience. With cheesy humor and pet-centric video content, this ad is just one example of how Freshpet shows they know and understand their target audience. 
• It drives viewers to the website. By not giving away the gift at the end of the video, Freshpet drives more viewers to the website. Even if a potential customer hadn’t checked out the website yet, they might be encouraged to visit through this unique CTA. 
• It can be broken down into shorter videos. In order to fit more video content into smaller video spots, this ad could be broken down into smaller, episodic content to deliver an ongoing experience. 

SkyZone 

With a holiday-specific voiceover, this SkyZone video encourages viewers of all ages to get a jump on holiday deals.

Why We Love It

• It encourages connection. Many consumers — especially Zoomers — are focused on creating connections with one another and with brands. By motivating people to come and spend time together at SkyZone, they’re working to encourage connection between each other and with the brand itself. 
• They maintain their branding. Even though this video features a holiday-specific message, SkyZone maintains their branding with evergreen video content and on-brand messaging. 
• It encourages people to buy experience gifts. Over the last few years, many consumers have focused on giving experience gifts instead of traditional material items. By targeting this audience, SkyZone can attract new customers during the holiday season. 

Spread Holiday Cheer With QuickFrame 

This holiday season, the video creative stakes are higher than ever before, and many businesses don’t have the resources to create the effective video content they need. But that doesn’t mean you should have to miss out on the opportunity. 

That’s where we come in! At QuickFrame, we believe businesses of every size should be able to create effective and creative video content for every channel and objective. 

Contact us today to elevate your holiday video marketing strategies this season!