Holiday VIDEO MARKETING: 10 unique ideas FOR 2021
In 2021, analysts expect retail to have its biggest holiday season ever. After COVID-19 restrictions held back last year’s celebrations, this year consumers are ready to go big. So it’s time for your company to go big with its holiday marketing efforts. And to stand out from the competition, video content is the way to go.
But knowing where to start with holiday video marketing can be difficult. In this post, you’ll receive 10 unique ideas for holiday video content for 2021 – along with examples and simple tips to help you out.
10 holiday video ideas:
1. holiday promotions & deals
Black Friday. Cyber Monday. Boxing Day. ‘Tis the season – for sales and promotions. But with so much competition, how can you make sure your company’s promotions are top-of-mind for discount-hungry consumers?
Video is an attention-catching way to promote your holiday deals. Plus it works for a range of platforms. This includes landing pages, your website home page, email campaigns and across social media. You can also use them in paid digital advertising campaigns on Google and social media.
If you’re stuck for ideas on promotions to run this holiday season, check out these suggestions:
- Themed sales
- Gift discounts
- Free delivery
- Seasonal Giveaway
- Flash sales
- Loyalty programs
2. Product videos
Do you have specific products you want to showcase to buyers this holiday season? Product videos are a great way to make your products stand out from the crowd and ultimately get more sales during the holidays.
Add a seasonal atmosphere using festive music and visuals and/or by showing your product in use in a festive environment/scenario. Unsure which of your products to promote? Check out Google’s list of the most popular holiday products and categories for this season.
If you haven’t already, read our article on the benefits of product videos.
3. holiday gift guide video
Perhaps you have a whole range of products/services to offer consumers this holiday season. This is a busy time of year – and people may not have the time to manually go through all your offerings and decide what to buy.
Make it easier for your audience and show off your range of products by producing a video gift guide. Sort your products into groups – e.g. by budget, product type, recipient (mother, sister, husband, etc). This way, viewers can see your business as having a holiday gift for every type of person in their lives. Then decide whether the gift guide would work best as a series of short videos, or as one comprehensive video guide.
This type of video performs particularly well on YouTube, where many people go to find gift-giving inspiration.
4. emotional holiday storytelling
Up to this point, we’ve only discussed primarily promotional videos. But your holiday marketing material should not be too heavily sales-y. This approach will only turn people off your brand. Instead, consider adding an element of storytelling to your holiday content. Stories are engaging, memorable, and appeal strongly to our emotions.
Fortunately, video is an excellent medium for storytelling. You can combine visuals, music, sound effects, script-writing and more to create an engrossing experience for your audience.
John Lewis’s Christmas advertising campaigns are particularly known for using emotional storytelling. Want an example? Watch their 2021 Christmas advert:
5. seasonal social video clips
Of course, any of the video ideas on this list work as social media posts. But you might want to consider creating video content specifically suited to social media. Namely, short, shareable clips.
This content should not be too sales-y. Instead, the tone should be playful, entertaining and/or educational. Consider holiday-related topics that are relevant to what you do. For instance, as a video production company, we shared a video of our team editing an existing drone reel to appear more festive.
Alternatively, you can film a holiday-themed behind-the-scenes video. For example, if you’re decorating your office for Christmas, share the holiday spirit and post a short video story to Instagram!
It's somehow just one week until Christmas (?!) so to mark the occasion we took one of our delicious aerial drone shots from Italy and gave it seasonal makeover ❄️🎄 pic.twitter.com/ujYZNZD1vn
— Blueprint Film (@blueprintfilm) December 18, 2019
6. holiday-themed how-to videos
Another type of video that performs well on platforms like YouTube is how-to videos. And given how much there is to do during this time of year, holiday-themed how-to videos are particularly popular. Again, think of a topic that is relevant to your industry and your customers. Or simply demonstrate to viewers how they can use your products/services during the festive season.
Lowe’s (an American home improvement retailer) publishes various how-to videos to their YouTube channel, which has over 1 million subscribers. Last year, they released a video showing viewers how to hang outdoor Christmas lights. A great way to provide useful content to consumers whilst also showcasing a product.
7. 2021 year-in-review video
December isn’t just about celebrating Christmas and other religious holidays. It’s also about marking the end of another year. You’ll see this sentiment in countless end-of-year countdowns, lists and opinion pieces.
Companies can hop on this trend too through creating year-in-review videos. These are an excellent way to remind your audience of major news, changes, milestones and results from the past 12 months.
Check out the end-of-year video we created for Engine MHP + Mischief in 2020.
8. holiday event video
This idea shouldn’t need too much explaining. Is your company hosting an event during this holiday season? Whether it’s a simple office party, a special in-store event for customers or an end-of-year webinar discussion, it’s worth promoting it. Create an event video to accompany it.
You can create an event video for an event that will happen, that has already happened, or even film your event as it’s happening! Producing a video ahead of the event can help spread awareness, encourage attendance and build anticipation. Alternatively, produce a video for an event that’s just happened to give an insight into your company’s events and culture and make them excited for future events. Or you can share videos of your event whilst it’s taking place through live-streaming and behind-the-scenes event video clips.
9. holiday greetings & thank-you videos
Sometimes the simplest ideas are the most effective. Wish your audience a special day or a happy season with a short and earnest greetings video. This time of year is perfect for expressing gratitude and appreciation for those around you, so including a note of appreciation is an effective and humanising move. As well as existing customers, you might also want to thank your employees, clients, board members, supporters, and anyone else key to your organisation.
You could go for a generic ‘seasons greetings’ video, or create video greetings for any special events or religious holidays your audience might be celebrating:
- Thanksgiving (U.S.) (25th Nov)
- Hanukkah (28th Nov-6th Dec)
- Christmas Day
- 12 Days of Christmas (25th Dec–6th Jan)
- Kwanzaa (U.S.) (26th Dec-1st Jan)
- New Year’s Eve/Day
10. personal video messages
Take your seasonal display of gratitude that much further and make it more sincere by creating personal video messages to people important to your company. This act of recognition will show recipients you care and help establish a stronger connection between them and your company.
These video messages do not need to be super complicated. Sometimes, a cheery graphic or a short video of you speaking directly to the camera is the most effective option.
Complete list of video ideas:
- Holiday Promotions & Deals
- Product Videos
- Holiday Gift Guide Videos
- Heartfelt Holiday Storytelling
- Seasonal Social Videos
- Holiday-themed How-to Videos
- 2021 Year In Review Video
- Holiday event video
- Holiday greetings videos
- Personal Video Messages
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