As we pass 2020’s midway point, brands should begin scoping, planning, and sourcing ad creative for the impending end-of-year holiday season.
For many, the sale period that consists of Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, and New Years, serves as the keystone in their digital strategy calendar. This is especially true for brands that rely heavily on e-commerce as a source of revenue.In 2019, 14.1% of global retail purchases were attributed to e-commerces purchases. A number which is set to rise significantly in 2020, coming as a direct result of the global COVID-19 pandemic, which has seen online purchases skyrocket, with no immediate sign of slowing.
This surge in online consumption has resulted directly in an increase in competition, with brands fighting to win the battle of the attention economy, and successfully boost website traffic through the use of digital advertising. This year, more than any other, will call for bold, eye-catching creative to be produced and disseminated via social platforms. Investing in high-quality, direct response-oriented ads will be key to successfully navigating and thriving during this period.
This article will highlight three key recommendations that will help you in creating high-performing, direct response holiday creative.
1. Think Mobile-First
In 2019, mobile-based shopping represented 84% of the holiday season’s e-commerce growth. With over $50 billion spent during the period via smartphones in the U.S alone. When you couple these numbers with the fact that the vast majority of users on social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram are on their phones, you begin to see why it is vital to optimize ads for mobile.
In a mobile environment, video is king, producing much higher engagement than static imagery.
Successful mobile-first video ads utilize product-centered approaches that consist of upfront branding, clear copy, and strong CTA’s in order to engage audiences and ultimately drive action. Above anything else, being noticed is key. This can be achieved through eye-catching visual design that stands out and stops scrolling thumbs.
2. Utilize existing brand assets
There is no need to fully originate new video creative for direct response campaigns. Brands can keep production costs low by transforming their existing assets, whether it be static imagery or long-form content into mobile-optimized video. For example, most e-commerce stores are already sitting on a mountain of static product shots, perfect for re-purposing.
Take a look below to see how Shuttlerock enabled watches.com to transform their existing product shots into a dynamic holiday video ad aimed at direct response.
3. Iterate, Iterate, Iterate!
Brands should also look to develop a set of variations, deriving from one key central creative concept. These will be used to match each of the different key dates throughout the holiday period. Variations are also essential for global brands needing to localize different languages to suit their diverse customer base.
Shuttlerock enables brands to create various ad iterations quickly and at low-cost. By switching out copy or translating ads into over 30 languages, brands can effortlessly repurpose existing assets across a range of placements.
This will be a holiday season like no other for digital advertisers. E-commerce will be booming, which presents a huge opportunity to capture online revenue. Developing a set of video creative will be key to this.
If you would like to learn more about how Shuttlerock can help produce direct response ads for your brand, please contact: liftoff@shuttlerock.com
Discover more holiday season resources on our dedicated webpage: www.shuttlerock.com/holiday-season
.png?width=159&height=159&name=Group%201000001080%20(1).png)
