Leveraging Holiday Campaigns Efficiently for Enduring Brand Influence in Council Context
Alison Bringe is the Chief Marketing Officer at Launchmetrics, a leading Brand Performance Cloud in the fields of Fashion, Lifestyle, and Beauty.
The holiday season poses a conundrum for brands. On the bright side, consumers have a high propensity to spend, with holiday sales accounting for roughly 19% of annual retail revenue in total. However, every brand is in a fierce battle for consumer attention, making it hard for marketers to stand out in the crowd.
Moreover, marketing budgets are on the decline, decreasing to an estimated 7.7% of overall company revenue this year, according to research from Gartner. This puts even more pressure on marketers to justify each dollar spent. The temptation to invest in performance marketing tactics promising quick sales boosts or measurable conversions is strong. But is this the best course of action for brands aiming for long-term success and sustainable brand performance? I argue not. Instead, marketing teams should strive to perfect the balance between performance marketing and strategic brand-building efforts to fully tap into the potential of the holiday season. Allow me to elaborate a bit further on this topic.
Moving Beyond Sales: Embodying Sustained Impact
Holidays are a significant time for fashion, lifestyle, and beauty brands. In a survey conducted by Launchmetrics, 84.2% of participants revealed that they would spend more than a quarter of their marketing budgets on their holiday campaigns. This makes sense given that "fashion and apparel" are set to dominate gift choices, attracting approximately 57% of shoppers.
The critical question is how to optimally allocate this spending to produce a lasting impact. Of the businesses surveyed, their primary holiday campaign objectives are to increase sales in established markets (67.2%) and to leverage the holiday shopping spree to expand sales in new markets (around 50%). Less than 40% cited boosting brand loyalty as a vital objective.
Leveraging the Optimal Channels
Maximizing the potential of holiday shopping begins by identifying and engaging the channels that generate the most value for your brand, whether that be celebrities, influencers, news outlets, or your owned media channels.
Consider our client Skims as an example. Celebrity endorsements have proven to be a successful brand-building strategy for Skims. Strategic partnerships with celebrities, such as singer Tate McRae, align Skims with the cultural zeitgeist and reinforce its values while generating desirability. At the same time, Skims established a timely partnership with Dolce & Gabbana during the holiday season, positioning itself as luxury-adjacent, boosting its brand image and equity.
Conversely, Swiss fashion label Tally Weijl has opted for a more localized and community-driven approach. Instead of relying on global superstars, they have partnered with regional influencers who resonate deeply with their target audience. These include Ares, the winner of Voice Germany, whose bold personality matches the youthful and edgy image of the brand, and Swiss figure skater Kimmy Repond, a mid-tier influencer with a loyal yet niche following.
Every brand will have a unique blend of ideal channels. For the holiday season, align your most powerful channels with your objectives: utilizing owned media channels to attract existing customers through discounts, while celebrity and influencer partnerships captivate new shoppers through inspiring imagery and narrative.
Adapting to Diverse Audiences
The effectiveness of different channels depends on your target audience segments, as various demographics respond differently to messaging and formats. According to The Business of Fashion and McKinsey's latest "State of Fashion" report, the 'silver generation' consists of consumers aged over 50 and is set to drive 48% of incremental growth in global spending in 2025. McKinsey researchers have found that this demographic prioritizes quality, functionality, and versatility over price points and trends. To reach this audience, brands should emphasize through holiday content and thoughtfully chosen celebrity partnerships how their products cater to these preferences.
Meanwhile, Gen Z might be targeted through community-building initiatives and demonstrated values such as sustainability and authenticity. Concretely, campaigns can encourage user-generated content (UGC) as a means to foster a sense of community or provide influencers with creative freedom to ensure their content remains authentic.
Ultimately, age brackets serve as a general guide; data-driven insight into specific audience values and preferences is essential. The key is to have a deep understanding of your audience segments to tailor your messaging to the channels that resonate most.
Measuring the Right Metrics
Last but not least, it is not only crucial to track and measure performance-driven activities during holiday campaigns but to do so accurately. Traditional performance measures allow tracking of digital activities, but what about the more elusive brand-building aspects?
It is a mistake to believe that brand marketing activities cannot be measured with data. Instead, you must choose the right KPIs that enable quantification and correlation with financial performance.
Holistic metrics like Media Impact Value (MIV) assign a dollar value to each piece of coverage, whether it be a passing mention on social media or a product placement in a Vogue editorial. This facilitates tracking of every aspect of your marketing campaign with factual data.
Another significant measure is the customer lifetime value (CLV), which approximates the complete income a brand can generate from a customer throughout their entire association. Monitoring CLV allows you to assess how successfully your promotional campaigns are driving prompt sales along with cultivating long-term commitment.
If you can monitor and gauge the influence of your holiday marketing initiatives, you acquire the authority to fine-tune them while they're active, ultimately ensuring they accomplish various objectives and produce value beyond temporary sales. Eventually, it's the brands that utilize the holiday season to amplify their brand image and loyalty—to narrate tales, create content that provides value, and link with audiences on an emotional level—that will prevail in the season.
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Alison Bringé, as the Chief Marketing Officer at Launchmetrics, might share insights on how brands can optimally allocate their holiday marketing budgets to achieve lasting impact, drawing on data from the company's survey.
Following the success of strategic celebrity endorsements and partnerships for brands like Skims and Tally Weijl, Bringé may suggest identifying and engaging the most valuable channels for one's brand during the holiday season.
