Take Inspiration from the Holidays for Digital Content

Key Takeaways (5-minute read)

• • Brands often pull out all the stops for digital marketing campaigns during the holiday season.
  • Storytelling, consumer connection, and consumer experiences are key to good content.
  • Marketing leaders can draw inspiration from holiday campaigns to up their content game and consumer engagement all year.

Keep Your Digital Content Merry and Bright All Year Long

There’s a certain magic swarming across the ether during the holiday season. From social media campaigns to multimillion-dollar commercials, content is more heartfelt, more human. Stories abound as a young girl makes a new best friend in a little snowman and a forgetful Santa is saved in the St. Nick of time by a savvy Mrs. Claus. Why isn’t digital content this creative and engaging year-round? We think it can be—and should be. Let’s explore how the holidays are a time of bringing humanity and heart to digital marketing and how brands can continue to do so throughout the year.

Storytelling Takes the (Fruit) Cake

We love the stories in so many holiday commercials. They really showcase what a brand is all about and how it can help its customers or even ways they might not realize a company is impacting them. This year, one of our favorites is Apple’s “Saving Simon,” a video short story about a young girl who saves a tiny snowman named Simon from certain doom (her brother’s stomping snow boots) and then preserves him in the freezer for a whole year until the snow falls again. There are plenty of twists and turns—like a power outage, yikes!—in their story, and the biggest one comes at the end of the three-minute film. The spot was shot completely on the new iPhone 13, putting the brand directly into the creative process and showing consumers the quality of the product in an organic way. They also released a “making of” video for further engagement.

The characters and plots in holiday commercials and content are just lovable. So why wouldn’t people want to see such thoughtful stories—ones that tug at the heartstrings and create real emotions—all year? Sure, there are always a few big hits for events like the Superbowl and Olympics, and Dr. Pepper’s Fansville has kept us pretty engaged for years now (in a new dramatic twist, the Fans are becoming self-aware). But it’s pretty clear that when a character from a commercial debuts during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade as a giant balloon, brands tend to pull out all the stops for the holiday season. What we should do is harness that level of storytelling and consumer connection that spreads the love to digital content and marketing campaigns 24/7, 365 days a year.

Multiplatform Magic

Something we’re always stressing to our clients is that a great digital campaign can’t end on one platform—it needs to carry through multiple channels and parts of your brand, both virtual and in-person when possible. We love how Lowe’s Home Improvement has upped its holiday decor game this year, doubling its offerings on lighting, gift ideas, indoor and outdoor decorations, plants, and greenery for the festive season. The brand has truly created a one-stop shop for the holidays, and has carried its #MakeMoreHoliday campaign across multiple platforms, both online and off.

A series of short commercials playing on TV and online show Lowe’s customers making the most out of their holiday decor and doing it with loved ones. Its social media wing of the campaign is leveraging influencer marketing, inviting lifestyle bloggers and celebrities to #MakeMoreHoliday and share how Lowe’s has helped them do so by creating fresh, engaging content that the brand can then share on its own channels. Posts with the hashtag appear to have approximately twice the engagement of the company’s other posts on Instagram.

Lowe’s has also created an array of blog content for the holidays, including tips on decorating for Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and more, DIY projects for the whole family, how-tos on lighting and tree decorating, and helpful guides to keeping your holiday plants and greenery fresh and happy for the whole season.

Last but certainly not least, the brand’s holiday campaign carries into the store itself, where in addition to its expanded product offerings, Lowe’s has set up in-store “Trim and Tree” displays that are the perfect spot for customers to get inspired by the decorations, take a festive photo, and even drop off letters to Santa. The all-encompassing campaign, from digital content to in-store experiences, really does help customers #MakeMoreHoliday.

This type of thoughtful digital strategy and content creation should be the norm throughout the year, not just at Christmas time. If campaigns keep this level of enthusiasm and engagement for twelve months instead of two or three, consumers will be much more likely to stay excited about what their favorite brands are offering. Take a little of that metaphorical holiday cheer and sprinkle it throughout your calendar for the gift that will keep giving through revenue, consumer engagement, and increased market share.

Bringing Humanity to Digital

This is a time of sharing experiences with friends and loved ones, from near and (thanks for digital advancements) far. Whether it’s through a virtual chat for a family game night or engaging in a digital experience such as AT&T’s Karaoke Mashup, there’s no reason distance, a pandemic, or similar circumstances should prevent people from spending time together over the holidays or anytime. Our team was thrilled to work with AT&T to create its first-ever digital entertainment app experience, where users can engage in a virtual karaoke night, share their performances with friends, remix or join in on the music, and, above all, share real connections with laughs and fun with each other. The holidays have a way of bringing people together like no other time of year, and that’s what we’re all about at Digital Caliente, too—making connections between brands and consumers.

Studying brands’ holiday campaigns like those above offer us an opportunity to see how digital content, even though it’s on a screen or an app, can be infused with humanity just like any in-person experience. It’s all about making a brand promise to your consumers and keeping it, all year and across all facets of your brand. That’s our specialty—creating the place where digital meets humanity.

If your sleigh is stuck in the quagmire of digital content creation, platforms, engagement statistics, and ROI, the Digital Caliente team is ready to help you kick off the new year with a digital marketing strategy that’ll have you feeling like Christmas has already rolled back around. Hit us up if you’re ready to chat!