Christmas is a period of festivity, merriment and giving – it’s also the perfect time for brands and advertisers to launch marketing campaigns and promote their products.
The entire run-up to Christmas and New Year is a marketing frenzy for brands and retailers around the World. When your advertising is spot on, Christmas can be the most lucrative time of the year for brands and businesses. From Black Friday to Boxing Day, the Christmas season is the most vital advertising period of the calendar.
If you’re wondering how the advertising landscape changes over the festive period, we’ll break it down for you in this article.
The power of Christmas advertising
Since advertising first came about, Christmas has always been an integral time of the year for brands and advertisers. After all, it’s the time of year when you can guarantee consumers of all types will be buying gifts for people of all ages – if your goods can be bought as gifts and can be consumed over the festive season, you want to make the most of advertising.
Most brands will have marketing and addressable tv ads intended for all year round as well as advertising tailored specifically for the Christmas period. Christmas is the most profitable period for retailers when they get their marketing right.
Recent studies from the Bank of England found that households spend £740 more in December than they do in subsequent months. Accordingly, the typical Christmas expenditure represents a 29% increase above monthly spending. However, the worsening cost-of-living crisis is set to see these figures reduced – although consumer spending will still be higher in this quarter of the year than others.
Increased sales mean the opportunity to boost sales with advertising
Christmas makes way for a huge increase in sales for a myriad of businesses and retailers since it’s a time when everyone is buying for many reasons – be it buying presents or purchasing mouthwatering cranberry sauce and stuffing for Christmas dinner.
In other words, Christmas is a huge opportunity for businesses, of all shapes and sizes, to generate a great number of sales and profit through the power of advertising. As much as your advertising needs to encourage consumers to buy your products or services over Christmas, you need to ensure that it is tailored to achieve long-term success too. By getting your name and products out there at Christmas, you might be able to attract long-term customers who stay with you for the long run.
Customers and messages matter more than sales pitches
While we’ve discussed that Christmas is the time when sales are booming, advertising tends to become less sales pitch-esque and more relatable and friendly. Advertisers generally focus more on the customers and the magic of Christmas, if you like, than their actual products and sales pitches when producing and displaying festive advertising.
Notice how most Christmas TV and video advertisements focus less on the brand itself and its products but more on depicting a heartfelt story with a message that spreads love or cheer over Christmas. Products can still feature in Christmas ads, but they’re never the main focus most of the time.
