Don’t Be a Grinch: Bring Joy to the World with Holiday Marketing

With autumn in full swing, the amount of upcoming holidays is longer than your wish list: Thanksgiving, Ramadan, Hanukkah, Christmas and more. To resonate with your audience and humanize your company, it’s a good idea to capitalize on the holiday season by sending your company’s warmest regards. These holiday marketing ideas can be done in many forms, but should be chosen carefully based on your audience’s media habits.

Merry Marketing

With the help of a marketing and advertising agency, you can create a variety of collateral to send your audience holiday wishes. Print holiday cards convey class and nostalgia, and your audience may appreciate receiving a tangible item. You can even include holiday-themed keepers, such as peppermint candies or bottle openers to enjoy mulled wine. Keep in mind the delivery speed of ground mail to ensure your cards arrive on time.

If your company is looking for a technology-focused greeting, digital holiday cards or eblasts may reflect your mission better. Depending on your budget, this route may be more cost-effective.

Share your company culture through video advertising. Hiring an advertising agency to film your company participating in holiday camaraderie demonstrates your employee’s satisfaction and presents a positive office environment. Decorate your office with holiday decorations, such as lights, ornaments and traditional decor. Host a holiday ugly sweater contest (like we did) and film the “runway show,” or have a cookie decorating competition. Even participating in Secret Santa could show the public your company’s human element.

Wish the world joy by purchasing a billboard or radio spot that will get the attention of many and create a buzz. Media buying is a great way to demonstrate effective holiday marketing with the public. Purchasing radio spots or billboards to simply say, “Wishing you a happy holiday season from Company X,” could brighten a viewer or listener’s day and increase your company’s recall in the consumer mind.

Social media may be the easiest and most accessible ideas for holiday marketing. By tweeting or posting on your company’s social media page, you can reach all your followers, plus their followers if they retweet or like your post. The power of social media is real; learn more in this article on new digital marketing platforms.

‘Tis the Season

Although creating collateral is a great route, traditional marketing actions are effective, too. Holding holiday events at your company or an offsite location brings awareness to your company and offers a chance to advertise your services. Toy drives and charity involvement demonstrate corporate social responsibility and helps the community. For example, Walgreens stores in Orlando participate in Christmas toy donations for Nathaniel’s Hope, an organization supporting children with special needs. By inviting the community into your company, you show transparency leading to increased trust in the public eye.

Sponsorships also serve a holiday marketing purpose. Sponsoring holiday-themed events, such as Christmas tree lots or pumpkin patches show the community that your company cares about bringing holiday cheer. When families come to these places to make memories, they’ll see your banner and remember you, too.

Of course, to ensure the public knows about your marketing actions, create press releases. They should outline the activities you plan to do so that accurate information, including times, dates and locations, is disseminated in a timely manner. These press releases should be posted on your website and, if appropriate, sent to news stations for further reach in the community.

Put some sugar and spice into your holiday marketing. Appleton Creative is an award-winning, full-service Orlando advertising agency that works with local, national and international clients to deliver impressive ad campaigns, branding, print, web, public relations, social media and video services—all in-house. At Appleton, we want to learn about your business, empower your marketing team and be your creative resource. Your advertising goals are worth a conversation: contact us at 407-246-0092 or info@appletoncreative.com.