The Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping weekend has come to a close, leaving businesses revelling in the fruits of their labour. So how did online activity stack up this year, and which brands produced the most effective campaigns?

A particular focus this year went towards email marketing, with brands prioritising volume, and using this method in full force to target customers. Global retailers such as Amazon saw this tactic to be effective, helping the brand accrue increased sales for its tech devices. Other brands followed suit in terms of email volume, with analysts at eDataSource reporting that more than 35,000 emails surrounding Black Friday were sent this year by retailers during the 10-day run up to the event. This accounted for a staggering 50% increase from last year, with a 7% read-rate increase too, resulting in 20% of emails read. And it’s clear that the strategy paid off- Adobe Digital Insights revealed email to be the third-highest e-commerce driver on Black Friday, behind search ads and direct traffic. In total, 17.8% of online sales were found to result from promotional emails. And top email campaigns likely accounted for the surge in mobile traffic and revenue generated during this time- Adobe reported that mobile devices drove 55% of retail site visits, and in this only 10% came from tablets. In terms of total revenue, the study also found that mobile accounted for 36%, with 90 million visiting retails sites just on that one day.

Of the brands participating in Black Friday, one of our favourite campaigns came from outdoor lifestyle retailer REI. Last year, the company made waves for its decision not to take part in the annual event, instead creating a campaign entitled #OptOutside. This saw the brand halt all retail activity including online sales, and allowed its employees to take the day off to enjoy outdoor activities instead. The campaign itself ran on social media, where the company encouraged supporters, discussed the company’s initiatives, and focused on raising awareness about the importance of leading a healthy and active lifestyle. A microsite was also created in partnership with Venables Bell & Partners, Edelman and Spark, exclusively to support the campaign’s goals, and also featured a social media “counter”, displaying how many people had engaged with the project that day. This year, REI created a range of videos showing people enjoying outdoor pursuits, with one cleverly depicting the sounds of the Black Friday shopping raucous alongside scenes of tents pitched in a tranquil and scenic location. The videos were also used to encourage followers to share their plans with others on social media, using the hashtag #OptOutside and slogan, “Will you go out with me?” In addition, the brand launched an outdoor activity finder on their site, enabling “OptOutsiders” to discover nearby outdoor activities such as trails and hikes.

Those also taking the occasion seriously this year included Apple, who participated in Black Friday for the first time. Its teaser campaign, “Friday can’t come soon enough”, saw the company send an email blast to its audience urging them to “Save the date” for Black Friday, and those who purchased Apple products on the day received free shipping and gift cards. Clearly, the brand was intent on no longer missing out on a sales boost- perhaps inspired by its recent fall in revenue. As ever, the day was an important one for large retailers such as Argos, who set up their own “Black Friday War room” for the second time- this was used by the company’s marketing team to monitor social media and online activity, create content, and view the products most searched for by customers. Overall, there was also a noticeable increase in the length of many brand campaigns surrounding Black Friday, with online retailers such as ASOS and Amazon running these up to 2 weeks before the event, with promotional emails and push notifications. With companies keen to capitalise on the season’s shopping frenzy, it will be interesting to see how retail marketing campaigns continue to arise up to and beyond the Christmas period.

Did you contribute to the Black Friday online shopping frenzy? And which brand marketing campaigns did you find to be most effective? We’d love to hear your thoughts, so please tweet to us @PracticeDigital and share your comments on our Facebook page.