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The holiday season is a time in which personal relationships and reflection are at the top of just about everyone’s mind, so it’s clear that the holiday season is clearly an opportunity for brands to create video content that connects to the consumer. Mediaplanet recommends that brands “get into the spirit” over the holiday season.
As authenticity and engagement are now imperative in the eyes of the consumer, getting into the holiday spirit is essential your overall strategy. The holiday season is your opportunity to show “…off your company culture and brand voice.”
Mediaplanet recommends that you”[t]ry using seasonal hooks in your content to create pieces your audience will really want to read and share. Let your audience get a glimpse of your company holiday party, and don’t be afraid to add festive design touches to your websites, social channels and blogs.” The key in the aforementioned quote is to “…create pieces your audience will really want to read and share.” Those sentiments most common with the holiday season are the points of inspiration that will let content producers capitalize on getting in the spirit.
So, who’s doing this right?
One star player is British department store chain John Lewis. Since their entry into the Christmas advertising campaign circuit in 2007, they’ve been able to make their ads to become highly-anticipated not only by Brits but by people worldwide. What’s been at the heart of their success? The Independent summed it up like this: “John Lewis has provided us with some tear-jerking tales over the last few Christmas seasons.” In their opinion, the 2011 commercial was the turning point of their presence because of their use of the spot to tell an entire story.
As a boy impatiently waits for Christmas, the focus of the spot is undoubtedly on the child’s wait for it to be Christmas morning. There’s no overpowering sales angle because there’s no explicit featuring of any of the products that John Lewis stocks. As he wants the days prior to Christmas go by faster and faster, it ends with him so delighted to give his parents their present. The storytelling here is incredibly powerful and it inevitably reminds people of his or her childhoods this time of year.
Every year, in spite of the pressure to top what they’ve done previously, they’ve continued to perform. The concepts are different each time around but they all come back to the concept of a personal connection and the act of giving gifts to show how much they care. Last year’s ad, which had a little girl sending a telescope to a lonely man on the moon so he is aware that people on Earth are thinking of him, was considered by many to be the best ad of the season.
There’s another way to instill the importance of personal connections this time of year: by putting emphasis on what causes a particular company may support. Even if companies undertake Corporate Social Responsibility efforts all year round, the fact that many people make their end-of-year donations before the end of the year to get tax deductions (at the very least in the United States), it’s a way to show how companies give back along with their attempts to earn profits. CSR efforts are even more important than ever in strengthening the relationship brands have with their consumers.
And how can video fit in all of this? Very well, we’d say. There are lots of ways to implement video throughout the holiday season to emphasize that personal connection. They could range from creating a video montage of the office holiday party to a video holiday greeting instead of a general print card; from releasing a video detailing your organization’s most distinguished CSR/philanthrophic works, to of course, through any campaign that plays up personal connections using video as the centerpiece. And given the fact that the Accenture State of Content 2017 survey found that 84% of respondents “…believe that quality content motivates audiences to increase brand engagement,” this is definitely the time of year in which there is plenty of material to generate the engaging content that will get consumers to brands.
And should you need any guidance with the game plan, we at Stark Crew are ready to help you best capitalize on these personal connections.
