Start to finish: The first reference to Christmas was on July 1 by Hallmark. The final reference was on Jan. 30 by Barnes & Noble.
The distribution curve: The biggest day for Christmas emails was Thursday, Dec. 18, followed by Sunday, Dec. 21. Retailers sent the majority of their Christmas-themed emails after Dec. 4.
Most interesting email: The most interesting email of the holiday season was a Nov. 13 email from Newegg that asked each subscriber for their individual preferences for a single campaign, their Black Friday campaign. Newegg asks subscribers what they’ll be looking for on Black Friday, telling them to pick their own deal.
The landing page form allows you to select from eight different product groups and seven different prices ranges—that’s up to 56 different combinations! They also ask—presumptuously, I’d say—how many products you plan on buying from them on Black Friday. Needless to say, your typical campaign probably wouldn’t be worth all this effort, but during the holiday season on days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, this tactic could really pay off.
The great shame of this campaign is that they never carried through—I never got an email containing deals based on my selections. Even so, the idea of doing a campaign like this is truly praise-worthy. Hopefully another retailer will pick up this idea and execute it to perfection later this year.
Multichannel tactics: Sony dedicated their first email mentioning Christmas to promoting their holiday catalog, using the subject line “Sign up for Sony's Holiday 2008 catalog.” With postal and printings costs up, Sony is wisely using their email program to support their direct mail efforts.
Cool tool: My favorite tool of the holiday season was Sam’s Club’s Gifter Stress Lifter, which they promoted in a Nov. 25 email with the subject line “Introducing the Sam's Club Gifter Stress Lifter.” First of all, Sam’s Club gets bonus points for not calling their gift finder and “gift finder.” Instead of a functional name, they go for the emotional connection. Essentially it’s a gift recipient profiler. You answer six questions about the person and it serves up recommendations. But instead of clicking the usual radio buttons next to text answers, you click up to three of nine images of activities/things to answer questions like “If they had to eat one meal for the rest of their life, what would it be?” and “What’s most likely to motivate them?” This makes answering the questions quicker and more intuitive and Sam’s Club gets around some word choice and language barrier issues. It’s very smartly done, and at the end of it you’re given a selection of recommended gifts for the person and—because they asked for the name of the gift recipient—the call-to-action under each item is “Buy for Kate” or whoever the recipient is. The personalized call-to-action is really unique.
Email 2.0 angle: ShopNBC’s Jingle Perils was the longest video series I’ve seen from a major retailer. The gist of the series is that going to the mall (really just trying to leave your house) is risky and that you’re better off shopping online at shopnbc.com. I’m not sure that you need 9+ videos to make that point. While many of the videos were entertaining, clearly featuring the video content so prominently in their emails didn’t drive sales they way ShopNBC wanted as over time “Jingle Perils” was dropped from the subject line, more promotional messaging was played up, and the “Watch Now” call-to-action sunk to the bottom, as in this Dec. 12 email:
Standout call-to-action: In a Dec. 11 email, SmartBargains used an animated call-to-action button. Simple and very clever, it draws the eye right to where you want subscribers to click.
Here’s the animated portion of this email:
Standout subject lines:
Frederick’s of Hollywood, 11/7 — Naughty or nice? Either way, enjoy free shipping.
ShopNBC, 12/14 — Rudolph's nose or GPS? Tech toys + free shipping
Bloomingdale’s, 11/5 — Oh What Fun: Begin Your Holiday Season With Bloomingdale's
Saks Fifth Avenue, 11/8 — What to Wear to Every Holiday Affair
Walgreens, 11/26 — Merry Print-mas: 15-Cent Prints + 7 Hour Sale
Crate & Barrel, 11/10 — Razzle dazzle holiday dinnerware. Plus Free Shipping.
Bed Bath & Beyond, 11/24 — FREE shipping on gifts for geeks! (We know them. We are them.)
Ann Taylor, 12/26 — Find the Best Gifts You Didn't Get. The Never-Better Sale: up to 60% OFF
Oriental Trading, 12/8 — Make it to the tree on time with 99¢ delivery - no minimum
Neiman Marcus, 12/28 — The art of the thank you note + Free online shipping
HSN, 11/10 — The Most-Wanted Holiday Gifts (Unwrap Now!)
Crutchfield, 11/24 — 100s of holiday specials, plus the info you need to shop smart
Orvis, 11/17 — Our best-selling party pants and 11 more ideas for the holidays. Plus, FREE shipping.
Subject lines that stand out for the wrong reasons:
Chadwick’s, 12/13 — Did you get your Christmas bonus?
The email seems to be suggesting that the deep discounts featured in the email are your Christmas bonus. I think that will be cold comfort to those subscribers who didn’t get Christmas bonuses this year. This subject line probably just reminded folks that they have less money to spend this year, rather than making them appreciate the discount. Not where you want shoppers’ minds to be.
Costco, 12/9 — Who's Your Santa? Find a Great Gift in our Top 50 Bestsellers!
Are they channeling “Who’s your Daddy?” Do they mean that you’re your own Santa? Is it a reference to secret Santas? I’m very confused as to how to interpret this subject line.
Read previous Christmas Season Finales: 2007, 2006
Explore Christmas tag.
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