Black Friday is an important event for customers as they look to swoop in and take advantage of Black Friday offers. But with so many campaigns happening for Black Friday, how can you create one that stands out?

8 Inspiring Black Friday Campaigns

8-inspiring-black-friday-campaigns

[[p]]Black Friday is an event that many marketers plan for well in advance. Originally launched as a one-day event after Thanksgiving in November, companies start to offer [[a href="https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/best-black-friday-deals-for-marketers" target="_blank"]]Black Friday deals[[/a]] weeks before the event.[[/p]]

[[p]]It has also become an important event for customers as they look to swoop in and take advantage of Black Friday offers. According to a YouGov report, 36% of Americans are planning to participate in Black Friday with 60% saying that gashion will be the most sought-after product category.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]But with so many campaigns happening for [[a href="https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/the-evolution-of-black-friday" target="_blank"]]Black Friday[[/a]], how can you create one that stands out?&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]In this blog, we look at 10 memorable Black Friday campaigns that we hope will give you inspiration and some ideas to create your own.&nbsp;&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]The teen comedy movie &lsquo;Mean Girls&rsquo; was a huge hit in the 2000s and Walmart used its popularity to launch a Black Friday campaign featuring the stars.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]This campaign was created to ignite millennial nostalgia and capitalize on the launch of the movie remake one week before the trailer was released. The ad featured iconic moments and dialog from the movie that cleverly featured Walmart&rsquo;s Black Friday deals.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]The superstore chain also promoted the fact that the deals were provided to Walmart+ members three hours in advance as a way to attract teenage members and boost memberships for the subscription service.[[/p]]

[[p]][[strong]]Result:[[/strong]] The campaign featured in the media and was well received by consumers, creating a buzz on social media.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]Well-known for its furniture and homewares, IKEA took a different tack in 2020 in its &lsquo;Buy Back Friday&rsquo; campaign.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]In its bid to become a circular company by 2030, IKEA used Black Friday to &lsquo;make a statement about sustainability and promote their credentials in that space&rsquo; according to its [[a href="https://shortyawards.com/2021-impact/buy-back-friday" target="_blank"]]submission[[/a]] for the Shorty Awards.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]To do this the company invited customers from 20 countries, from Black Friday onwards, to return their unwanted furniture to stores to get back up to 50% of its original value. The used furniture was then fixed up, displayed in-store and sold to others at reduced prices.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]Any unsold furniture would be donated to charity or recycled to avoid anything going to landfill.[[/p]]

Post on X to promote the #BuybackFriday campaign

[[p]][[strong]]Result: [[/strong]]More than 61,000 items were resold, 1,200+ mentions across news and blogs, 4,600+ mentions across social media, and 88.6K+ total engagements (likes, comments, shares).&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]In 2023, [[a href="https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/resources/case-studies/nike-always-ahead-of-the-curve" target="_blank"]]Nike[[/a]] launched an early Black Friday campaign for members to offer substantial discounts online.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]The promotion included a 25% discount using a code at checkout. It also encouraged people who were not members to sign up and use a tracked code to get an additional 25% off select styles.[[/p]]

[[p]]When launched site-wide, the digital campaign used AI to drive personalized recommendations, custom product bundles based on customer behavior, and exclusive discounts for loyalty members.[[/p]]

[[p]][[strong]]Result:[[/strong]] The campaign saw a 32% increase in sales compared to 2022.[[/p]]

[[p]]Samsung Electronics Australia launched an innovative Black Friday campaign in 2022 - &lsquo;The Reverse Auction&rsquo;.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]This campaign flipped Black Friday on its head by allowing customers to decide the price they wanted to pay for some of its most popular products. In the same way an auction works, customers bid for products like TVs and smartphones.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]With only one bid per person, people needed to be clever with how much they were willing to pay. A clever use of gamification, the campaign drove engagement using a &lsquo;Breaking News&rsquo; series of videos across social media. &nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]][[strong]]Result:[[/strong]] This campaign drove engagement with over 50,000 people registering for the auction, some of whom managed to to get discounts of around 50%.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]Outdoor clothing brand, Patagonia has been clear on its ethos and mission from the start - to inspire others to [[a href="https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/corporate-16-brands-doing-corporate-social-responsibility-successfully" target="_blank"]]social responsibility[[/a]] and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]In 2011, it used Black Friday to place an ad in The New York Times with the title &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t Buy this Jacket&rsquo;.&nbsp;[[/p]]

Patagonia Black Friday campaign in the New York Times

[[p]]The aim of the campaign was to call attention to the issue in a strong, clear way and prompt as many people as possible to read the full ad and take the Common Threads Initiative pledge: this is a scheme that asks people to buy only what they need, repair what breaks, and re-use or recycle everything else.[[/p]]

[[p]][[strong]]Result:[[/strong]] Although this approach might seem risky, European marketing director Jonathan Petty told [[a href="https://www.marketingweek.com/case-study-patagonias-dont-buy-this-jacket-campaign/" target="_blank"]]Marketing Week[[/a]] that it had helped establish a strong community of people who appreciate the brand&rsquo;s values and its products. &ldquo;Our customers expect very high quality and that&rsquo;s why they always come back to us. At the same time we help consumers change their behaviour for the better by encouraging them to make more considered purchases.&rdquo;[[/p]]

[[p]]Fitness brand Gymshark has created an active, engaged community on Instagram. So, it decided to use the social platform to promote its Black Friday campaign in 2018.[[/p]]

[[p]]Known for its over-exposed photography that creates an aspirational feel, Gymshark decided to take the opposite approach. Instead of bright images, it used blacked-out imagery to grab people&rsquo;s attention and emphasize the black in Black Friday.[[/p]]

Gymshark's Blackout Black Friday campaign

[[p]]The &lsquo;Black Out&rsquo; campaign featured models wearing Gymshark&rsquo;s Black Friday exclusive product and [[a href="https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/how-to-use-user-generated-content-ugc-with-4-great-examples" target="_blank"]]user-generated content[[/a]] from fans. A combination of Instagram ads were used such as stories, carousel and dynamic to run alongside the organic content.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]][[strong]]Result: [[/strong]]The campaign reached 16.4 million people according to [[a href="https://www.marketingweek.com/gymshark-instagram-black-friday-sales/" target="_blank"]]Marketing Week[[/a]] and achieved a 6.6:1 return on its ad spend.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]The beauty brand [[a href="https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/resources/case-studies/glossier-a-thoroughly-modern-beauty-brand" target="_blank"]]Glossier[[/a]] uses Black Friday to promote its only sale on an annual basis that usually finishes up on Cyber Monday.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]This creates a sense of exclusivity and urgency that attracts and engages fans of the product. Typically the company offers 25% off products across the site and 35% off gift sets.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]To tie in with the event, Glossier designs and promotes new, limited-edition sets that are only available during the sale.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]][[strong]]Result:[[/strong]] According to [[a href="https://secondmeasure.com/datapoints/glossier-sales-black-friday-cyber-monday/" target="_blank"]]Bloomberg data[[/a]], sales from Glossier&rsquo;s Black Friday event keep growing. Sales for the week including Black Friday were 10% higher in 2020 compared to the same week in 2019.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]]The ecommerce giant is the master of Black Friday. With so many products available on its marketplace, it has the ability to offer a deal for anyone.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]][[a href="https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/amazon-advertising-for-businesses-of-all-sizes" target="_blank"]]Amazon[[/a]] uses countdowns to promote its week of Black Friday promotions every year. Each day it features a new deal to keep people coming back to the site for the daily reveal.[[/p]]

[[p]]Amazon also takes an [[a href="https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/what-is-omnichannel-marketing" target="_blank"]]omnichannel approach[[/a]] by targeting consumers on a number of channels. It uses TV ads to attract and inform people about it Black Friday Deals like this example featuring a yeti from 2023.&nbsp;[[/p]]

[[p]][[strong]]Result:[[/strong]] Customers purchased more than 1 billion items on Amazon over the Black Friday season in 2023 with more than 500 million being from independent sellers, according to DigitalCommerce 360.&nbsp;[[/p]]

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8 Inspiring Black Friday Campaigns

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