Kohl’s

Unwrapping Social Media Campaigns

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sharesContent Amplification with Shares on Social media has grown by 27 percent in 2015 over 2014, making audience engagement with shareable content a priority for publishers and brands. Likes and comments make for 86 percent of the overall social media actions.  Social Media posts sharing grew by  27 percent as compared to likes and comments that grew by 14 percent YOY, making shareable campaign content as a lead engagement tactic for Holiday season. Brands that are active with festive themed campaigns evoke emotions from consumers that is viewed as one of the key motivators for content sharing according to a study by Shareablee.

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Brand Content that prioritizes shareability increases engagement and awareness for Brand Campaigns. Coupling the Brand content with moments that matter for the mobile millennials can boost activation for your brand resulting in greater sales and conversion. Retail Brands social media “post shares” grew by 66 percent ahead of Media publishing, however, accounted for 4 percent share of voice amplification, compared to 38 percent share of voice amplification for publishing.

Though campaigns that feature influencers and user-generated content are likely to be amplified more, brands have seen a similar amplification with use of more popular themes such as Star Wars toys and content that gets reposted as a regram with a popular holiday linked theme. The content that is most likely to be shared is seen to help audiences with Discovery, has utility or evokes an emotion.

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BuzzFeed Food one of the top ten publishers, grew by 31 percent over 2014 in the first three-quarters after Fox News and BuzzFeed Video, primarily with recipes led content and engaging content formats.

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Macy’s

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Macy’s Strategy for Holidays has something for everyone on Social Media, right from an Ugly Sweater party to a Hover-board.

According to a Shareablee Study, analyzing Social Media posts for 2015, Media and Entertainment and Media Publishing dominated social media  in the US with 1.7 billion and 1.2 billion total shares from January to November 2015, respectively. The media and entertainment category is led by Fox News with more than 37.8 million shares, while BuzzFeed Food tops the media publishing category with 44.5 million shares.

Brand Content makes for 11 percent of all Social media actions. According to the study, “Year to date in the U.S., brands have published 14.1 million posts on Facebook, resulting in 32 billion actions (likes, comments, shares) with consumers, of which 11 percent involved sharing of a brand’s content”.

As per Shareablee CEO Tania Yuki, “Shares of brands’ content on Facebook have grown by 30 percent year to date compared to 2014, and this has driven increased impressions, affecting brand awareness. Understanding what content consumers share on social media can help marketers reach more audiences while also being more efficient with their social spend.”

 

Macy’s Social Media campaign engage the holiday shopper with campaigns that are targeted at different segments right from teens to beauty and fragrances shoppers, with a chance to be featured on Macy’s site. Macy’s social media engagement for November was one of the highest among Retail Brands with over 580,000 actions on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and YouTube from 15.4 million fans and followers.

As per Shareablee, one of the key drivers for social media engagement is emotions. The emotions that inspire shares for genders may vary with happiness for women and excitement for men. According to Shareablee the key drivers for Social Media engagement, are:

Social proof, Emotions, Utility and Storytelling

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Macy’s Social Media engagement across segments with  an emotive theme, engages audiences with inspiring gifting ideas. In a campaign featured by Shareablee, where social media engagement, was based on personal stories with User Generated Content drove 61 percent of social media actions.

Christmas-Gift-Boxes-13 Unwrapping Macy’s Brand Content Box

Segmenting your audience and engagement based on inspiring gift ideas makes for a more engaging campaign. For engaging audiences through the Holiday season Macy’s has combined social media engagement with brand activation idea such as ‘Ugly Holiday Sweater Party” in different venues for which the tickets can be obtained with Shopping at Macy’s.

 

Starbucks

Retail Brand Content Shares have grown by 66 percent ahead of Publishing and TV on Facebook and Twitter. Campaign Content that has been seen as shareable has led to actions that make for more than 50 percent of all social media actions for the brand.

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Unwrapping Starbucks Brand Content Box

LildebbieStarbucks Social media engagement relies on making audiences look good with their peers by being in the know, which is one of the motivators for sharing content. Starbucks strategy of being someone for everyone makes for content that resonates on every occasion.

Kohl’s 

 

Unwrapping Kohl’s Brand Content Box

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Digital Video and popular theme such as Star Wars can bring greater engagement, with content that is most likely to be shared. Kohl’s used storytelling approach making for the right holiday season engagement.

Kohl’s Activation Strategy on social media combined Call-to-Action on Social Media Posts for engagement and conversion.

Kohl’s has effectively used Brand Marketing approach, while engaging audiences with the popular “Star Wars” theme.

Little Debbie

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Little Debbie partnered with The Peanuts movie to create exclusive offers with Peanuts and gang, creating one of a kind emotional engagement, that is likely to make content that strikes a chord with the target audience.

 

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Little Debbie’s engagement with products that are right for Christmas such as Christmas Santa Brownies with a site that features product locator, which helps audiences find the product that they are looking for and share the same on social media.

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Unwrapping Little Debbie’s Brand Content Box
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Little Debbie engages audiences with content with customized brand content complete with products that are just right to make your holidays special.

 

Walmart

Walmart’s retailtainment strategy targeted at Gift shoppers with content centered around content usefulness make for an engaging Brand Content experience. From Holiday Stocking stuffers shoppable with Walmart gift guides to DIY ideas for entertaining, Walmart has the entire Brand content platter with engaging tunes belted out by Craig Robinson.

Unwrapping Walmart’s Brand Content Box

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Walmart’s segmentation strategy that focuses on audiences who gift shop and entertain together with influencer posts, make for a cohesive content offering, that engages audiences with diverse interests.

 

For a List of Hundred ideas to inspire your Brand content, Click here.

12 Notable Brand Campaigns This Holiday Season

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Target Launches The Holiday Odyssey

Target followed a Storytelling approach engaging audiences with a brand experience titled Adventure, where three kids and Bullseye set on a  quest to light up a Giant tree, set in a magical forest. In another video, Target introduces Free shipping an returns with a   story where the adventure is Set on the Whipped Cream Sea, with LEGO pirate ships carrying precious holiday cargo. Target has boosted the viewer engagement with Free Digital Storybook spot “The Holiday Odyssey” featuring the epic adventure. In the newest spot titled Undercover, the gang goes past the Stormtroopers, through a maze of giant presents as the  quest to light the ridiculously giant tree continues. Target began the Holiday marketing effort,  over a month ago, with first Chapter titled “The Journey Begins”.

Key Takeaway: Engaging experiences targeted at an audience with storytelling approach requires more than a single post or video for audiences to discover the content. Creating an experience that helps audiences discover about your offers and products with a video makes for more interactions, repeat visits and conversions.

 

Disney Stores Launches 12 Most Wished For Gifts

Disney Stores Most Wished For Gifts campaign features a contest that requires customers to share a pic with #12GiftsContest to win a USD 1000 Disney Store Card.

Most-Wished-For Gift of the Day: Captain Phasma Mask! Fly back to Halloween mode and post a pic of you dressed up as a character from a galaxy far, far away. May the Force be with your pic! Tag #12GiftsContest & @Disneystore for your chance to win a $1,000 Shop Disney Store Card. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Contest ends 12/12/15.
Key Takeaway: Brand Contests that are run for a limited time with an offer can create a greater impact as Social Media helps create buzz for your offers with popular Giveaways.
Febreze Lightens Up The Mood 

With the holiday season advertising being all about miracles, wishlists and Stocking Stuffers, Febreze has created a humorous campaign that is likely to be noticed, much like the Ugly Sweaters for its unmarketing.

Febreze, a Proctor and Gamble brand has taken 12 Days of Christmas to the level of a parody by introducing 12 Stinks of Christmas.  Lynch and Morrison will premier their music video during the Febreze #12Stinks of Christmas Party – ugly Christmas sweaters all – at LightBox. Attendees can expect to sing along to the kitschy tune and learn that they can be guest-ready all season long with Febreze through interactive product demos.

Febreze has reinvented the classic holiday tune, “The 12 Days of Christmas,” to showcase the stinks of the season and how to stay guest ready, with the debut of “The #12Stinks of Christmas” starring the hilarious duo, Jane Lynch and Matthew Morrison.

“Sure, it’s always great to see family; it’s great to walk into a kitchen and smell a pie in the oven,” said actress Jane Lynch. “But when the turkey’s burning and your bathroom is seeing a lot of foot traffic from party guests, it hits you: the holidays stink! And, Febreze is a great solution to eliminate odors and stay guest ready.”

Febreze boasts a line of products with freshness capabilities that range from ridding of pet odors and tackling sweat stink to decorating the home with scent and freshening on the go and has introduced a limited edition holiday line. Febreze continues to be one of the fastest growing brands in P&G’s portfolio of household brands and bring innovative products to market. Fresh air is an essential and basic human right, and that the air we breathe can give us “fresh starts.”

Key Takeaway: When you need your advertising to break through the clutter, unmarketing may get your brand noticed with a campaign that brings out the unusual.
Lowes Foods 30 Days Of Giving

Lowes Foods has newer ideas to inspire giving this holiday season. One of them is a handwritten letter that makes the gesture seem genuine and another idea is to have the family play a board-game.

Key Takeaway: A series of engaging social media posts over a prolonged time can get your offers, deals and campaigns noticed, as it builds anticipation with users looking forward to the next announcement or offer.
Macy’s Make-A-Wish

Macy’s Make-A-Wish Campaign weaves Christmas Magic with a Wish-writer pen that brings magic to unusual situations that makes Christmas look magical. “The star of the commercial is the magic pen, and we were trying to find another way to get engagement — this idea of gamification is the way to do it,” said Martine Reardon, CMO of Macy’s. “It’s our twist of bringing something traditional and nostalgic to the modern way the generations of today work, which is on mobile devices and through apps.”

Key Takeaway: Making Audiences nostalgic is a way of capturing audience interest and launching your campaign when audiences start looking for gift ideas can help you strike the right chord.
Staples Launches More For Less Campaign

 

“We’re giving our customers more for less this holiday season with exceptional savings on a great selection of stocking stuffers and last-minute gifts,” said Peter J. Scala, executive vice president – merchandising, Staples. “At Staples, we know our customers are busy so we offer convenient solutions for their holiday shopping needs including a buy online and pick up in store option, Price Match Guarantee, and free shipping for our Staples Rewards members during the holidays and everyday.”

Staples more for less campaign is targeted at different buyer personas, From the Inner Geek to the Fashion-Forward co-worker, with great last-minute gifts and deals throughout the holidays.

Key Takeaway: Staples More for Less campaign is notable for targeted offering for customers value-shopping for different types of Gift recipients.
Hallmark Entertainment Channel’s Countdown To Christmas

Hallmark Entertainment Channel’s Countdown to Christmas features a movie premiere every Saturday night bringing new movies every Saturday night, with engaging posts for Christmas.

Key Takeaway: Hallmark Entertainment Channel’s Countdown to Christmas brings singularity of the brand value proposition of Family entertainment up-front, making it the channel of choice for the time when families are most likely to be looking for family entertainment options.
Walmart’s Retailtainment

Walmart has followed a retailtainment strategy  introducing Musical scores for Christmas by Craig Robinson that features number of videos  with gifts targeted at different audience segments.

Key Takeaway: As important as it is to have gifting ideas for a valued shopper, it is equally important to present the ideas in a context audiences find engaging and relatable.

 

Hallmark’s Keepsake It 

Hallmark’s online video campaign has a humorous take on Christmas with three spots titled Family Potrait, Vegan Christmas and Perfectionist Mom. The video has funny takes on situations that are characterized by quirky characters, playing on uniqueness of every family, and how Hallmark makes holidays memorable despite odd situations.

Key Takeaway: Hallmark’s Keepsake campaign infuses realism with humor where quirky characters are used in the creative for better ad recall. With an interactive digital experience it makes for one-of-a-kind user engagement. 
Oreo’s Wonderfilled Christmas

Oreo takes a Wonderfilled spin on some storied Christmas traditions, taking a look into all the things that make the holidays feel like the holidays.

Key Takeaway: Oreo’s Wonderfilled theme campaign extends the Wonderfilled campaign to feature the Christmas traditions while weaving in the brand’s proposition of cream filled cookies in the video creative.
Kohl’s All Together Now

Kohl’s All Together Now campaign features gifts that are right for the whole family, with exclusive deals featured on Social Media Channels.

Key Takeaway: Kohl’s All Together Now Campaign sets the tone for entertaining during Holiday Season where the positioning of “Everything for Entertaining Everyone” makes holiday season gift shopping and entertaining seem stress-free. Kohl’s has successfully used All Together Now to position the discounts it has on offer for the season.
Apple’s Someday At Christmas

Singer Andra Day joins the legendary Stevie Wonder to sing his classic 1967 holiday song “Someday at Christmas.” Without a band, Wonder sets up his Apple computer to record both the piano he plays and the vocal track. As Day and Wonder sing together, their family plays games, makes crafts and spends time together. To bring the song to a close, the youngest member adds her voice to the mix and then the rest of the family joins in.

Key Takeaway: Apple’s Video brings out the creative power of the products in an engaging way while showing how technology can help you free your time for family. Using musicians and a music score associated with the season, Apple has ushered the Christmas spirit bringing out the holiday moments that matter.

 

 

 

 

Gifting Themed Campaigns For Targeting Seasonal Shoppers

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According to Google, This Christmas, 40 percent of people will fake joy at unwanted presents and two-thirds are set to open at least one gift they don’t like. For consumers, the pressure to get gift giving right is already on – in fact 20 percent start their Christmas shopping in September! Finding the right gift is one of the key insights inspiring retailers to position themselves as the brand where consumers are most likely to find the right gift and useful tips to make their holiday season more rewarding.

As shoppers looking for gifts starts as early as September, the procrastinators are likely to spend more. According to Cardlytics, The procrastinators spend more than the early birds. Last year, the late spenders averaged $1,362 per person, which was almost a full $100 more than the early birds, who spent only $1,269 each. For retailers last year the week before Christmas saw an increase of approximately 12 percent in stores and nearly 27 percent increase in Online Spending.

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Targeting  the high value shoppers on Digital Channels that the users are most likely to visit and engage on can leapfrog your Brand’s engagement. Targeting the Early Bird Shopper with Wishlists and Holiday Gift Guides as well as seasonal deals and events for Black Friday spurs the seasonal sales momentum.

Amazon’s DIY online video series “Kitchen Shorts” links to the Amazon’s site creating a seamless shopping experience where users can browse the products featured in the video and learn more about the offers and see the products on offer, as well as give feedback about the experience. With a shoppable feed, featuring products used in the recipe that is featured as a text overlay in the video, customers can find other related products in Holiday Home and Gift Guide.

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Walmart’s video promoting the Walmart app highlights Add To Wishlist making consumers aware of the Mobile Shopping experience. Walmart has created digital shopping experience with Online tools such as “Add To Wishlist” and Holiday Gift Guides that allow users to add gifts from the catalog with featured deals, and customize wishlist with a countdown for each occasion.

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Kohl’s new campaign #AllTogetherNow, plays on the aspect of togetherness where everyone can find a gift from the wide range and choice of products available.

Key Takeaways For Brand Marketers and Advertisers

Advertise your Gift Themed Value Proposition and content as advertising has a significant influence with 40 percent customers getting ideas on their gift purchases based on ads.

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Optimize your campaign bids for Ad Creative and Ad Sets that target the high value shopper prior to the uptick in consumer spending.

Use Retargeting and Remarketing options to reach the  Audiences who have visited your site but have not made any purchases. Create a series of DIY video content your users are most likely to share and view with DIY content for celebrations.

Target audiences with appropriate messaging as high value shoppers may find offers that are targeted and personalized more engaging.