Shoppers spent $10.8 Billion online this Black Friday, and advertisers bet big, spending more than ever to compete for consumers. Retail media spending – including sponsored product spending – nearly doubled year over year, spending on social media rose by 35%, and paid search budgets quadrupled.
At the heart of all this advertising is a sea of storytelling, but only some of it truly breaks through. Cutting through the noise is challenging. To break out, brands face a choice between strategies rooted in persistence, surprise, or authenticity.
At Practical Effects, we believe that communicating with authenticity about core values is the right approach. Authentic storytelling helps consumers identify with brands, and this authenticity builds trust and economic stickiness. Research from Sprout Social tells us rather unsurprisingly that “today’s consumers want brands to do more than jump on trends and social issues – they want to trust and truly connect with a brand,” and 66% of people link feeling connected to a brand with this feeling of trust.
Messages aligned with brand identity stand out in a crowded field of competing offers, making authenticity in storytelling an essential but elusive benchmark for marketing success.
Billed as The Original Wooden Duck Company, DCUK is based in the United Kingdom. From first exposure to the brand name, shoppers know the brand is unconventional. DCUK sells whimsical ornamental ducks wearing colorful wellies (rain boots) and sun hats, and in the runup to Black Friday the brand embraced humor with messaging as whimsical as their ducks.
Adorable carved wooden ducks are not an essential purchase on Black Friday, but perhaps they’re the only purchase necessary on Quack Friday. Claiming the shopping holiday for the flock allowed DCUK to break through with humor and brand authenticity.
Patagonia is known for its sustainable practices and anti-consumerism. Rather than run a campaign encouraging consumers to spend on Black Friday, the company leaned into their core values of environmentalism and giving back.
Taking a moment to remind Patagonia customers what the brand stands for gives evergreen messaging a chance to break through. “The frenzy of Black Friday never sits well with us,” they tell their shoppers. Instead, they ask shoppers to buy what they need, when they need it, and to support their mission of giving profits back to the earth.
By prioritizing authentic storytelling, DCUK and Patagonia created memorable holiday shopping campaigns that aligned with their values and resonated with their respective audiences. Though similar in strategic direction, these two campaigns could not be more different in execution. It is because authenticity means something different for each brand, and for each audience, that it is such an essential but elusive goal.
At Practical Effects, storytelling is at the heart of our strategy. To learn more about how we help brands set themselves apart in a crowded marketplace, email us at hello@practical.nyc.
