Everyone knows that as soon as November comes, it’s time to put decorations up and start thinking about Christmas. Especially the best part of it all, the Christmas food!
Food is deeply ingrained in the culture of Christmas - but this year we are expected to see a 22% drop in Christmas grocery spending from last year due to the cost of living crisis in the UK. Therefore it is more important than ever to be at the forefront of your customer's minds.
52% of consumers find inspiration for products and gifts during the Christmas period on social media, so this time of year is a key trading period and many marketers plan their activations during this time. This can mean that influencers are approached by multiple campaign opportunities and increase their fee. But paying a tad more and partnering with influencers for a Christmas campaign can be crucial to reach your KPIs!
1. Select influencers who speak to your target audience and can create engaging and compelling content to drive awareness and consideration around your Christmas food range.
How do you do this? By analysing your target audience demographics and comparing them with the influencers you want to partner with, you will be able to understand which Creators have the highest compatibility with your consumers.
If you want to make the partnership more authentic, search for influencers who have used your products to make recipes in the past, who genuinely love your brand and would truly recommend it to their audiences.
2. Be strategic about the Creator verticals you choose to partner with. As a food brand, it comes naturally to partner with creators who predominantly showcase recipes on their channels.
However, by only partnering with one vertical, you might incur the risk of overlapping audiences and sharing the same key messaging with the same audience multiple times.
To make sure your Influencer budget is spent effectively, partner with creators who produce different types of content - but that would still speak to your target audience. Lifestyle and home Influencers often share recipes and food-related content.
3. Before you start shipping products to your Creators, make sure you analyse your current sales data and consider sending them a mix of your evergreen best-selling products alongside your holiday selection.
Not only will this incentivise your audience to buy the Christmas selection, but it will also give them greater insight into what you have to offer all year round. To further integrate the partnership into the Creator’s brand and make it more relevant to their audiences, you could also consider creating a bespoke bundle that includes a selection of the Creator’s favourite products.
4. Get creative! Give influencers creative freedom to produce content that speaks to their audiences and their needs. In the current financial climate, you may want to include Christmas recipes that are budget-friendly or easy to make during the busy period. By producing creative recipes, influencers can challenge their audiences to recreate their festive recipes for extra UGC that can be repurposed on your channels and drive additional traffic to your site!
5. Lastly, to make sure your Christmas influencer budget goes the extra mile, obtain paid usage rights from the creators who joined the campaign.
Creators are experts in making food look appealing and delicious in photos and videos, and acquiring usage rights is considerably cheaper than hiring a production company to shoot a Christmas campaign.
Therefore, by obtaining paid usage of their content you will have the opportunity to repurpose these assets on your paid media channels and boost traffic to your site in a more cost-effective and efficient way throughout the Christmas period.
Want some support in planning and managing your Christmas campaign directly from experts in the industry? Get in touch with Digital Voices.
