4 Tips for Creating Impactful Mega Sales Day Creative

What are Mega Sales Days?

“Mega Sales Day” is a term mostly used in Southeast Asia to categorize the growing number of major sales events that are playing a pivotal role on the e-commerce calendar. However, we can expand the scope of this term to describe the global phenomenon of e-commerce-driven unofficial holidays as a whole. 

We are now seeing a number of Mega Sales expand out of their origin country to be adopted more broadly—first on a regional, and then global scale. For example, Singles’ Day (11.11)—which started off in China in the 1990’s and grew to become the world's biggest online shopping day—has begun to make waves in Europe. Black Friday & Cyber Monday on the other hand—which originated from the Thanksgiving Day holiday in the U.S—have in recent years gone on to become increasingly global events. 

Although each of these Mega Sales are unique in their own way, if we group them together and look at them from an advertising perspective, there are some collective creative best practices that we can begin to formulate. This is what this article strives to achieve—providing you with four quick tips that can be applied to your Mega Sales Day campaigns. 

Creative tips for Mega Sales Days

#1 - Create a runway of hype leading up to the sale's launch

How you approach the days and weeks leading up to the actual sale date will either make or break your Mega Sale campaign. To be successful, you need to generate hype and awareness by first teasing the sale through an announcement, and then as the launch day draws closer, begin to ramp up your efforts with more sales-focused messaging.

To do this effectively, you should develop creatives that can be deployed during different stages leading up to the sales launch date. You can see this below with BMW Germany’s Cyber Monday Campaign where they staggered three creative concepts, gradually becoming more focused on direct-response. 

# 2 - Instil a sense of urgency

One of the major themes present within all Mega Sales Days is urgency. These sales events are famous for the exclusive, limited time offers that they present to deal-hunters. It is important that your Mega Sales creatives tap into this theme, amplifying the urgent need to take action by including compelling messaging and accompanying visual cues within your ads. 

If using video creatives, make sure that you create urgency from the outset by beginning the ad with bold “Don’t Miss Out” or “Limited Time Only” copy. This can then be backed up visually through fast pacing, dynamic transitions, and call to action (CTA) cues.

#3 - Create an optimized mobile experience 

Mobile-based shopping makes up a huge percentage of Mega Sales Day purchases. In 2019, 90% of Single’s Day purchases were made via smartphones. Granted, the majority of these purchases were coming out of Asia where mobile e-commerce is booming. However, in the West, mobile shopping is also playing a huge role. In 2020 for example, Black Friday smartphone shopping in the U.S rose by 25% year-on-year to $3.6billion. These numbers highlight why mobile should be at the forefront of your Mega Sales campaign strategy, along with the need to develop mobile-optimized creatives. 

How to ensure your creatives are optimized for mobile? Here are some general best practices...

1. Utilize a vertical or square ratio
2. Aim for a 6–15 second duration
3. Make sure your copy is bold and legible
4. Capture attention quickly with dynamic elements
5. Feature product & branding up front
   
   

Mobile-optimized ads will help to better engage Mega Sale shoppers who are conducting their shopping on their phones, seamlessly directing them to landing pages where purchases can be made. 

#4 - Tap into sale's visual identity

Each Mega Sale has either its own unique visual identity, or specific visual signifiers that somehow represent the sale. 

For instance, the key visual identifiers for Asia’s double digit sales dates (9.9, 10.10, 11.11, etc.) are the numbers themselves. If promoting one of these sales, It is important that these numbers feature prominently within your ad creatives as it helps to signal to the audience that your promotion falls under one of these dates. This can be seen in the M·A·C Cosmetics example above, where the ad opens with “11/11” dominating the frame to communicate that it is a Singles’ Day promotion. 

If you’re building Black Friday creative, think of ways that the color black can be used for emphasis. And for Cyber Monday, consider adopting a cyberpunk, 1980’s-inspired neon aesthetic.   

The frenetic nature of Mega Sales calls for bold creative treatments in order to stand out, and engage eager online shoppers. Tapping into, and getting creative with each sale’s visual identity will help you to do so. 

In summary

Mega Sales Days are a huge opportunity for brands to capture high-levels of e-commerce revenue. However, if you don’t have the right creatives to deploy, you aren’t going to maximize your potential. Following the tips outlined in this article will help to ensure your creatives are delivering the most impact in getting shoppers to click-through and make purchases.