15 Brilliant Examples of Holiday Marketing Campaigns

Author: Lindsay Kolowich / Source: hubspot.com

Great holiday marketing campaigns come in many different shapes and sizes. Check out 15 of our favorites below, and use these ideas to fuel your own holiday marketing ideas.

15 Brilliant Examples of Holiday Marketing Campaigns

1) Coca-Cola Canada: Peace on Earth … Or at Least in the Mall

When it comes to shopping malls during the holidays, it seems that people are highly divided. There are some who can’t get enough of the buzz and the decor (guilty), and some who want to stay as far away as possible.

Wherever you stand on the topic, Coca-Cola Canada found a clever way to brand the “mall-during-the holidays” experience by showing how our favorite beverages can bring us all together, even during tense times. Here, the company uses a video — shared across social media — in which two people fighting over a jacket are able to find peace by enjoying Coca-Cola products together.

This installment is just one of the latest in the Coca-Cola company’s legendary holiday marketing campaigns — I mean, who doesn’t love the annual debut of the Coke-drinking polar bears?

2) REI: #OptOutside

Last year, REI made waves with its announcement that it would close the doors to its retail locations, headquarters, and distribution centers on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving in the U.S. Instead, REI invited its community to join employees in taking Black Friday off from work — and from shopping — to do what they love most: being outside.

This year, REI is back with the #OptOutside campaign in full force. It’s getting attention from some pretty big names, including the National Parks Foundation, which is putting its own spin on the #OptOutside movement.

The campaign is even motivating other brands to add a charitable element to the movement. Outdoor Research, for example, will donate $10 to Paradox Sports for every Instagram post containing both the #OptOutside and #OutdoorResearch hashtags.

3) WeWork: #‎wwgiftguide

It might seem tricky for B2B brands to pull off delightful holiday marketing. But WeWork, a provider of co-working and office spaces around the world, has disproved that perception with its #wwgiftguide campaign.

It kicked off with an article in Creator, WeWork’s magazine for entrepreneurs, titled “Holiday Gift Guide: Best Gifts with a Personal Touch.” Over the course two weeks, there were four segments of the guide published, each with a different theme — “gifts with a personal touch,” “gifts to get the party started,” “gifts for the family,” and “gifts for the digital nomad,” to name a few.

Our favorite part? Each gift guide features products from WeWork member companies, helping to support the community of creators for which it’s known. And to help promote the campaign, the stories have been shared across social media with the hashtag #wwgiftguide, encouraging people to share what they’re gifting this holiday season.

4) HotelTonight: Visit, Don’t Stay

During the holidays, time with family is inevitable — whether you like it or not.

But HotelTonight has a plan to help, by making it easy for holiday travelers to visit family without staying with them. The solution? An easy-to-book hotel room, using the brand’s website.

The campaign is widespread across social media. First, there’s a Facebook contest, in which followers can share a story of their worst/funniest holiday family memory in the comments.

Then, followers on Twitter are invited to participate in the conversation, using the #HotelTonight hashtag.

The campaign also uses quirky, chuckle-worthy print and audio ads, like this gem that invokes nostalgia of our own wacky relatives.

5) Dollar Shave Club: Holiday Shave Set

Sometimes, we enjoy some good, snarky marketing. Maybe that’s why we can’t stop giggling at this video promoting Dollar Shave Club’s Holiday Shave Set: the gift that other gifts can’t handle.

It’s a great example of a simple, funny video perfect for social media. This snowman on a sweater was too jealous to handle the awesomeness of the Holiday Shave Set — hence, the hair dryer. It shows how brands can incorporate the familiarity of cheesy holiday traditions like wearing ugly sweaters into their own marketing, while simultaneously demonstrating how their products or services can spice up the standard holiday monotony.

6) Hinge: See What We’re Thankful For

This holiday season, what are you thankful for? Back in November, dating app Hinge sent around an email posing the same question to its members, using the opportunity to talk about its recent rebrand and subsequent growth — something for which Hinge itself has enormous gratitude, according to the email.

The timing for this sort of marketing is impeccable. The holidays are notorious for the sentimentality they invoke among the masses, and the desire to spend them with “someone special.” (In fact, ads that capitalize on sentimentality have been shown to score 50% higher in emotional appeal, no matter what the season might be.)

Hinge used this email to harness the holiday spirit and redirect attention to an app that helps people find meaningful relationships, instead of, well, shorter-term alternatives.

7) Lagavulin: Nick Offerman’s Yule Log

This one is an oldie but a goodie. Actor, writer, and humorist Nick Offerman loves his whisky. He’s sung about it before, and last holiday season, he joined his favorite whisky brand, Lagavulin, to film a 45-minute video of — wait for it — Offerman sitting in a leather chair next to a crackling fire, drinking whisky and looking calmly at the camera. Where do we sign up for that gig?

“This is smart branding on Lagavulin’s part,” Kristina Monllos wrote for AdWeek. “Creating an extended ad that can serve as a conversation starter — should consumers swap the traditional Yule Log video for Offerman’s at parties — will also get everyone talking about the brand.”

Since the video was initially released, a new 10-hour version of it became available. Consider it our gift to you.

8) BarkPost: Yappy…

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