People are ready to celebrate but also take a moment to relax, reflect, and reset.
By Hanifa Sekandi
It’s time to get cozy again. Warm blankets, knit sweaters, flannel pyjamas, and a beverage to complement the mood. Luckily, there are boundless occasions to get people into the winter cheer spirit, from Thanksgiving and Christmas to Valentine’s Day and all the other memorable holidays in between.
This time of requires a dynamic marketing strategy. It also demands creativity and stamina due to the continuous festivities. Christmas is just on the heels of Thanksgiving, and before you know it, it’s time to paint that town red and pink for a month dedicated to love. One thing is certain: people desire to be inspired. A brand that hits this mark will see the benefits not just during the winter months but as we segue into the spring and summer months.
The main goal for every beverage brand should be to build a community, an ethos that magnifies togetherness. What does this really mean? It means that a brand aims to meet desires; nothing less and nothing more. Stay in your domain and refrain from interjecting personal conjectures into your marketing campaigns.
It is not about what you think or what you believe, but rather about what truly exists—the authentic qualities, unique experiences, and genuine moments that your beverage brings to the table. This “what IS” refers to the essence of your product, whether it is the comforting warmth of a seasonal whiskey or brew, the nostalgia evoked by a festive mulled wine, or the sense of togetherness fostered by sharing a winter-themed cocktail. These real and tangible attributes are what your audience will connect to, inspiring them to seek out your beverage.
There is no better time to redeem yourself than the array of festivities that happen during the winter months. People are mostly in a festive and forgiving mood. Summer campaigns often struggle to make a significant impact, largely because there are fewer major holidays to serve as focal points for promotional activity. With limited occasions such as the likes of 4th of July or Labor Day, marketers have fewer opportunities to create themed promotions that resonate with audiences. As a result, these campaigns can sometimes lack the festive energy found in winter, making it more challenging to engage consumers and boost sales.
Marketing strategies during this time require innovative thinking and strategic planning. Luckily, in winter, brands get a break as marketing becomes easier for marketers.
Holiday Marketing – The Hero
Seasoned brands understand this quite well. You’ll see them put more resources into winter marketing campaigns, with an emphasis on cheer and festivity. Starbucks’ recent Bearista Cup is an example of what a marketing campaign can do for a brand that may have lost favor or experienced a lull. Let’s be honest, the once gold-star beverage chain is no longer in its golden era. There are a multitude of reasons for this. As you can see, the Bearista Cup frenzy has breathed new life back into this brand. A campaign that had patrons line up before store opening hours just to purchase a winter-exclusive product.
What is your winter exclusive product or beverage? What will have your customers lining up, wanting to get just a little bit of your company’s winter cheer? Is it winter magic or simply great marketing minds understanding the behaviour of buyers during this season? McDonald’s has another great winter campaign, the Grinch-themed meals. This may represent one of several winter campaign launches; nonetheless, it constitutes a strong initial effort. What is The Grinch synonymous with? Christmas. The grumpy, green-furred hero of the holiday season, who people both love and hate, but seems to put a touch of cheer in everyone.
What is your marketing hero? You can either reference pop culture or other traditional themes that symbolize the season. Doing so allows you to draw upon familiarity and emotion. It is easy to sell something people already love. A moment, a film, a core event, anything that represents what they seek when entertaining during the winter months. As you know, home decor is the pinnacle of winter moments. The moment begins at home, influencing buying decisions as shoppers browse the aisles at their local store. How can you add to the moment?
All About Moments
Help your audience capture moments. Every marketer is scouring the internet looking for what’s trendy. Why don’t you create the trend? By now, your brand should have in-house content creators, individuals who create content exclusively for your brand. For example, Advent calendars are quite popular. Have you considered doing an Advent daily reveal with mini versions of your beverage to your audience? A nice touch would be to add a familiar Christmas theme song that plays through the campaign. The 12 Days of Christmas is an excellent song. It is classic, familiar, and much-loved. Do you have an extensive product line of beverages? Better yet, what’s your holiday exclusive beverage?
Ideally, conceptualize your winter campaigns in the summer. Right after Thanksgiving, you should debut your winter launches. Of course, you can get a head start in mid-November. Understandability influencers make influencing easy, so brands think they can just wing it and do something ad hoc. Anyone in influencer marketing will tell you that they also must plan accordingly for each season. As a brand with multiple parts to move, you need to ensure the strategy execution phase runs seamlessly. The marketing world has changed significantly. Viral moments and trends have brands scrambling at times. Did you know that many viral or trendy marketing moments didn’t just happen, they were meticulously planned, sometimes for days or other times over weeks and months?
The most essential elements are execution and consistency. Beverages do not necessarily grab the viewers’ attention immediately. But the more they see it, with a great visual story behind it, they will not forget about it.
Mini Commercial Cheer
Spend a little. Yes, you. Your commercial may not make it to the big screen or a Super Bowl slot, but you have other vertical options to place it in. Social media is a mini commercial friend, let’s call it the mini-commercial – it’s small but mighty. If you don’t have the paid version of YouTube or Amazon Prime, for example, you may have noticed not just ads but mini commercials.
This could be your beverage brand showing its beverage cheer all winter. The beauty of a mini-commercial campaign is that it can be a series of videos that tell a story. It is also a fantastic way to spend your budget. If your videos are timeless and perform well, you can reuse them the following year in addition to new mini commercials, as many legacy brands often use for traditional advertising.
When creating your mini-commercial, avoid making it look like an outright advertisement. Think about your favorite holiday ads or ads in general that are memorable. Coca-Cola has great classic holiday ads to reference that tell a story with product placement. The idea is that your product is there, but it is just part of life, part of the scene you are capturing. It is subliminal marketing at its finest. After seeing your campaign, people should feel compelled to look up your brand and product. From here, they are more likely to purchase your product when they see it, recommend it, and, in turn, become loyal customers.
Storytelling Is Timeless
As you transition into January, this will help you stay relevant. Perhaps parody commercials that highlight New Year’s resolutions, where people reach for your non-alcoholic or low-sugar RTD beverage after imbibing on other beverages from your product line all December. A time to give that pumpkin-spiced calorie-packed ale a rest! Be creative, look at your beverage from a storytelling perspective. Just two or three useful product images aren’t enough; consider how far your brand can go with visual storytelling.
A touch of beverage cheer may open doors to a spring campaign that is in full bloom, allowing you to dive into your marketing. Your audience will begin to anticipate what is next. And you show that you care about the product that you have invested a significant amount of time to tell a story worth listening to. You value them and their decision to join you on a beverage journey, with cheers to go around!
