[Column] Karan Singh: Maximise your engagement and battle to the top this Black Friday

The Black Friday phenomenon is set to continue growing in 2021 with average budgets for consumers in the Netherlands expected to rise by 8% from last year according to research from Simon-Kuch & Partners.

After Pay’s market analysis also predicts that 45% of consumers in Northern Europe will shop during peak sales this winter, up by 8%. And with Black Friday conversion rates peaking at 56%, brands should rightfully prepare for a significant increase in sales.

For brands to capitalise on this huge increase in both consumer base and spend, successful advertising campaigns will be key. However, brands shouldn’t resort to increased ad spending as their only strategy – effective ads that truly capture the attention of consumers is vital to standing out against competitors.

Find creative solutions

With so many global competitors, Black Friday isn’t a big enough sell on its own. When advertising products, brands often lack a creative touch, opting to plainly focus on the discount offered. But discounts are the very point of Black Friday and brands should be thinking about meeting the varying consumer interests with different sale products. It should be entirely dependent on what different consumers are interested in seeing.

It’s time for brands to become more dynamic by serving different creatives dependent on group orientation and location. There is every reason to differentiate a brand’s target audience in Amsterdam and Utrecht, for instance, tailoring the creative in each region. This will invariably lead to better engagement and will more likely resonate with the consumers in each area.

Stand up and stand out

Creativity is more than just design and is directly tied to a brand’s unique selling point. Everybody loves a discount, but when there are hundreds of brands focused on price messaging for similar products – all while competing in the same publications – it can become impossible to cut through the noise.

It’s beneficial for brands to be highly selective, choosing media outlets that fit directly with a brand’s long-term image. Likewise, it’s integral that brands use datasets that work for the business, conjuring innovative ways to use that data effectively. For example, spending money behind walled gardens, where competitors are also spending their money on the same datasets, means they will appear in the exact same places.

With this in mind, curated marketplaces offer a more direct way to build relationships with publishers, something which holds particular importance as we approach a world without third-party cookies. These marketplaces enable buyers to curate all publisher deals into a single deal ID that can be pushed into a DSP for trading. Curated marketplaces also provide complete control over the supply, reducing costs by streamlining the supply sources, workflows, and operations. Using these marketplaces, brands can connect with audiences utilising data already consented for use within a trusted publication.

Executing diversified media plans is seamless using a curated marketplace, enabling advertisers to group multiple niche media properties into one deal ID. Advertisers can also apply rules around both hard and societal metrics to reach the diverse audiences they desire.

However, brands should also explore different types of consumer engagement using contextual providers. Using contextual, brands can reach engaged consumers in suited environments at relevant times without the need to worry about consent or GDPR. With the masses of active online consumers this Black Friday, contextual could prove to be one of the most powerful ways to reach consumers as they read articles with relevant product offerings.

Think beyond Black Friday

Black Friday is one day of the year, but delivering effective ad campaigns is a year-long endeavour. Brands should be viewing Black Friday in the same way as the rest of their advertising activity, integrating it with a much broader, effective strategy.

Karan Singh is a Senior Commercial Director at Xandr

 

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