The holidays can leave you feeling stressed out. Between shopping and entertaining, it can feel like you have a second job from November until the end of the year. In an effort to keep consumers entertained during this busy time, companies have come up with clever holiday advertising campaigns. Here are two of my favorite holiday ad campaigns and one that didn’t quite cut it (in my opinion):
HotelTonight: Visit, Don’t Stay
HotelTonight is ready and willing to help consumers by making it easy for holiday travelers to visit family without have to stay with them. This multi-channel campaign included:
A Facebook contest: Followers can share a story of their worst/funniest holiday family memory for a chance to win a $500 gift certificate for HotelTonight.
Twitter engagement: Followers can post about their experiences and hear about other horror stories that users have about the holidays using hashtag #HotelTonight.
Print and audio ads:
Macy’s started planning their holiday campaign early this year. They wanted to leverage the power of their communities on Facebook and Instagram and the ad capabilities each of them had. The first ad aired during the Thanksgiving Day Parade. The 90-second spot called “Old Friends” on Facebook reminisced about previous parades and left consumers feeling nostalgic.
Here’s to 90 years of magic! ❤️ Watch our mini-film that brings to life the cherished tradition of the #MacysParade… http://social.macys.com/parade/
Posted by Macy's on Tuesday, November 8, 2016
The second spot was featured on Instagram. “The Santa Project” was a two-and-a-half minute documentary video that was cut up and pushed out through Instagram’s Marquee takeover ads, which allowed Macy’s to target a large audience over a short period of time.
Finally, the campaign concluded with a video called “Celebrate,” which tells stories of everyday people with 30-second spots on Instagram and Facebook that link to Macy’s.com. Overall, this campaign made people want to embrace the holiday season.
Let’s celebrate the big things, the little things and everything in between, together: http://mcys.co/2feEjba
Posted by Macy's on Thursday, December 1, 2016
And then there was Apple’s Acceptance Campaign. This did not make me feel very jolly or overly-excited for the holiday season. Apple explained that the campaign was devoted to reminding people that friends and family aren’t the only people who might need comforting at this time of year. However, it felt creepy and because it is over two minutes long, the shorter version that was shown on TV didn’t make that much sense.
https://youtu.be/aFPcsYGriEs
What did you think of my picks? Did I miss one of your favorite holiday campaign’s from this year? Let me know on Facebook or Twitter.
