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Reusing Halloween Ideas For a Christmas Campaign

November 30, 2021

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The COVID-19 pandemic has not only impacted personal lives and finances but also disrupted the way marketers around the world create and adjust their marketing campaigns. While spending on ads and digital marketing, content might not seem like a good idea during a global healthcare crisis. The truth is that brands that invest time and money in creating good marketing strategies in 2021 will also probably enjoy better results in 2022. As the pandemic severed some ties between brands and customers, it also prompted companies around the world to create new, meaningful relationships with their audience, on a digital level. 

Digital marketing campaigns are now more important than ever, and that means brands should probably invest in creating better campaigns. However, the pandemic left many companies in the US and abroad fighting to protect their profits, and marketers are now looking for clever ways to reduce their budgets while maintaining good results. One of the ways of doing that might be by reusing Halloween ideas and ads for a better Christmas campaign. Although the two holidays couldn’t be more different, it’s good to know they do share similarities at a digital level and might actually be very similar from a marketing perspective. 

Understanding the problem

When it comes to problem-solving, understanding the issue is always the first step necessary in finding the right solution. That is why marketers may need to go back to basics first and talk about budgets and expectations. They may soon discover that there is no real need to reuse Halloween content in a Christmas campaign. As it happens, US ad spending is expected to increase by 23% this year to $278 billion and maintain a 12% rate of growth in 2022. American companies seem to have returned to spending on ads and other marketing strategies in hope of maximizing profits, and that is definitely good news for marketers who feared budget cuts. 

According to the new forecast above, most industries are now returning to pre-COVID-19 marketing investment levels. That is why reusing Halloween ideas for a Christmas campaign is only recommended if truly needed. 

From trick-or-treat to ho-ho-ho

Halloween promotion ideas are often very original, and considering the fact that Americans are traditionally the big spenders at Halloween, there’s no good reason to give up on the ads that already proved successful during the autumn holiday and not use them for Christmas too. While traditional values like family life, love, and solidarity are generally considered to be characteristic of Christmas, Halloween values like originality and finding joy in different experiences are also important. The latter may be seen as an addition to the first, especially while running a digital marketing campaign.

In a nutshell, marketers that run a Halloween campaign that rewarded user-generated content (UGC) might do the same for Christmas by simply changing the theme of the content and the award. Online events are also another way of reusing Halloween ideas for a Christmas campaign by simply changing the theme, while Halloween-themed promotional gifts can also be quickly turned into Christmas presents.

Preserving core values

Although re-marketing can be used for UGC campaigns, online events, promotional gifts, and even pay-per-click (PPC) ads, marketers should also consider preserving their brands’ core values in their Halloween and Christmas campaigns. Netflix managed to do just that while sharing a post on LinkedIn. While the photo illustrated a signboard with the Netflix logo and the words “Don’t give up on your dreams. We started with DVDs,” the LinkedIn caption read “This is about as motivational as we’re gonna get on here”.

Beyond Halloween and Christmas, Netflix managed to capture people’s attention because its message is authentic and remains true to the brand’s core values. Even more, it manages to work well on both the signboard and on social media.

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted most companies around the world to turn to digital tools and strategies in order to survive the crisis, evolve, and increase their profits. However, one important thing marketers should remember when creating their holiday marketing plan is that not all strategies have to be completely new when going digital. People respect authenticity above all else. Reusing Halloween ideas for a Christmas campaign might prove to be a very good decision, especially if the budget is problematic, and the prior campaign was successful and true to the brand’s values.