Top Holiday Weekend Campaigns of 2016

five black friday + cyber monday campaigns to learn from

Written byGabrielle, Marketing Coordinator

Introductory Thoughts

Each year during the holiday shopping weekend, competition escalates between retailers for shopper attention.

This year, incredibly impactful strategies were implemented by online retailers of all categories. We also exited the weekend with results that suggest newly developing trends.

A handful of retailers opened up and shared their strategies + results with us and our partners, Bronto Software and One Rockwell. Read ahead to unveil data-validated examples from top marketers and implement these strategies post holidays or during holiday 2017.

Before we dive into campaign examples and results, we’ll put things into perspective by first sharing Holiday Shopping Weekend thoughts from industry leader and digital agency, One Rockwell.

““As a digital agency, primarily focusing on luxury digital flagships, we are

front and center to witnessing and supporting brands as they prep for the holiday season.

While some more robust internal teams can dedicate their energies towards efficient budgetary planning, feature development and content

creation, other leaner internal teams become scrappy as they work towards leverage pre-existent functionality, engage in recycling of

product bundling, and focus on early VIP early access to aggressive mark-down opportunities.”

- Colleen Oates, Managing Director at One Rockwell

I. MiiR

II. Mabel’s Labels, an Avery Brand

III. Paul Frederick

IV. Sun & Ski

V. A Leading Clothing + Apparel Retailer

LeadingHoliday

Campaigns

BrandMiiR

Campaign TypeEfficient access to holiday guides and promotions

ResultsOver 5 days MiiR’s holiday strategy lifted their conversion rate 27% and drove an additional 47% in total revenue.

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Campaign 1

Guide + PromoThis socially responsible outdoor products retailer launched two campaigns, a Holiday Gift Guide and a 12 Days of MiiR promotion.

Instead of a popup, MiiR used the AddShoppers Shopper Portal (a single solution built to enable efficient promo launches) to greet customers and promote both campaigns.

The Portal prompted shoppers to check out the Gift Guide and their 12 Days of MiiR, one day only promotions. Busy holiday shoppers used the Portal to efficiently navigate both campaigns. This created the urgency they needed to convert their holiday browsers into buyers.

1. Portal expands upon site entry with gift guide notification. 2. Gift guide campaign appears in first panel.

3. 12 Days of MiiR campaign appears in additional panel, redirecting users to separate giveaway host page.

BrandMabel’s Labels (an Avery Brand)

Campaign TypeEffective promotion of their biggest sale of the year

ResultsSurpassed fiscal goals + drove conversion rate increases

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Campaign 2

Holiday SaleAddShoppers client Mabel’s Labels, an Avery Brand, launched a huge 2016 holiday sale campaign.

They promoted their sale on-site with the Shopper Portal; this enabled them to greet their customers promptly, yet unobtrusively, with a slide out message.

The message displayed a countdown timer that indicated when the holiday sale, their biggest sale of the year, would end.

Results show that using an unobtrusive messaging system instead of a popup results in a 5% increase in conversion rates.

1. Portal expands on site entry with countdown notification. 2. Users are prompted to shop the holiday sale.

3. Users could also browse popular products.

BrandPaul Fredrick MenStyle

Campaign TypeHoliday sale promotion through email

ResultsThe following holiday campaigns contributed to email-generated revenue up more than 120% YoY.

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Campaign 3

Holiday EmailsPaul Fredrick MenStyle used Bronto Software, a commerce marketing automation platform, to promote their Black Friday + Cyber Monday promotions through effective and eye-catching email campaigns.

Messaging for Thursday-Saturday’s email included a sale promotion of up to 65% off + free shipping, which drove traffic to the site.

Their second email promoted a sale running Sunday-Monday of up to 50% off + extra 30%+ free shipping.

1. First email campaign launched Thanksgiving - Saturday. 2. Second email campaign launched Sunday - Monday.

BrandSun & Ski

Campaign TypeGiveaway through Social Sharing

ResultsOverall social landscape growth of 1.2% and 140k reached. Email capture conversion rate of those who opened the contest panel was 51%.

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Campaign 4

GiveawayAddShoppers client, Sun & Ski ran a 12 Days of Giveaways holiday campaign.

These marketers used the Shopper Portal to grow their database through email acquisition + increase social engagement to spread brand awareness.

Here’s how it worked: on each of the 12 days, the Portal prompted customers to enter-to-win the item specifically tied to that day. Participants were encouraged to share the contest with their social networks for additional entries. The team also implemented countdown timers to stimulate followers to check daily for new promotions.

1. Portal message expands on site entry.

3. Users enter email to win, or use Social Login.

2. First panel displays the giveaway. Timers set to “unwrap” gifts on specific days.

4. Users share on networks for additional contest entries.

Campaign 5As a household name in apparel, this retailer consistently drives fantastic results each holiday shopping season.

For their 2016 holiday shopping strategy, their team used the Shopper Portal to promote their holiday “hot buys” campaign.

Without offering additional incentives, the team realized incredible results due to the the Portal’s ability to drive customers directly to their hot buys, which were reduced price items.

BrandLeading Apparel Company

Campaign typePromotion of already reduced items

ResultsUsing an interactive platform to promote their items, this retailer drove an additional 12.8% in total revenue over a three day period.

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Closing Insights

- Brick and mortar or wholesale presence transacted 4x as much on Cyber Monday as they did on Black Friday

- Digital-only brands displayed relatively even numbers on both days

- Compared to 2015 Cyber Monday revenue for clients averaged approximately a 10% increase

- Compared to 2015 Black Friday revenue averaged a 40% decrease for their clients

As shopping trends continue to morph it will be interesting to see how brands will change their discounting approach for future holiday sales.

To support this shift, the One Rockwell team tracked the following Holiday Shopping results and trends among their retail clients:

“What is certain is that the scope of holiday shopping has shifted.

- Peter Messmer, Director + Growth at AddShoppers

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