Creative Strategy for the Holidays: Rollercoasters, Peaks, and Valleys

[00:00:00] Richard Gaffin: Hey folks, welcome back to another edition of the Ecommerce Playbook Podcast. I'm your host, Richard Gaffin, Director of Digital Product Strategy here at Common Thread Collective. And I'm joined today, coming live from CTC and Skullcandy HQ in Costa Mesa, California, Aileen McKenna, who's our Director of Creative Strategy and Performance here at CTC.

She's been on the pod a couple of other times to talk about our overall creative strategy. And she's here with us. Today, to talk through how we're going to approach creative strategy over the holiday season. But first, Aileen, how are you doing?

[00:00:33] Aileen McKenna: I am doing pretty well. Pretty happy to be here in California. It's, I just missed the hot, the heat wave. So beautiful, lovely California weather.

Stoked to be here.

[00:00:45] Richard Gaffin: Because you're usually in New York, right?

[00:00:47] Aileen McKenna: Yes, I am usually in Brooklyn. Although to be fair, the weather in Brooklyn was pretty beautiful before I left.

So it's me. Maybe I bring,

[00:00:55] Richard Gaffin: That's right. That's right. Bringing the the mild, the temperate weather across country. That's great. Cool. All right. Well, so, Let's just dive straight into it. Here's what we're going to be talking about today is basically how, and if you guys have been following our kind of overall approach to the holiday season this year, we've been talking about the seven peaks and one Valley of the fourth peak, which is a complex way of saying within the four peaks, that sort of, we would like to occur over the course of the year in your marketing calendar for revenue peaks.

The fourth peak, of course, is holiday. And within holiday, however, that's such a dynamic season that a number of peaks and then one important Valley all kind of exist from that, let's say October or really September Labor Day through through the end of the year. So, basically like what the, the, the thrust of this podcast or this episode today is going to be is how the creative strategy maps to each one of the peaks within that second half of the year.

So, Let's just jump right into it. And Aileen, you framed this as kind of, or you used the metaphor of a rollercoaster to talk about the overall approach to thinking about creative strategy in this season. So unpack that for us a little.

[00:02:08] Aileen McKenna: Yeah. You know, I sat down to think about how I would map creative strategy to, you know, what my, You know, teammates and partners and growth strategy and media been putting together and I just thought about how the back half of the year always just feels like a roller coaster. Like, you're just strapped in and you're going personally and professionally and that felt actually then like a meaningful connection to the way that we've also been talking about the back half of the year as having you.

These up moments, but also some, you know, a valley, a down moment that we're seeing this year due to, you know, rising media prices in an election year. And so, I, it just felt really like, it felt to me like that's what the end of the year feels like, and that's what's Thinking about how I'm going to approach the end of the year feels like except I want people to be feeling like they are the person who is Designing and building the roller coaster and not just like getting strapped on and shot out of the camera.

[00:03:09] Richard Gaffin: I was going to say, I think that's a good metaphor, because even if you are the designer of the rollercoaster, the experience of writing the rollercoaster will also feel, thrilling or whatever, you know, it'll be adrenaline, an adrenaline rush and that can't be avoided, but shaping kind of the way that you approach it is, I think what's important here.

Despite the fact that it's always going to be a bit of a rush for sure. Okay, so let's, then let's sort of talk about how, how the rollercoaster gets designed. So we have six points here that cover the seven peaks and one valley. A couple of them are sort of distilled, but, so I like the way that you framed this.

The first ascent, the first climb is in September. Okay. So obviously it's after Labor Day but talk to me a little bit about how we're approaching or, or some specific tactics to think about this initial phase.

[00:03:54] Aileen McKenna: Yeah, I mean, I think you know every roller coaster, you have that 1st, like, 1 really steep hill that you then just get, you know, drop down and you're building up all that momentum before that 1st, 1st And I think that this month of September, which we are acknowledging we are partway through. Is the time that you want to build and build and build and build as much momentum as you can So that when we start to drop into that sort of election year valley in october That we've already done a lot of the lead up work on filling the sponge as it were So you want to find ways to create moments for your brand if you missed If you missed labor day, I think, you know, you can think about, there social holidays that would apply to your brands?

For example, I think we have some clients who I think national coffee day might be a nice match and that's a little bit of a social media holiday, but if that culturally suits your brand and you want to do a sale or a promo to not just get sales and beef beef up your September, but get those new customers, get their. Email addresses, get their information so that when you get ready to go in the latter parts of the year, you've got like that sponge quite full so that you can squeeze

[00:05:14] Richard Gaffin: Gotcha.

[00:05:15] Aileen McKenna: And, you know, I think besides, you know, like, things like National Coffee Day, I you could try things like a friends and family sale, things like, I think you can spin up an excuse the autumnal equinox is coming, that one could be a good moment for like a, you know, Full farewell to summer. So I think creatively think about the days remaining in September and the opportunities that you have to put together a moment or a promotion that's going to drive that increase in not just revenue, but in, you know, information in consumers and new shoppers that you can touch back to when you get to the later parts of the sort of holiday sale period.

[00:05:58] Richard Gaffin: And of course, part of the reason that it's important to begin building this foundation at this point is that at the kind of the top of this first hill is a massive Dip, right? Which is the kind of descent into into the valley of October, let's say, which is, of course, that sort of lull before the, the before the holidays hit.

And this particular year, there's the additional issue of the election kind of coming to play as well. The way CPMs are going to spike during that period. So talk to us a little bit about once you've started the descent, right? In October, what is it like? How does your approach have to shift?

[00:06:32] Aileen McKenna: Yeah, I mean, I think you pointed out perfectly that as you drop off that 1st, big climb that you've that you've hopefully manufactured you know, you're, you're swooping into October and you come through October and normally, this would be a great time of year to do. birds, if you wanted to start those really early or other promotions that you can promote the media, but media landscape, you know, in an election year, there's just more competition for ad space. And so the prices and biddable media, like social are going to go up. how. You know, and in some ways that might seem like, oh, but to me, I don't think you throw your hands up in the air. In fact, I think this is just the moment when creative and creativity can be incredibly useful as you go into this moment where you want to find ways to sustain to create another little peak for yourself. If you can within the system and, so that's, this is where I think you get, get smart and you think about what are some ways that you can perhaps, like, this is a great place, I think, for thinking about influencer, how can you trade on that that audience that an influencer has on their the social proof that they provide that implied you know, support of your product that you could get, let's say, from a very interesting influencer program. I think there's a couple of cool opportunities there as well to go back to what you've done before and see what works. Dig into your own data and figure out what has done well for you with Influencer. you work with some of those creatives again? Can you create a similar style program as you go, you know, into this back back after the year, in particular October? so you want to kind of find ways, I think, to trade on on the audience and the reach of Influencers in ways that you don't have to spend big media dollars. To get out in front of folks. So this is a moment for interesting influencer stuff. I think,

[00:08:36] Richard Gaffin: Yeah, well, I like that core point of, of this being a good time to get creative about. Driving organic revenue or the mindset for us anyway, particularly in our world is always to be Thinking about paid media thinking about what's going to be ending up basically on meta. But here's a moment when Trying that thing that you never had the time to try before maybe when it comes to Some sort of like influencer push or a partnership or whatever the case may be.

Like now's the time you really don't have a lot to lose and you have everything to gain because this period is so is going to be such a low point for paid media spending effectiveness.

[00:09:11] Aileen McKenna: exactly. And this is a great time to give things a shot to try because, you know, the dollars, it's going to be, you know, Costly to do this with paid. So like, this is a great time to learn to learn from what you've done in the past, to try some new things. I think I spent some time with Tik TOK earlier this year, they did a creative bootcamp and they talked a lot about choosing sort of like, would describe them as like left of center influencers.

You might not initially think about Sarah. They did a really interesting campaign with this Like grandma influencer from Tik

[00:09:44] Richard Gaffin: No. Interesting.

[00:09:45] Aileen McKenna: who is kind of known for making videos like, you know, rules for my funeral. And sort of like, she's kind of like a racy grandma, not, you know,

[00:09:55] Richard Gaffin: Right.

[00:09:56] Aileen McKenna: mouthy and spirited and she's great. And she did a partnership with Sarah Bay, which you might not necessarily think like in, you know, a much older woman. With the skin care brand, her brand is being racy. I think Sarah Bay is a pretty staid brand but it was great. She did this content about get ready, me, get ready with me for a date with my ex. And it was, you know, as mouthy and funny as she ever is. But it was such an interesting way for the CeraVe brand to use that authentic perspective of that, of that creator and also kind of tap into a very different audience and a very different and a, you know, and a very different creative style, I would say, for them.

So,

[00:10:39] Richard Gaffin: I love that.

[00:10:40] Aileen McKenna: And I think this is a good time to get creative like that if you have the ability.

[00:10:45] Richard Gaffin: No, it's, it's a good, it's a good time to take a swing because business as usual isn't going to work anymore. So that's awesome. I love that.

[00:10:51] Aileen McKenna: was going to say as well, we also have like another client that I'm working with right now who to whom we kind of suggested like, hey, what if y'all tried in October when we know, you know, we're not going to be pushing super hard on the media spend if we can't find efficiency. What if we tried something like a, a giveaway to build out lead generation, right to get email addresses to get folks into again to get folks in the door so that you can reach out to them again, both when the media gets more efficient to spend, but also via email with your end of your promotions. So, you know, if you can use that as a chance to get some data and the ability to kind of follow up with folks.

I think this is another good, good thing to think about at this point in the year.

[00:11:40] Richard Gaffin: Okay, cool. So, so after this low point, which of course is also an opportunity, we now hit another. Climb and this is post election day. So what we should see once the election finishes is that media costs. rebound. So essentially return to where they quote unquote should be or usually are

immediately thereafter.

So it's kind of like rubber hits the road immediately. So what are some tactics or creative approaches to take advantage of that kind of immediate sort of like springboard after the election?

[00:12:08] Aileen McKenna: So I think that first of all, first and foremost, be ready as early as you can have those ads. Lined up and ready to go. You do not want to lose a day. This whole back half of the year and this holiday season are quite compressed this year because of the election season as 1 factor, but also because we have it's a leap year.

So Thanksgiving is very late. Cyber Monday is very late. And so. You want to be ready to act right away and one of the things that I think is really great. You can start. Obviously you could do some early bird deals. This is a good time for early bird deals, but I think a lot about messaging around creating urgency, right?

Like, that's a really classic DTC approach to take and I think a lot about, like, how can you manufacture urgency at a time period when, you Some folks might be kind of sitting back and waiting for the black friday and cyber monday deals, right? Because everybody is aware of how people traditionally paste their deals. So I think about things like, if you have a hot product get it before it's gone. Or don't risk the perfect gift being out of stock, that kind of messaging that creates the sense of urgency that like you need to act now. You don't want to wait till Black Friday, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, because. be out of stock could not have it in the right color or the right size. And I think this is a great opportunity for both that combo of an early bird discount, but also A sense of, like, oh, man, I better act now because you want that urgency and that and that almost like compulsive behavior.

Right?

I want to go do it.

[00:14:04] Richard Gaffin: Well, I mean, it's a helpful reminder to that purpose of early bird is not to build excitement or something for black Friday. It's to To make sales, of course. And to like have people take advantage of the early bird offer. Obviously it's sort of like, it makes sense when you, when you say it that way.

But I think a lot of the times you can approach early bird, like, or it's easy to go in and just say like, this is, this is prep for black Friday. It's not in and of itself a main event that we really need to drive traffic for. And that's kind of what we're talking about.

[00:14:32] Aileen McKenna: Yeah, exactly.

[00:14:34] Richard Gaffin: cool. All right. So let's then, so after the climb to continue this rollercoaster metaphor, I like this because now we hit two big loops, black Friday and cyber Monday.

These are the big days. The period we've all been waiting for. So talk to us a little bit about what, where, how we're approaching black Friday and cyber money. Those two big days.

[00:14:54] Aileen McKenna: Yeah. You know, I think of them as sort of, like. This is what we've all been waiting for, right? Almost all year in some cases, but certainly in the back half of the year. And these things happen just immediately back to back. It's so fast. And you know, so once again, like I'm advising for, you know, early bird and, and that era, like be ready to go with tons of great creative. But I think a lot about two key categories of creative that are really important during this time of year. So the first part is just very clear, very sales forward messaging. I think that like you can go all text perhaps in your design that just says like, you know, black Friday deal a percentage off et cetera.

You can do, you can be as bold as you want. I think frames are great for this time of year to be added to your catalog and your dynamic ads where you can overlay a little badge with the percentage off and your logo to get both a little bit branding into that sort of product on white space, but also again to get that discount front and center. But the sort of second lane that I think about at this time of year is at your evergreen ads, folks are going to, you know, you, you, these ads have great performance behind them. you know, people are, are have seen these are comfortable with them. We'll have probably be when they get served, it's kind of like, oh, yeah, yeah.

Oh, I wanted that. Or those ads. you want. To use the strength of that evergreen to your advantage. And so one of the things that we recommend is taking your best performing evergreen ads just adding a little button or a bug with the sales percentage or sales language the existing evergreen winners to try and stretch a little more mileage out of them.

And also that's. Much lighter lift work than like going out and shooting a new campaign and, you know, so you're sort of taking advantage of what you know has worked in the past, but giving it a little bit of the sale period.

[00:17:10] Richard Gaffin: Yeah, I think that's been part of what we've, or it's been part of our strategy for, for a few years now, but it's like, it's remained really, really important that idea that your evergreen ads are probably going to be your best performers over the black Friday, cyber Monday period. Part of that is because people that have been waiting to buy.

Are sort of now have the opportunity or, or actually are going to buy over the holiday season. They've sort of maybe forgotten about you, but then they're reminded of it. And then also like, because there's the most sales intent, the, the ad that sort of speaks to what your product is, the best is the one that's going to communicate the best.

Cause it's just, that's kind of how it works. You have a winner, the winner is going to keep winning. So I think that's definitely helpful, like advice in terms of thinking about. What you mentioned, like shooting a new campaign or something like that, that just doesn't need to happen. But what you do need to do is make sure that I'd love that.

Like adding the frames to your best performing ads, just layering in the offer rather than shooting something brand new, you know,

[00:18:05] Aileen McKenna: yeah, I think we have seen this work over the course of time, not just over, you know, last couple like holiday seasons where we would say, like, yeah, we want to make sure that you're evergreen is ready to go that you're getting the most out of it because it's going to perform because it will. Yeah. But also too, we see this across the year, we've seen this with lots of clients you know, in other sale periods during the calendar year, where this is a really great strategy for, you know, I think calling back to things that people are familiar with, like, Oh yeah, I saw that I wanted that and I just forgot before, but Hey, 20 percent off now, like when you layer that deal on, I think you get that chance, you know, for someone to go, Oh, I, Oh, now I can get that thing. And so I think this is a really good opportunity to look back, see what, you know, see what has worked throughout the year in Evergreen, see what's working now, and and gussy them up a bit, and they'll be ready for the holiday, you know, little red lipstick,

[00:19:07] Richard Gaffin: there you go.

[00:19:08] Aileen McKenna: blow out, and they're good to go.

[00:19:09] Richard Gaffin: Perfect. Yeah. You can look like a racy grandma. You know what I mean?

[00:19:13] Aileen McKenna: Yep,

[00:19:13] Richard Gaffin: that's, that's the look. All right. So, let's move on to the fifth point here. Then after the black Friday, cyber Monday. big blowout, let's say that we were calling holiday twists and turns here. And so, of course, this is the early December period, basically, like, the days leading up to the cutoff date before Christmas.

So talk to us about what's our approach here. How are we thinking about messaging in this period?

[00:19:36] Aileen McKenna: This feels to me again, I'm not a little bit like the early bird period, it's like this is another opportunity to find ways to create urgency for shoppers and the sort of deadline of Christmas does that for you? So take advantage of that in your advertising. I think in the beginning part of December, the way that you can take advantage of that and make the most of it for yourself and for your brand is to think about shipping deadlines.

so much. Everybody has a deadline by which like they must ship their product so that it arrives in time for it to be under the tree, so to speak or to be gifted at, you know, such and such a party. And so take advantage of that, remind people and give that sense of like last minute urgency. This is coming up faster than you think.

You know, I mean, in years prior to shipping deadline for some clients has been like the 15th or 16th of December, which is ten full days before Christmas. And so that comes up not that long after Cyber Monday, particularly this year, where Cyber Monday is in December. And so I think you want to create that sense of urgency and say, like, don't miss your chance. of like call back to a little bit of that that pre, pre holiday and early bird, but also, you know, do not. You know, don't let it ship too late. Don't have this under the tree this year. So take advantage of that urgency. Again, I think clarity is king. It's the best. I mean, just say it.

[00:21:08] Richard Gaffin: Yeah, definitely. I think this is a great opportunity to like think it was like 1 thing that I've I've said before in like, some of my, you know, Various copywriting courses that have done is that you have to, you have to understand what the audience needs to know in order to make a purchase. And this is like a fascinating period, because what everybody needs to know is I'm going to be able to get this in time.

And that's usually not really the case over the course of the rest of the year. It is sometimes, but usually it's not. And so I like your point about driving people like not only I think the listing out like the last day to get it, but also like how, just how long shipping times are or something along those lines where people can think through, because it's becomes less and less about, is this a thoughtful gift and more and more about, is this a gift that is just going to be there at all and kind of rebalancing the chemistry of your copy, so to speak, to kind of favor the timeline, I think is, is interesting.

[00:21:59] Aileen McKenna: And then I think, you know, you have your shipping deadline and it passes. And I think, you know, you still have the urgency of Christmas, but you maybe have a different approach there. So I think if you are a brand that sells gift cards, or you're able to sell gift cards, that is an awesome message to use after,

like, we'll get here in time for Christmas.

Particularly if you do like e gift cards,

[00:22:21] Richard Gaffin: Mm hmm. Yeah.

[00:22:22] Aileen McKenna: can buy it last minute. We'll always be there in time for Christmas, like, you know, I think those are great messages to, to to hit on, especially when you think about very late in the game shoppers which I also think is, it's a good message to hit on just because. I think everyone at some point has been linked on a gift. Like, you don't have to be the person who's like, I only shop on December 24th have forgotten someone and then like, oh, man, what am I going to do? So I think you could hit you're not just looking at those like, super late panic shoppers are also looking at people who are like, typically pretty good planners, but forgot something or, you know, or someone gifted gifted you something and you weren't ready. You know, I think you can make. All kinds of different plays at this idea of, like, getting this gift that, like, is in your hands right away is super quick. And the closer you get to Christmas, you can keep putting on, you know, the, putting that message in front and center, which to kind of put the pressure on, like, hey, Christmas is coming.

You need something. Hey, we are a great solution.

[00:23:25] Richard Gaffin: Yeah, I love it. All right. So then our final kind of point here is how we think about what we've been calling Q5, which is that period post Christmas before New Year's more like before you really hit, I guess, the health and wellness bump of January. So let's talk about you kind of mentioned here at the beginning after Christmas or of this paragraph anyway, after Christmas, our data shows that you've still got opportunities to close the year out strong.

So what are the same or what are some of the ways that you can close the year out strong?

[00:23:53] Aileen McKenna: I think everybody's instinct or first thought is often clearance sale, which is actually a great idea, is a great time for a clearance sale. But I think this is also a great time to consider messaging and think about the experience of the end of the year for the consumer, what is going on in their life so that you can figure out how to speak to them directly in that moment.

So are they, you know, young folks who maybe got a bunch of gift cards for Christmas or cash or you know, those kinds of things can you speak to the people who got gift cards from your brand? you know, I grew up, you know as a kid I got gifts from all my aunts and uncles when I was little but by the time I was a teenager They didn't know what to do. they just gave me, you know Here you go. Here's 50 bucks. Merry Christmas And my favorite tradition day after christmas was

sales You you know, because I had, I was flush and lots of folks are going to be flush with gift cards and, you know, cash and, and all of those things. so you have that opportunity, I think, to speak to those people in your messaging in, you know, as opposed to just doing straight up clearance, you can do clearance, but you can also kind of speak a little more closely to folks with gift cards or Christmas gift money. But I also think you kind of touched on this. We're writing that at that point in the year, we're writing right into new year, new you resolution time and everybody has just had, or at least all of my friends have just had an indulgence season. Everybody is already kind of being like, oh, shouldn't have that extra glass of wine or not extra cookie and thinking about, like. How do I want to be next year? How? What are our goals for the next year? Like, you know, in the downtime of that week, I think a lot of folks already have the coming new year on their mind. So can you take advantage of that and start speaking to that interest or that feeling in your consumer before January 1st?

[00:25:57] Richard Gaffin: So, yeah, particularly if you're a health and wellness brand, you can kind of combine two of these ideas, which is you got, you got a gift card on Christmas. Now it's time to use it before it's too late. I love that idea about just sort of speculatively here thinking about a gift card or rather like a gift card.

a specific campaign of saying like, Hey, you know, you got a gift card for Christmas or whatever. They couldn't pick something out for you. Now it's your turn. And then like putting up a page that like you could only pay for a gift cards or whatever, something along those lines, where it's just like a special sometime campaign directed, or at least messaging directed toward gift card holders.

I think that's really interesting, but it all kind of plays into this idea of what are people doing in this period? What do, what do their lives look like? What might they need to buy? Now what my opportunities might be for them to to make purchases, but okay, cool. So that kind of takes us out.

And then of course, we're off into January, which is obviously the era of a new you or new year, new you New Year's resolutions and so on and so forth. But that's a conversation for another podcast. So anything else, Aileen, that you kind of want to leave us with when it comes to approaching creative this this holiday season?

[00:27:03] Aileen McKenna: I think, you know, for every one of these sort of peaks and valleys and things is try to look back at your data, learn as much as you can from what you've tried before. what ads have worked, what ads have it and really focused, I think, on being particularly when you have a specific offer, really focused on how you can be as clear as possible, and make sure that that's something, you know, Meadow used to talk a lot about, and I haven't heard them say this as much, but, recently, but they talked a lot about when folks are on particularly social media, we often think of ourselves as competing with other advertisers in our industry. Or buying our same type of consumer. and that's how we think of the competition. And that's what how we think about developing our ads in some ways, but they're actually just competing with, like, real life who are on Facebook or Instagram to see pictures of. Their friends, babies and nieces and nephews and you know, check in on everyone as the year comes to an end and they post their favorite pics of the year or whatever it is right. You're competing with news and information and storytelling. Just as much, if not more than competing with, other advertisers. And so I think being eye catching and being clear in any 1 of these time periods going to be a really, really important part of succeeding at the end of this year.

[00:28:45] Richard Gaffin: That's right. Clear, clear beats clever, as they say in the copywriting world. Cool. All right. Well, Aline, appreciate you joining us.

And folks, if you want this level of thought work put into your creative strategy, and you're a brand that's between 10 and a hundred million in annual ecommerce revenue, you know where to find us, commonthreadco.com. Hit that hire us button and we would love to talk to you further, but Aline, thanks for joining us, everybody. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week. Take care.