6 successful holiday advertising campaigns from Amazon Ads customers
What is holiday advertising?
Holiday advertising is typically used to describe advertising during the fourth quarter of the year, primarily from November to December but also sometimes as early as October. These months are often considered the holiday season, a time known for major gift-giving holidays like Christmas, as well as major discount-heavy shopping days including Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Holiday marketing campaigns can comprise any number of channels, from social media posts about gift guides and email campaigns advertising special discounts to display ads encouraging shoppers to consider your products for holiday gifts. Holiday marketing strategy is less about making holiday ads a specific way—or just making sure your website looks holiday-themed—and more about getting the right messaging to audiences when it’s relevant to them.
Why is holiday advertising important?
Many businesses consider the holiday shopping season one of the most important times of the year because it’s a peak shopping period. Last year, retail holiday sales in the US reached $886.7 billion, an increase of 14.1% over 2020.1
In terms of digital commerce, online holiday sales in the US reached $257 billion last year, an increase of 9% over 2020.2 Black Friday sales alone accounted for $8.9 billion in online spending, though that was a decrease of 1.3% from last year.3 Worldwide, holiday buyers spent $1.14 trillion, a 5% year-over-year increase.4
With so many shoppers ready to buy, holiday advertising can help your brand reach the right audiences.
6 examples of successful holiday advertising
Here are a few examples of successful holiday marketing campaigns from Amazon Ads customers to inspire you when it’s time to create your own holiday ads.
1. Coca-Cola brings holiday spirit to families in need
When the pandemic prevented Coca-Cola from holding its annual in-person fundraiser events for Banco Alimentare, a non-profit food bank in Italy, they pivoted to an online setting. The brand worked with Amazon Ads to create a digital Christmas market on Amazon.it, which featured limited edition Coca-Cola Christmas gift boxes to benefit Banco Alimentare. The success of the campaign funded 150,000 meals for Banco Alimentare in 2020.5
2. Children’s charity uses Amazon Ads to raise funds during holiday season
2020 was a tough year for charity fundraising. The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) evolved their “Letters from Santa” holiday marketing campaign to help boost their digital fundraising. Alongside their media agency, OMD UK, NSPCC teamed up with Amazon Ads to increase awareness and engagement with relevant audiences online, both on and off Amazon. The charity reached over 8M consumers in the UK and collected donations over 400% over target.6
3. Pentel uses multiple ad solutions to reach holiday shoppers
Pentel turned to Amazon Ads to help their holiday marketing campaign drive brand awareness, consideration, and sales. They amplified their brand message and product lines in the competitive home office and writing instrument categories with a combination of sponsored ads, Stores, audio ads, and display ads via Amazon DSP. The brand had over 5x increase in ad-attributed impressions, more than 3x increase in ad-attributed sales, and more than 2x increase in ad-attributed units sold versus 2019.7
4. Diageo increases awareness among out-of-category shoppers
Diageo wanted to reach new audiences in Germany for their whiskey brands on Amazon during the holiday season. Along with their media agency, PHD, they used Amazon Ads to create a holiday marketing campaign around Christmas gifting, called “The perfect gift.” Their holiday ads, which engaged shoppers across the customer journey, reached an audience made of 80% new-to-brand customers.8
5. Squatty Potty maximizes holiday sales using Amazon Attribution
Measuring the success of your holiday marketing to inform campaign optimization is just as important as the campaign itself. Squatty Potty, a global manufacturer and seller of stools designed to improve toilet posture, did that with Amazon Attribution. Shipment challenges during the holiday season meant that they couldn’t guarantee arrival by December 25. Not wanting to miss out on holiday sales, Squatty Potty decided to take advantage of Amazon’s guaranteed shipping. On Squatty Potty’s website, beneath the typical call to action (CTA) for shoppers to add products to their cart, they added another CTA with “Get it faster” messaging that, when clicked, directed shoppers to the relevant detail page on Amazon. Thanks to Amazon Attribution, they were able to get insight into whether the second CTAs led to shopping activity and sales on Amazon.
6. SharkNinja uses Amazon Ads for holiday growth
SharkNinja, a houseware brand with products ranging from vacuums to coffee makers, was looking to implement a strategy to drive sales on Amazon during the holiday season. They turned to Marketplace Strategy, which crafted an updated holiday advertising strategy using Amazon Ads and detail pages that featured the full benefits of SharkNinja’s products.
Get started with holiday advertising
If you’re ready to start planning your holiday ads, you can explore the solutions available through Amazon Ads. Businesses who sell on Amazon can get started on holiday marketing with sponsored ads (or refer to our holiday guide for books advertising). If you’re interested in holiday advertising with any of our managed-service solutions, contact an Amazon Ads account executive.
1 National Retail Federation, 2021, US
2 Salesforce, WW, 2021
3 Adobe Digital Economy Index, US, 2021
4 Salesforce, WW, 2021
5 Advertiser-provided data, Italy, 2020
6 Amazon internal data, UK, 2020
7 Amazon internal data, US, 2020
8 Amazon internal data, 2020