Sean Walsh
Sean is a Director at Intelligency heading up our digital marketing and client services operations. Sean has 15+ years experiencing working both in-house and agency with brands including Lloyds, Alstom, Hitachi, Lufthansa, Viaplay, DFDS Seaways and Mercedes-Benz.
Black Friday is finally here, and as customers are getting ready to blow their November pay on Christmas goods; it’s a great opportunity to look back at creative Black Friday campaigns that have ran in the past from brands like Patagonia to Kohl’s.
Patagonia’s 2011 “Don’t Buy This Jacket” ad
In 2011, Patagonia decided to launch an advert titled “Don’t Buy This Jacket” which was actually an anti-Black Friday campaign designed to encourage consumers to reduce, recycle, and repair their clothes and items rather than buying new ones in a sale. This campaign was pushed online as well as in the New York Times. Patagonia not only managed to get a lot of positive attention with this advert, but managed to show people that they’re an ethical brand too; which leads us onto their next campaign.
Patagonia’s ethical 2016 campaign
As I was saying, in 2016 Patagonia decided to one-up their 2011 campaign by going the extra mile; through a partnership with an organization named One Percent of the Planet, the outdoor clothing brand donated 100% of their ad campaign earnings to said charity in order to raise awareness for the environment and climate change.
This campaign reached an astonishing $10 million from sales due to this campaign, with 70% of these sales being from first time customers. It’s safe to say that this campaign made a big impact.
REI’s 2015 #OpOutside campaign
Outdoor activity and clothing brand REI caused a stir amongst marketers and consumers alike when they closed their shop for Black Friday, instead encouraging their staff and the public to spend their day in the great outdoors.
They’ve continued this trend, and display user-generated content on their website now through Instagram from photos uploaded with the hashtag #OptOutdoors.
Kohl’s Twitter giveaways
American retailer Kohl’s launched a smart campaign on Twitter where they’d ask their followers to choose from 3 products they thought would end up as a ‘Top Black Friday deal’, if you tweeted the correct answer (all of them were correct) you’d be entered into a sweepstake to win a $500 gift card.
Whilst not as ethical as the campaigns and ads above, it certainly got people’s attention as the post gained a lot of traction through interaction such as replies and retweets. Seemingly, a giveaway like this is a great way to let audiences interact with you and generate new customers.
Take a look some examples from their twitter below:
As always, thank you for reading this week’s special edition Digital Roundup.
