The holiday season will be upon us before we know it, and you need marketing campaigns that will engage, wow, and inspire consumers to purchase. July (aka. 6 months before peak!) is the perfect time for brands and retailers to start developing their marketing strategy, including themes, channels, messaging, and campaigns.
The holiday promotional season is highly competitive, with almost every retailer and brand vying for consumer attention. The sheer volume of advertisements around various channels (social media, email, TV, SMS, etc.) creates a noisy marketing environment where brand messaging gets lost. In addition, shoppers expect significant discounts and unique offers during the holidays, making it difficult to impress them with standard promotions. The businesses that will stand out this holiday season and get the largest share of shoppers’ wallets are the ones that offer creative campaigns, unique value propositions, and highly relevant products, offers, and content. Check out these 10 ideas for high-converting holiday campaigns!
#1 Product Advisor Quiz
Ahhhh, the endless scroll. Browsing through pages and pages of eerily similar products… only to add a few to your cart before the decision fatigue sets in and you decide to abandon your purchase. For brands who want to simplify product discovery, a product advisor quiz is a great place to start!
Product advisors make it easy for brands to create one-of-a-kind, guided selling experiences that help consumers find or discover products based on their preferences. The key to encouraging purchases following a quiz is the results page. Include click-throughs to relevant product pages or “Add to Bag” functionality on each product recommendation. Additionally, educating your shoppers on why the products are recommended will help them feel more confident in their purchase.
Wyng Tip
Think about how you can extend the value of your product advisor beyond a single session. For example, use the data collected from participants’ answers to create segments for personalization that can be used across various marketing channels. If a participant doesn’t make a purchase in that session, retarget them with messaging about their recommended product in future communications.
#2 Swipe It, Shop It Mood Board
Mobile is king when it comes to holiday shopping, with more than 50% of e-commerce revenue during the holidays coming from mobile devices. Swipe It , Shop It experiences play off the intrinsic motivations and behaviors consumers have when playing with their mobile phones. In these experiences, shoppers are presented with a series of products. They can swipe right on the ones they like, and swipe left on the ones they don’t. At the end of the experience, shoppers get a visual mood board of all the items they’ve swiped right on, with “Add to Cart” buttons on each to encourage purchasing.
Wyng Tip
Not everyone will make a purchase in-session, so ask for an email address and send the results via email so they can be easily referenced at a later date.
#3 Generative AI Experiences
Unlock fresh, creative campaign concepts this holiday season by leveraging generative AI. Brands can take inputs shared by a consumer (like answers to a set of themed questions) and use AI to generate individually-tailored, surprisingly creative content in the brand’s tone of voice.
Generative AI experiences give brands the opportunity to create something customers have never seen before. For example:
- A travel company could make destination recommendations based on a travelers’ deeply personal inspiration – like a favorite song, memory, or dish.
- A beauty brand could have shoppers upload a selfie, and then use AI to generate an image of their perfect holiday look based on their product and style preferences.
- A retailer could create a holiday gift card generator that writes the perfect note to accompany a purchased item.
Wyng Tip
Generative AI experiences are all about experimentation. Before launching a live campaign during the busy holiday season, test different inputs, prompts, AI models, and AI parameters to optimize your experience. If this sounds daunting to do on your own – Wyng can help.
#4 Countdown Calendar
Too often, consumers start their online holiday shopping a little too late for their gifts to arrive. The earlier businesses can encourage purchases to be made, the better it is for the brand, and the better off their customers are. Countdown calendars are a great way to encourage earlier purchasing behavior.
With countdown calendars, consumers have a reason to revisit a brand’s site every day to unlock new offers, content, and prizes. Not only does this behavior lead to earlier purchases, it can also lead to multiple purchases!
Wyng Tip
Capitalize on the increased foot traffic to brick-and-mortar stores during the holidays by using in-store QR codes to drive traffic to your digital countdown calendar.
#5 Proof-of-Purchase Sweepstakes
A proof-of-purchase sweepstakes requires consumers to provide evidence of a purchase to enter. The proof typically comes in the form of a receipt, product packaging, or unique coupon code found on the product.
Proof-of-purchase sweepstakes give brands a direct sales boost, and can even encourage repeat purchases if someone wants to increase their chances of winning by making multiple purchases.
Wyng Tip
Looking for shopper feedback on your products? Add a couple short survey questions on your sweepstakes form to gather valuable insight about your customers’ preferences and satisfaction.
#6 Fan Faves Bracket
Stand out amongst traditional holiday promotions by letting your audience choose their Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals. Use a bracket-style poll to encourage consumers to vote for their favorite product, reward, or discount. Brackets encourage repeat engagement, as you can define how long each voting round stays open – having users return to your site every hour, day, or week to vote again.
Want to add a little extra incentive for your audience to participate? Use each vote cast in the bracket as an entry to win the final prize!
Wyng Tip
Be intentional with your matchups. Ensure the initial matchups are fair and balanced to maintain interest in your bracket over time and avoid predictable outcomes.
#7 UGC Contest
Social media traffic spikes a whooping 73% during the holidays! Everyone is scrolling for the best deals and hottest trends – making this the perfect time for brands to leverage Instagram and TikTok contests to increase brand visibility, customer engagement, and to drive sales.
Brands can also display customer content submitted through the contest on their website via shoppable UGC galleries or carousels. Adding product tags and shoppable links to any user-generated images or videos makes it easy for shoppers to add-to-cart.
Wyng Tip
Use in-store signage and transactional emails to ask consumers to share their purchases or holiday moods.
#8 Gamified Promo Code Distribution
Adding gamification – like a spin-to-win, scratch-off, or match game – to any promo code distribution makes the process of obtaining promo codes more fun, interactive, and memorable than a standard email opt-in form.
Wyng Tip
Use known customer data to deliver the most relevant offers and drive higher conversions. For example, reward first-time shoppers with a free sample. Or reward loyalty members with extra points. If you know your customers’ favorite brands or retailers, you could reward more tailored promo codes for only the brands they love or store they shop at regularly.
#9 Trivia Quiz
By strategically using trivia quizzes, brands can drive more traffic to their site and boost sales during the holiday season, all while providing a fun and memorable shopping experience. Drive sales by using promotional hooks, such as discounts of special offers for users who complete the quiz. Or promote products by using quiz questions to highlight specific products, their features, and benefits, subtly encouraging participants to purchase.
Wyng Tip
Gamify your trivia quiz by rewarding participants who score higher with more valuable coupons or deals.
#10 Refer-a-Friend Giveaway
A refer-a-friend giveaway is a type of referral contest where the entry method is to send the contest details to other people. This encourages participants to share giveaway details in order to increase their chances of winning. According to Neilson, consumers are 77% more likely to buy a product if their friends recommend it, making refer-a-friend programs a great way to increase brand awareness and drive sales during the holidays.
Wyng Tip
Make it easy for participants to refer their friends by adding share buttons on the giveaway confirmation page. The most common way participants will want to share the giveaway is via email, social media platforms, and copying the referral link to send to friends via direct messaging apps.
About Wyng
Wyng is a consumer activation platform that helps brands grow and understand their audience to deliver more relevant experiences. With Wyng Experience Studio, marketers can easily build interactive digital experiences that engage customers at the right moments, earn preferences and other zero-party data, and personalize in real-time. Whether the experience is a product finder quiz, promotion, or preference center – Wyng experiences are always well-timed, user-friendly, and offer genuine value to consumers. Wyng serves over 250 global brands, including Estée Lauder, LVMH, Tripadvisor, and Unilever, who use Wyng to drive opt-ins, increase sales, and strengthen consumer trust and brand affinity. Request a demo to learn more about Wyng, or start your free 30-day trial today and see how easy it is to build experiences for your next high-converting holiday campaign.
