Company Snapshot

• With $55.84 billion, Facebook reported an increase of around 37% in its revenue by the end of 2018 as compared to 2017.
• The company's ad revenue increased by 38% in 2018 as compared to 2017 to $55.01 billion.
• According to a 2017 Fortune article, Facebook had reported that 98% of its quarterly revenue came from advertising, up from 97% a year earlier and 84% in 2012.
• The average number of its daily active users (DAUs) were 1.52 billion for December 2018, an increase of 9% as compared to December 2017.
• With 241 million users, India is currently the largest market for Facebook.
• The average ad revenue Facebook derives from each user of its services, including Instagram and WhatsApp, each quarter is as follows: In the Q42017, these numbers were $26.26 in the US and Canada, $8.71 in Europe, and $2.52 in Asia-Pacific.

Ad campaigns by Facebook to promote itself

•  Facebook had launched an ad campaign in the US that was developed by the company’s in-house creative team and tested in Chicago in March 2018.
• The outdoor ads on bus stops featured slogans such as "Spam is not your friends", "False news is not your friends", "Clickbait is not your friends".
• Facebook had advertised on TV to promote its Facebook Live video feature in 2016 and a 2014 TV spot called Chairs are like Facebook.
• Facebook partnered with WPP for launching an ad campaign called "Live what you love" in India. The objective of the campaign was to drive adoption of Facebook Groups, Pages and Events in India

Partnerships with media agencies

• According to Drum, Facebook has restructured its agency model.
• The company would continue to work with Wieden + Kennedy, but has newly partnered with Publicis’ Leo Burnett, and has hired Omnicom's BBDO, WPP's Ogilvy, and Accenture's Droga5.
•  Creative X, Facebook’s in-house team will focus on the events, experiences, websites and social posts on the platform.
• Droga5, part of Accenture Interactive, will focus on the company’s "corporate narrative".
•  Wieden + Kennedy, the agency behind Facebook's 'More Together' campaign will continue developing global creative for the social network.
•  Publicis’ Leo Burnett is expected to take lead on the separate app Messenger.

Research strategy

1. INSTAGRAM HOLIDAY ADVERTISING STRATEGY

PROMOTION OF IGTV

• Research has proven that 80% of brand audiences would rather watch a live video than read a blog, and 82% prefer live video from a brand to social posts.
• Instagram considers sharing content, tutorials or even starting a Christmas show every day and week during the Christmas season with a unique reduced offer for certain goods which you sell.

GETTING FESTIVE WITH THE MUSIC STICKER

• The Music Sticker (note that there are still restricted releases on this function) is one of the most common Instagram updates in the year.
• This not only gives your content a wider range, but also makes your audience memorable token.
• The Sked social media blog quotes, "It's no more festive this Christmas than to use a music sticker in Story Posts to add Christmas songs."

CHRISTMAS UGC COMPETITIONS

• One of the best-performing kinds of content is User Generated Content (UGC).
• UGC is an indicator of a brand's caliber for 68% of millennials.

LAUNCHING A ’12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS’ INSTAGRAM CAMPAIGN

• A countdown for ' 12 Days of Christmas ' is a structured holiday campaign that offers a long-term commitment. 
• Such content creates an extended buzz, gives Instagram users the feeling of urgency and scarcity, and promotes them to return to the feed every day.

RUNNING FESTIVE QUIZES

• Instagram poses questions and encourages its audience to take part in quizzes to test their understanding about various vehicle products during a major brand case or holiday.

RAISING THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT BY COLLABORATING WITH A LOCAL BUSINESS OR CHARITY

• When well marketed, this can also produce a lot of buzz and PR, driving even more brand awareness and revenues. 

RUNNING INSTAGRAM ADS

• Instagram is well served by Carousel advertisements and video ads.
• Carousel advertisements enable various pictures (often products), which can be used to demonstrate or tell a story.
• Although every advertising type can work well on Instagram, in specific these two alternatives will assist to distinguish your content on holiday.

2. CREATIVE MESSAGING

• Instagram promotes their IGTV feature with messages like; "During the Christmas season, you should consider sharing behind-the-scenes content, tutorials or even start a daily/weekly Christmas show, featuring a special discounted offer for particular products you sell."
• The messaging behind the recently updated music sticker is; "As Christmas draws closer, why not tag a new Christmas song with a product offer or a happy Christmas joke."
• Instagram runs the UGC campaign using messages such as, "If you aren’t utilizing UGC in your Instagram marketing already, you’re definitely missing out on lucrative opportunities." and "This Christmas season, if you haven’t already, take advantage of UGC and run a weekly or monthly competition encouraging your audience to share their content featuring your product or brand."
• A messaging campaign used to promote festive quizzes is, "For the Christmas period, take advantage of the poll and quizzes sticker by running a daily or weekly festive quiz, potentially even giving rewards at the end for the most accurate answers."

3. CREATIVE IMAGES

•  Visual link. 

4. PARTNERSHIPS

•  As partnered with (and run by) the extremely effective Facebook ads, Instagram emerges as a powerful ad platform during holidays
• In September, Michael Kors, the fashion label that first used Instagram's fresh 30-second video Marquee format to promote its holiday offers and introduced its worldwide ad platform formally.

5. ADVERTISING FOCUS

• Instagram has released several updates on its creative tools just before the holidays and is likely to trouble some 25 million companies within its network to identify methods of benefiting from the fresh offers and enhancing customer engagement.
• In October, Instagram launched its Super Zoom function, allowing users to zoom into a video on a single item and generate three-second SuperZooms videos in the background. 
• Three new face filters were also released by Instagram for the holidays; balls bursting with confetti, vacation make-up looks and hearts in snow glasses.
• Instagram rolled out stickers for Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.

RESEARCH STRATEGY

Snapchat's Friendship Campaign

• As per iSpot.tv, Snapchat has had only one commercial airing on TV in the past 30 days and earned an airing rank of #3,730.
• Snapchat's first global campaign is all about celebrating friendships, the importance of friendships, and the role friendship plays candidly in the platform.
• Chief marketing officer of Snapchat Kenny Mitchell said in an interview, "Our platform is a response to some of the challenges of social media. It became a bit of an escape from social media, where people can really be themselves".
• Snapchat cast a wide net of more than 1,000 Snapchat users to find the duos for the campaign and then narrowed it down based on each pair’s story along with criteria that included a diversity of location and diversity of backstory.
• Snapchat placed quotes about friendship from famous figures such as Marilyn Monroe, Mahatma Gandhi, Joan Jett, and Aristotle in various print and digital media channels.
• Snapchat is also trying to invade Instagram by partnering with dozens of “quotefluencers,” who will take over popular hashtags like #realfriends and #friendshipquotes with posts that feature Snap yellow along with a quote about friendship and a photo of the Snap ghost so that the hashtags are flooded in Snap yellow.

RESEARCH STRATEGY

Holiday Advertising Strategy

•  #HolidayIsHappening is the marketing campaign of Twitter focusing on clients to advertise during holiday seasons such as Christmas, New Year's Eve, and Thanksgiving, etc. in the months of November and December.
• It was launched in 2017 and was awarded The Drum B2B Award 2018 for the Best innovative B2B marketing campaign.
•  #HolidayIsHappening campaign is featured with chatbots and Cheddar — new desks to promote holiday season awareness among clients.
• In 2018, Twitter UK launched a Christmas film focusing advertisers during Christmas season, quoting John Lewis brand as an example.

Creative Messaging

• "#HolidayIsHappening" is the messaging of Twitter for attracting clients to promote their products during the holiday season.

Creative Images

• The link to creative images is here.

Partnerships

• Twitter partnered with Brandwatch and Cheddar for promoting #HolidayIsHappening campaign. By partnering with Brandwatch, Twitter calculated the purchase intent based on holiday-related Tweets. By partnering with Cheddar, Twitter offered new desks on Cheddar with moment insights which aired the list of 'holiday happenings' on Twitter.

Advertising Focus

• #HolidayIsHappening campaign is focused on products segments such as fashion, entertainment, gadgets and toys, food and drinks, and automobiles.

Additional Insights

• In 2018, Twitter invested USD78.1 million in advertising no further segmentation on Holiday season Advertising.
• Twitter last advertisement was focused on products of Twitter i.e., Gaming on Twitter aired on August 2018.

RESEARCH STRATEGY

HULU HOLIDAY ADVERTISING STRATEGY

• Hulu's holiday advertising strategy (New years and Christmas) is using an integrated approach by advertising on multiple forums such as ASMR videos, social media, TV commercials, banner ads, news articles, and print ads, along with releasing holiday-specific new episodes and streaming series.
• According to Hulu's VP of Brand Marketing, the company has elected to add two new holiday scenic to their popular seasonal collection this year that featuring a sensory-driven ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) approach as ASMR has been trending.
• According to Nick Tran, Hulu's Vice President of Brand Marketing and Culture, "there’s also a unique connection between ASMR and the holidays, so we were just thinking it would be fun to bridge the gap between that and the scenics and see if there was something that could be made out of it."
• The ASMR videos are streaming on YouTube and Hulu. The videos are themed for Christmas under titles "Puppies crash Christmas," "The Snowman," "Stuck Santa," and "The tingles."
• Hulu advertised a video ad on Instagram to promote its streaming series Four Weddings and a Funeral.
• In 2017, Hulu advertised Christmas movies with a 30-second television commercial that featured the slogan, "all your holiday TV in one place."
• In 2018, Hulu launched the new anthology streaming series "New Tear New You" which is a haunted story and featuring an all-female cast.
• The past season Christmas holiday, Hulu advertised its Christmas movie lineup which telecasted plenty of holiday classics, and the news was covered by news articles such as Refinery 29.
• The company has used banner ads for the promotion of their holiday-specific kids episodes through Instagram.
• Through Twitter, Hulu is advertising its holiday season "horrific holiday tale series" of Pooka.
• Hulu published holiday season print ads which appeared in People, Sports Illustrated, and EW to increase brand awareness of Hulu and its huge library of content.

CREATIVE MESSAGING

• The Holiday season TV commercial used the messaging, "This holiday season, light up your screen, thousands and shows and movies, "All your holiday TV in One place." 
• Through the Twitter advertisement for the Holiday season new streaming series Pooka, the creative messaging used is,"If you're in the mood for something a little darker this holiday season, check out the latest installment of Into the Dark on Hulu today."
• Through the creative messaging for the upcoming Christmas season, Hulu used a video ad with the message,"You're Smart and Sophisticated and you Smell good Like Christmas trees-Tony" related to its streaming series advertisement of Four Weddings and a Funeral.
• The holiday print ads used appeared in various publications such as People, Sports Illustrated, and EW used the messaging of "The Most TV-Full Time of the Year." 

CREATIVE IMAGES

•  Visual link.

PARTNERSHIPS

• In 2018, to advertise its Hulu’s 10 holiday scenics such as “Puppies Crash Christmas,” “A Sap Story” and “The Snowman,” Hulu partnered with American Library Association (ALA) to make it a charity donation with up to a total donation of $100,000. Also, Hulu created two new holiday scenics, including Library Cheer, to celebrate the partnership.

ADVERTISING FOCUS

• The focus of the company's advertisement for the holiday season is to raise awareness on the brand and its huge videos collection library.
• Through its advertisement on multiple social media, TV commercials, and print media, the company focused on promoting its new streaming series and holiday-specific video collections based on New Year and Christmas along with increasing the number of its subscribers by offering discounts.

RESEARCH STRATEGY:

HOLIDAY ADVERTISING STRATEGY

• Netflix has started airing its TV movies for Thanksgiving Day to fully get into the Christmas spirit.
• Netflix has planned to target the same audience as its two biggest Christmas competitors such as Hallmark and Lifetime. The company is attempting to lure them away by using different tactics.
• In 2018, Netflix ran a 30-second television commercial called "The Christmas Chronicles," which featured a trailer for the Netflix original movie, "The Christmas Chronicles."
• The Christmas Chronicles was the standout for Netflix, as their three other Christmas-related movies followed the standard tropes and demands of the format Hallmark has perfected over the years.
• By 2018, Netflix had eventually become the new destination for Christmas movies.
• Netflix Marketing strategy for holiday season was to create more and more content that was enough to appeal to massive subscribers. This in turn leads them to create more new content with Netflix.
• In 2019, Netflix launched another series, 'Bird Box' with some marketing strategy during holiday season because kids get out of school for winter break, people go home to spend time with family from Christmas to New Year’s, and with a lot of free time on peoples’ hands.

CREATIVE MESSAGING

• During the holiday season, Netflix launched a series, A Christmas Prince and that was a huge success.
• Netflix has modernized the holiday programming with full boasting. The company has encouraged the viewers to watch the series by influencing them with some messages like, "feel all the feels" or "feeling more like a witch," so feel free to invite the naughty side to this party.
• During Christmas period, Netflix said in its release announcing its holiday line-up: Step aside jovial commercials and overdone store windows.
• The Netflix movie, The Christmas Chronicles, was debuted on the streaming service on Thanksgiving Day.
• Ted Sarandos, Netflix's chief content officer revealed that Netflix subscribers watched the movie more than 20 million times, that is, two and a half times the population of every man, woman, and child in New York City.

CREATIVE IMAGES:

PARTNERSHIPS

• On the reality TV front, Netflix has done partnership with Channel 4’s “The Great British Baking Show” that was aired during the holiday season doing Christmas specials.

ADVERTISING FOCUS

• The company advertised on multiple forums like social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube,TV commercials and has for advertisement of its "The Christmas Chronicles", the holiday specific new episodes and streaming.
• In 2018, Netflix managed 24 versions for its 2018 fantasy adventure "The Christmas Chronicles." The strategy behind this was that dubbing brings one closer to who the characters are, and it aligns itself with subtitling.

Additional findings:

• In 2019, Netflix currently has more than 125 million subscribers who pay to use its services, and 7.4 million of these were added within the first three months of this year.
• US consumers have the highest current online video subscriptions (36%), followed by Brazil (29%) for the holiday season and are more likely to consider subscribing to more than one service. Nearly half the Brazilians (44%) and almost a quarter the Americans (24%) surveyed are planning to sign up for Netflix.

RESEARCH STRATEGY

YOUTUBE ADVERTISEMENTS

• YouTube had 20 nationally aired TV ad campaigns, as a Super Bowl advertiser.
• YouTube TV had 62 nationally aired TV ad campaigns, as a Super Bowl advertiser.
•  YouTube Music commercials were focused on the trending songs and entertainment ads.

YOUTUBE WEBSITE TRAFFIC OVERVIEW

• Around 19.94% of the website traffic is from Search, and 3.5% of traffic is from Social Media Platforms, where Facebook accounts for 63.98%, Twitter accounts for 9.26%, Reddit accounts for 9.16%, VKontakte accounts for 8.98%, while Instagram accounts for 2.51%.
• About 0.11% of traffic is from Display Ads, with the Top Ad Networks being PopAds, Google Display Network, Pop Cash, Skimlinks, MGID and others.

YOUTUBE AD REVENUES

• YouTube earns 45% of the ad revenues on all creator videos, some established creators can earn advertising revenues at a much higher rate through the elusive Google Preferred program, which entices advertisers to place ads on high-performing videos.
• YouTube’s net video ad revenues is expected to reach $3.36 billion in 2018.

OTHER INSIGHTS ON YOUTUBE MARKETING

• YouTubers in the Google Preferred program have a significantly higher cost per mile (CPM) than general creators on YouTube.
• TrueView ads are most commonly seen on YouTube and are skippable. An advertiser only pays YouTube when viewers watch the ad for at least 30 seconds or interact.
• Bumper ads are 6-second long that play quickly before a video begins and are used for brand awareness or paired with other types of YouTube ads, targeting the same viewers to reintroduce your brand and message.
• The digital video ads is on the rise and highlights both their effectiveness and the consumer shift from linear (traditional) TV to OTT services.

Research Strategy:

GIVEAWAY CONTESTS

• The Holiday Giftaway by RetailMeNot is an example of a contest promoted on Instagram by the company. Multi-day giveaways are everywhere around the holidays.
• In the case of RetailMeNot, Over a period of 12 days, a new award was issued every day. Each day, several winners were selected to boost the chances of winning, an excellent way to promote more people.
• RetailMeNot needed individuals to join every day to be eligible for the award and to encourage individuals to visit their website daily.
• Although not a hashtag competition, RetailMeNot used a few famous hashtags, including #giveaway, #sweepstakes, #holidayfun and #holiday to promote their campaign.
• It assisted to spread the word beyond the people who were already following the brand by using hashtags in this way. 
• An example of creative messaging they used to advertise their competition is; "Our Multi-Day Giveaway Calendar is one of our most popular templates for the holiday season."
• To create more room for contestants, messaging such as, "Each day, a new door is opened to reveal a prize. People must enter each day in order to be eligible to win the day’s prize," was used.
• RetailMeNot partnered with Instagram to promote their contest on Instagram.

FACEBOOK'S HOLIDAY SEASON INSIGHTS TOOL

• In June 2019, Facebook launched a new set of data insight tools which enables users to sort through insights from the holiday season over the past two years, relative to your region, and a 2019 Holiday Insights Guide, that displays a variety of trends and tasks to help you plan.
• As per Facebook on the new insights tool, "Our Holiday Season Insights tool has nearly 30 searchable insights from the 2017 and 2018 holiday seasons across 25 markets, and is available in 17 languages. Explore this robust resource to ensure your 2019 holiday season is filled with insights and magic."
• The tool offers filter output choices for "Market," "Year" and "Shopping habits" — which include "In-store," "Messaging," "Shopping" and so on.
• The new Holiday Marketing Guide by Facebook help marketers get their goods at the correct moment to the specific individuals.
• Their messaging campaign goes, "Though the holidays may appear to be dusted with magic, behind the scenes a different story is being told. The truth is, all kinds of businesses are using Facebook to get the right products to the right customers throughout the holidays and year-round in all the moments that matter."
• The manual also contains a November and December holiday scheduling calendar for customers to strategize their approach.
• These new Facebook holiday marketing strategy resources are confirmed to help completely change the strategy and enhance the holiday experience of users.
• Facebook IQ commissioned three significant studies to create a true perspective of Christmas shopping all around the globe from Santa's point of view.
• Facebook has partnered with market research firm IPSOS to poll 43,884 holiday shoppers across 29 countries.
• Also, Facebook is in partnership with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to map the top friction points across three phases of the shopper journey.

RESEARCH STRATEGY