
Articles | November 23, 2016 | 4 min read
5 Black Friday Campaigns To Be Inspired By – Thanksgiving 2016
The holiday season has begun and with it comes the promise of laughter, love, celebration and of course, drunkenness, shopping, and great deals, An estimated 44% of American consumers say they’ll shop in stores or online the day after Thanksgiving. For marketers, the holiday season means the promise of enhanced sales, great numbers and a lot of work to put together the right campaigns online and offline to keep holiday shoppers happy.
In 2016, Physical visits to retail stores are predicted to decline, with only 27% of the population planning to go to a store. Now the focus on building great online marketing campaigns and targeting the right audience is more than ever. We took at look at Black Friday campaigns around the interwebz and in emails to find trends and ideas that you can add to your marketing strategy.
Amazon: Kids Are People Too!
Amazon’s Black Friday campaigns reach you the moment you land on their website. Carousel banner ads display the various offers they have put together for the sale. This particular banner, which offers their flagship Kindle product in a kids edition targets adults, but encourages them to remember a very important part of their lives: kids. Although the chances of kids seeing this ad are low, the ad still works because of how it caters to a segment that is often missed out on other ecommerce home pages.
CNET: Doing The Dirty Work For You
As any online publisher should on Black Friday, CNET’s black friday campaigns involve doing all the research you wanted to do but never got around to doing. Their article on ‘The 41 Best Black Friday Tech Deals’ helps you understand the most value you can get from tech products around the interwebz. The best part? You can add items on their list to your holiday shopping list with their handy widget, and come back to buy them later.
Kohl’s: Any Colour You Like
The Kohl’s black friday campaign stands out primarily because of how many options they give you the minute you land on their website. I managed to count 22 Call-To-Action buttons/areas in this one banner alone. Starting from the twelve primary categories (women, men, juniors etc) to the ‘Shop Now’ label, to price-based shopping ($10 and under, $15 and under etc) and the guide to finding an offline store and even previewing their ad. Whatever you wanted, they’ve got it – and you sure don’t want to leave their website without checking out every one of their offers.
Brooklinen: Confessions of An Awesome Bed Linen Company
Brooklinen owns their black friday campaign email in two ways. One, they offered you their deal the first thing as you got to work on Monday morning, helping you look forward to the holiday week ahead. Two, they mention that they usually never put their stuff on sale, meaning you’re about to experience a once in a lifetime opportunity juuust because of the awesomeness that is black friday. Apart from the clever proposition – the email also uses a good design layout and call-to-action buttons.
Sephora: Using Social Right
Not anymore?
In 2016, Physical visits to retail stores are predicted to decline, with only 27% of the population planning to go to a store. Now the focus on building great online marketing campaigns and targeting the right audience is more than ever. We took at look at Black Friday campaigns around the interwebz and in emails to find trends and ideas that you can add to your marketing strategy.
Amazon: Kids Are People Too!

Amazon’s Black Friday campaigns reach you the moment you land on their website. Carousel banner ads display the various offers they have put together for the sale. This particular banner, which offers their flagship Kindle product in a kids edition targets adults, but encourages them to remember a very important part of their lives: kids. Although the chances of kids seeing this ad are low, the ad still works because of how it caters to a segment that is often missed out on other ecommerce home pages.
CNET: Doing The Dirty Work For You

As any online publisher should on Black Friday, CNET’s black friday campaigns involve doing all the research you wanted to do but never got around to doing. Their article on ‘The 41 Best Black Friday Tech Deals’ helps you understand the most value you can get from tech products around the interwebz. The best part? You can add items on their list to your holiday shopping list with their handy widget, and come back to buy them later.
Kohl’s: Any Colour You Like

The Kohl’s black friday campaign stands out primarily because of how many options they give you the minute you land on their website. I managed to count 22 Call-To-Action buttons/areas in this one banner alone. Starting from the twelve primary categories (women, men, juniors etc) to the ‘Shop Now’ label, to price-based shopping ($10 and under, $15 and under etc) and the guide to finding an offline store and even previewing their ad. Whatever you wanted, they’ve got it – and you sure don’t want to leave their website without checking out every one of their offers.
Brooklinen: Confessions of An Awesome Bed Linen Company

Brooklinen owns their black friday campaign email in two ways. One, they offered you their deal the first thing as you got to work on Monday morning, helping you look forward to the holiday week ahead. Two, they mention that they usually never put their stuff on sale, meaning you’re about to experience a once in a lifetime opportunity juuust because of the awesomeness that is black friday. Apart from the clever proposition – the email also uses a good design layout and call-to-action buttons.
Sephora: Using Social Right
Image: Sephora/Campaign Monitor
Sephora has been on the radar for a while now for their awesomely executed omni-channel marketing strategies. With their Black Friday campaigns, they took it one notch higher on the most ‘in’ social media channel this year: Snapchat. The social media app millenials love – which grew its daily active users by over 40 billion since December 2015. By promoting their black friday as sneak peek’s for followers on social media, Sephora builds up excitement for their campaign and also creates a buzz on their social feeds. Two birds with one stone, anyone?