As we count down to the biggest global shopping event of the year, Gen Z’s favourite brands are launching their Black Friday campaigns. We love to see how they tackle the challenge of catching the attention of an audience bombarded with more marketing, advertising and offers than ever. Here’s a selection of the campaigns we’ve been most excited by so far this year. We’ll be updating this list as we spot more inspiring ideas in the week ahead, so keep checking back!
Deciem
Deciem is one of several brands taking Black Friday as an opportunity to protest against the consumerism it promotes, tapping into the ethical shopping trend and Gen Z’s focus on sustainability. The beauty brand shut down their website and stores on Black Friday, but that doesn’t mean they’re above a sale. Instead, they offer 23% off everything throughout the rest of November, encouraging shoppers to take their time researching products and making an informed decision. They call this “slow shopping.”
Foot Locker
They may not call it a Black Friday campaign, but Foot Locker have smartly chosen the biggest shopping week of the year for their 2019 Week of Greatness. This week, they’re launching new limited edition product drops daily on their social media. The campaign is being promoted with a big budget video ad, high concept Instagram posts, and collaborations with famous athletes and influencers. Rather than a copycat campaign, Foot Locker have created one that will resonate with their “sneakerhead” audience.
Missguided
Giveaways have played a key role in viral growth for fast fashion ecommerce stores, and they were central to Missguided’s Black Friday social media campaign. On Black Friday itself, they gave away prizes every 15 minutes on Twitter, jumping on the popular hashtag #MakeMyFriday. Meanwhile on site, it was deals upon deals as customers were offered a 20% Black Friday discount that could even be used on items already in the sale.
Amazon
You can’t talk about Black Friday without mentioning Amazon, for whom last year’s Cyber Monday marked a record shopping day (only beaten by Prime Day 2019). They take Cyber Week seriously, basically redesigning the site for the week with a focus on Groupon-style, limited edition “lightning deals.” They also ensure their own products, such as the Echo, Kindle and Fire, are prominent across the site with bargain prices, encouraging customers to slip them into their baskets alongside the Christmas list must-haves.
Chubbies
American D2C men’s beachwear brand Chubbies put a totally Chubbies spin on Cyber Week with their cheekily-named Thighber Week. This is a week filled with discounts, free gifts, holiday-themed content and more. For a brand with a strong social media presence, turning Cyber Week into an online event is a great way to drive engagement and grow awareness during a key sales period. They also used the event to promote their holiday range, showing that a brand known for beach shorts can remain relevant year-round.
For more Black Friday inspiration, check out our Cyber Week Hubs, for the UK and US markets.
