Creative Strategies to Help You Thrive in Q5

As Christmas ends and the dulcet tones of Mariah Carey and Michael Bublé fade away into the distance, many brands will dial back their advertising activity with the thought that the shopping buzz has largely wrapped up. This isn’t the case. In fact, consumer spending remains high deep into January.

This presents a prime opportunity for savvy marketers to capitalize on high purchase intent when CPMs see a significant dip. The opportunity is so big, in fact, that we now call this post-Christmas to late-January period “Q5” – a mini quarter with big performance potential. 

Marketers that stay active during Q5 are able to prolong the peak sales period and charge into the new year with strong momentum. In this article, we explore the key creative strategies that will help you fully capitalize on the Q5 opportunity. 

Combine commerce-focused campaigns with diverse creative

The best way to ignite post-holiday sales is to leverage commerce-focused campaigns/ad formats. If you’re advertising on Meta, for example, use Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns. For TikTok, use Video Shopping Ads.  

To get the most out of these campaigns, they need to be fueled by diverse creative. Creative diversification is important for several reasons. It enables you to target multiple audiences with personalized creative variations, activate different buyer motivators, and keep your campaign fresh, avoiding creative fatigue. 

In the case of Meta’s Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns, creative diversification is especially important. To allow the ASC algorithm to do its thing, Meta recommends a minimum of 10 unique creative assets. But for optimal results, this number should be more in the realm of 20–30.

Move fast & unlock scale by remixing existing assets

As an extension of the hectic holiday period, Q5 can sneak up on you. And once it starts, it’s over before you know it. For this reason, it makes sense to repurpose and remix assets that you already have at the ready, as opposed to creating from scratch. Not only does this allow you to move fast, it also helps to unlock the scale needed for creative diversification.

At this stage in the game, you have a whole year of content and collateral to draw from. Whether it's product imagery, user-generated content (UGC), or organic social posts – it’s all ripe for remixing. To move even faster, you can remix creative that performed strongly during the holiday season. Adjust the messaging, adapt the visuals, and you’re on your way. 

Pro tip: When adapting your messaging for Q5, focus on creating a sense of urgency. E.g. “don’t miss out!”, “last minute deals”, “stock clearance”.

Shift messaging from "gifting for others" to "shopping for yourself" 

Whereas the holiday season is largely about purchasing for others, Q5 sees consumers turning their attention inwards. This plays out in two distinct ways: (1) self-gifting and (2) purchases in line with the new year mindset. 

The self-gifting mindset sees consumers looking to treat themselves. Perhaps Santa didn’t get the memo about that PlayStation 5 and you have to take matters into your own hands. Or maybe your friends and family have been flaunting a great gift they've received and you’re inspired to nab one for yourself. The self-gifting mindset is all about indulging in your own personal wants, and buying that item that you’ve been holding out on all year. Marketers can capture this motivation in their Q5 creative with “treat yourself”, “you deserve it” style messaging and relevant offers.

Purchases in line with the new year's mindset, on the other hand, see consumers looking to make purchases that relate to personal development. This can take many forms: physical, mental, spiritual, academic, etc. Marketers can speak to this in their Q5 creative with “new year, new me” and “this year is your year” types of messaging. However, to really drive home these messages, we recommend featuring UGC or creator content within your creative wherever possible. This will help you to deliver these messages more authentically and in a way that will resonate more strongly with audiences.

Capitalize on Q5 with Shuttlerock's creative solutions

If you’re looking to thrive in Q5, you’ve gotta have the right creative. Shuttlerock makes it easy to produce diverse, quality assets in a fast, streamlined manner. Even if you need some last-minute creative, we’ve got you covered.

To learn more about our solutions and how they can help your brand capitalize on the Q5 opportunity, get in touch with one of our crew members.