The Christmas Season is once again upon us and advertisers are in full swing for your attention and your dollar. To the left, Santa is pushing new cars, to the right a flock of elves are telling you which brand of clothing must absolutely positively be under the tree.
Christmas-themed ads are everywhere we go.. some strictly promoting their product or service, a few attempting to balance a holiday greeting while spreading brand awareness. This is all fine, so long as it’s genuine. Have a holiday-themed sale and promote the heck out of it – no problem. Spread your company’s well wishes to everyone and raise your brand awareness – also completely fine. However, whatever you do, invest in it completely and ask yourself – is this a message you’d feel okay with telling your grandma?
During American Thanksgiving, I saw a tweet that absolutely floored me: A generic “Happy Thanksgiving”, followed by a shortened link. That was it. No description of where the link went, no effort put in to use up the remaining 100 or so characters of their tweet. This company wouldn’t be so insincere, would they? My curiosity got the better of me.. I had to click on the link. Please, surprise me. Please send me to a custom holiday card or greeting to put a smile on my face and let me go about my way. Please, don’t be The Twit That Tweeted..
Sigh. Twits indeed. The link had sent me to a page listing some of their products. Someone had taken all of 8 seconds to add an extra line of red text under the price on a few items to show that they were on sale. Nothing more.
I closed the page, more than a little disappointed with the whole experience. This was like giving someone an unsigned Christmas card, still outside of the envelope. “Hey. I thought about trying.. but……. Here.”
Had they put even the slightest bit of effort into their message, things would have been a whole lot better. Imagine this: “Happy thanksgiving! For the next 48 hours we’re holding a special sale on widgets and gizmos. Click *here* to see. Enjoy your weekend!” Hey. Awesome. You’ve shared a greeting, told me of your sale and wished me on my way. I can handle that. Then, clicking on the link leads to a page where you’ve spent, oh, an hour creating a custom design for your themed sale, again making me feel more welcome and like you perhaps give half a damn about the experience your customers have with you. Nice. Instead you give me someone selling designer watches from their coat pocket. No thanks.
I suppose we’re lucky in that we’re not selling a product or special service over the holidays. We don’t have to stand on the corner, yelling louder than the next guy why our doodads are better. We’ve been working on Christmas materials for our clients since October (which made for some interesting office playlists), but we don’t have to take part in the whole seasonal rush. As such, please take it with all of our sincerity, from everyone at the Ambition Team and all of our extended families… Merry Christmas.. And don’t miss the SALE SALE SALE on thingamabobs over on aisle three! (Joking!)
Be excellent to each other.
– Jason
Founder at Ambition
