Trend Watch: How Brands Believe in Christmas

Christmas is coming! Yes, we all know that by now. This time of the year is great for brands to connect with their consumers - whether through holiday-themed social media content or special offers during the Christmas season.

But what are some examples of brands that are doing a really good job of incorporating Christmas into their branding and creating an emotional connection with consumers? In this Trend Watch, we’ll explore how brands try to take advantage of the festive season and promotional efforts go through the roof. Let's take a look at some of the ways brands are standing out this Christmas season.

Christmas-Specific Packaging

Packaging can make or break a brand, which goes double at Christmas. While Christmas packaging may add extra expense to a brand's bottom line, the boost in brand recognition and sales is worth it in the long run. So take inspiration from these brands and think about how you can stand out from the crowd with your packaging this holiday season.

Here's a great example of Christmas-specific packaging from Sephora. They created a Sephora Collection Advent Calendar that features 24 must-have makeup, skincare, accessories, and more, all packaged up in an adorable advent calendar that customers will love.

The Bay has been creative with its Christmas packaging again this year. They are running a giveaway promotion in which they promise to give one lucky customer this adorable beauty advent calendar featuring some of The Bay's most popular beauty products! Who wouldn't want to win something like this?!

Christmas Shops

With the end of the year approaching and holiday shoppers already starting their wish lists, it’s the perfect time to boost your retail sales with Christmas shops!

The Bay is a great example of a brand that is taking advantage of the holiday season by setting up a Christmas shop on its website. It has everything, from decor collections to gift guides and more. Shoppers can find everything they need in one place during the busy season, making it easy and convenient for them.

commonsku Shops!

commonsku customers will have the opportunity to keep growing their revenue throughout the holiday season and beyond with commonsku shops. Distributors are using commonsku shops to build brand awareness and drive sales during the holiday season.

To celebrate commonsku customers' creativity, we recently released an article highlighting our favorite holiday shops from some distributors! Check those out if you need some inspiration for your upcoming holiday shop!

Suppliers' Christmas Lookbooks!

Suppliers, in turn, create beautiful lookbooks to showcase their products during the holidays to help inspire their customers! Here is one example from Merchology - a beautifully designed lookbook that highlights a selection of products that are perfect for the holidays!

If you are curious to learn more about Merchology, tune in to our skucast with CMO and Co-Founder, Ally Ward Delgado. In this interview, Ally shares how Merchology got started and the lessons she's learned along the way.

At commonsku, we are getting inspired by our supplier partners! And to make it easier to everyone to start preparing for the holiday season, we held a whole holiday-themed event: Product Summit: Holiday and Gifting, where suppliers showed their go-to gifts for this holiday season and how to style them perfectly.

Christmas Adverts.

Let's be real, marketing isn't all about huge campaigns and big budgets. It's also about thinking outside the box and doing things that surprise your audience and create a buzz around your brand.

The Coca-Cola Company began its Christmas advertising in the 1920s, and for 100 years (and counting) it has been one of the most popular Christmas advertising campaigns in the world.

One of the most heartwarming and creative traditions for British brands is to create Christmas adverts that the public has loved for years. Traditionally, Christmas ads incorporate high production values and emotive narratives that tug at the heartstrings of viewers.

The tradition started in 2011 with John Lewis (a department store), and now everyone is jumping on the bandwagon and making their own advert every year. To give you a better sense of these ads, Sainsbury's Christmas ad from 2014 is a masterpiece of marketing. We won't spoil it for you here in case you want to watch it yourself!

Conclusion

Brands are getting more creative than ever when it comes to making Christmas marketing campaigns. A lot of this boils down to knowing your customers and creating engaging content that they will love and share with their network. We hope that this blog inspired you to get creative with your marketing efforts this season! If you’ve already created your Christmas or Holiday campaign, tag us on socials @commonsku.