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How Brand Advertising Can Maximise The Peak Season

We are quickly approaching the biggest and busiest time of the year for retail sales, with BFCM and Christmas just around the corner. It’s safe to say that the “Peak Season” of 2021 is just a stone’s throw away and if we’re not planning for it yet, we’re already behind. 

We’re expecting this peak season to be bigger and better than ever, which means a huge opportunity for advertisers and businesses. It’s going to be incredibly competitive – advertisers need to be prepping now and getting in market to maximise this time. 

This fresh research from Google shouldn’t be overlooked in your strategy sessions. Our summary of this is below:

  • There is now a longer consumer consideration window than before – 80% of Aussies have started thinking about gifting before December, last year 1 in 5 started thinking about it as early as March. This means there is an opportunity for brands to plant the seeds earlier to maximise later on.
  • Brand loyalty is in question. Over the past year,77% of Aussies had tried at least one new retailer, most respondents had tried over five! We also know that 1 in 2 shoppers visit multiple websites before settling. This means that consumers are open to trying new brands. 
  • Competitors in search have increased – finally the amount of bidders in the auction fighting for that click has significantly changed and increased over time. This means that it’s hard to stand out in all of the noise, therefore brands need to make themselves more sticky in the minds of Aussies.

 

With all of this in mind, how do brands become best set up to drive revenue when the crunch time of Click Frenzy, BFCM, and gift buying arrives? Retailers must start in September, focusing on getting your brand in front of a broad, relevant audience. This way, your brand becomes part of the consideration window period, so that when consumers are ready to hit the buy button, it’s yours. Additionally, pre-activity will support bottom-of-funnel activations, search and email, to perform stronger across key sale events. 

With all that said, here are five tactics to consider in your 2021 Peak Season campaigns to help your brand have a strong seat at the table and maximise results:

Amplify your brand and festive season offerings through the power of content spread across some of the most trusted brands in Australia. We utilise platforms like Linkby to pitch our briefs across publications (the likes of Broadsheet, Marie Claire, Business Insider, Kidspot and many more), using rich content pieces that build hype and drive consideration with an engaged audience. For retail brands, content could be listicle features, gifting guides, limited edition product spotlights or sneak peek BFCM deals.

As we know, people are consuming more videos than ever and a platform of choice for this is YouTube. Video watchers are seeking to discover and be inspired, and this is where an advertiser can see the difference. 90% of people say they discover new products on YouTube and 70% of YouTube viewers have bought a brand after seeing it on YouTube. By utilising many of the different ad formats offered on YouTube and its advanced machine learning capabilities, advertisers can maximise their return this season.

If you’ve used the platform before, you know that Pinterest is the home of inspiration and discovery. This remains even more true in the lead up to Christmas. Recent research shows that brands see 4.7 x more conversions when people are exposed to Pinterest ads earlier in the festive season. Advertisers should be making use of their wide variety of rich ad formats and targeting to inspire Aussies across September to November.

Well known for driving discovery, creativity and engagement, TikTok remains the largest disruptor to the social media world in 2021. Create content that TikTok’ers expect to see – unboxing, life hacks, use sounds that are trending and you’ll drive up video view rates and engagement.

If you’re seeking to use media spend to shift the needle on likeability and brand recall across peak season, short-form video in premium environments like BVOD is the way to go. It has proven to deliver 4.7 x stronger recall than video ads on social media giants and 1.8 x higher recall than social video. This is a tactic to be considered in your peak season planning.

We recommend starting awareness-based activity in September and October, focusing on awareness centric metrics at the start. Into November, maintain this activity but start skewing your focus towards conversion. 

Hopefully these ideas have inspired you to get inspirational and in-market early this peak season. With the impact of IOS14 continuing to affect retailers of all sizes, it may be the perfect time to try new ways to get in front of your target audience.

Need assistance with your BFCM Digital Strategy? Download our 2021 BFCM Ecommerce Playbook or chat to a digital strategist today.

Reload Team
Reload Team

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