Start your holiday marketing in May and by the time the South Park Christmas episode comes on, you’ll be done.
Holy crap, Christmas is here already? Well, kinda yes. It seems like you have time to wait, but you don’t. As a digital advertising agency, we see it every year and we get those panicked emails every September. But right now, May, is the time to start your holiday marketing plans. Why now?
Christmas is in 7 months.
By the time you see Christmas lights, your marketing should be done. Too many marketing people have planned their holiday travel before their marketing. Not wise.
Thanksgiving is in 6 months
Shopping kicks into gear, the day you stuff your face. So you need to have a finished digital holiday marketing campaign in front of people no later than November 1. Which means securing digital media and traditional media, securing product inventory, researching competitor plans, creative, production, approvals, website updates, analytics planning etc etc.
Media should be secured in 4 month
Good media gets bought early. Bad media is an expensive waste. You’re competing against the whole world, not just one or two others in your category. September is too late if you want good outdoor locations, streaming spots on the best shows, digital page takeovers on the top networks, partnerships, influencers, audio plugs, celebrity talent blah blah.
A station takeover in San Francisco for Roku’s holiday campaign. Outdoor, digital, social and radio increased sales by 30% in every market that ran the campaign.
Creative needs to be done in 3 months
Creative works with media and takes the most time. So you have to know what you’re saying before you know where to say it. Also, everyone gets busy, shoots need planning, websites need updating, editing, music, voice recording, landing pages need building, internal reviews take longer because it’s the holidays and it matters. What product? What SKU? What the hell, get on it.
Strategy needs to be done in 2 months
Who are you talking to? What are you saying? Why are you different? Strategy means doing research and seeing how the market has changed since last year. What are competitors saying? What new products or messages do you have? Everyone will be showing elves and egg nog, how are you gonna stand out?
“Who’s gonna do all this crap?” needs to be done in 1 month
If you have an internal team, then all this is already in motion. If you don’t, you want to talk to pick the right advertising agency, marketing agency, creative agency or whatever you want to call them. See which digital ad agency has done this before, look at their case studies and see if you can deal with them for the next six months! (Hint: Division of Labor has done all this before and we’re nice people so it won’t be a stressful nightmare.)
Budgets need to be set now.
Like, now, now. Not later now. Seriously. If the holidays matter to your bottom line, at least set aside money for the communication strategy and creative development portion. You have a couple of months until media needs to be bought. But start now.
Visit DivisionofLabor.com and we’ll talk you through more details.
Raley’s holiday campaign drove awareness and trial of their holiday delivery and showcased the uniqueness of different Raley’s shoppers.
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The Small Agency Blog is produced by Division of Labor; a top San Francisco ad agency and digital marketing firm that’s been named Small Agency of the Year twice by Ad Age. The award-winning creative shop services clients on a retainer or project basis. They also offer brand consulting services and hourly engagements for startups and smaller brands. Click here for a free consultation.