Q1: Hey Maris, what’s the first thing brands should decide before advertising during Black Week?
Maris:
“What role you want to play. Going all in on discounts, being selective or deliberately standing apart from the sales frenzy are three different strategies – and they need three different definitions of success. If you’re going all in, you need to be noticed and chosen in the noisiest week of the year. If you’re standing apart, success is that people understand why. Decide this before the creative brief is written, not after the results come in.”
Q2: Many brands feel they have to be there because all their competitors are. Is FOMO a good reason to advertise?
Maris:
“It’s an understandable feeling – nobody wants to hand their customers to a competitor. But being present is not the same as being noticed. If your campaign drowns in the noise, you’ve paid to be invisible. So ask yourself: Do we have an offer that is genuinely competitive? Do we have something that makes us stand out? And is our target group actually in buying mode right now? If the honest answer is no, a different message or a different moment may serve you better than joining the crowd.”
Q3: Which brands tend to come out on top during Black Week?
Maris:
“The ones that were already strong before it started. Our meta-analysis shows that well-known, familiar brands are far better at activating than lesser-known ones. It makes sense: a discount from a brand you know is understood instantly. An unknown brand first has to explain who it is and why the deal is any good – in the noisiest week of the year. So Black Week rewards the brand-building you did during the other eleven months. Use Black Week to cash in on your brand, and the rest of the year to build it.”
Q4: Many brands switch to a special Black Week look – black backgrounds, bold percentages, new fonts. Is that a good idea?
Maris:
“Be careful with it. When everyone dresses their ads in the same Black Week uniform, they start to look the same – and the first thing that suffers is brand linkage. People may remember seeing a great deal, but not who it was from, and your investment ends up helping a competitor. Your distinctive brand assets – your colours, logo, characters, tone of voice – are what make you recognisable in a split second, and that’s exactly what you need when attention is scarce. So add some campaign flair, by all means, but keep your brand intact. Dress up, don’t disguise yourself.”
Q5: Can heavy discounting hurt a brand in the long run?
Maris:
“It can. If customers learn that your prices always drop in November, some of them will simply wait – and over time they may start to question what your brand is really worth. That’s not something a sales report will show you. It shows up in your price image and in how much people are willing to pay for you compared with your competitors. That’s why we recommend following those measures in your Brand Tracking, before and after the sales season, so you can see whether Black Week is building your brand or slowly eroding it.”
Q6: Why is it so important to measure Black Week campaigns – and what should you look at?
Maris:
“Because the sales chart rarely tells the full story. Many purchases during Black Week would have happened anyway, and when everyone is campaigning at once, it’s hard to know whether your campaign actually cut through – or whether you just rode the wave. A good campaign measurement answers three questions. Did you cut through? That’s observation – was the campaign seen – and brand linkage – did people know it was you? Did you get them hooked? Was the message clear, and did people like it? And did you move the needle on how people see your brand and their intent to buy? With Campaign Pulse, we measure right after the campaign and compare the results with benchmarks from similar campaigns in your market and category. Combined with Brand Tracking and Marketing Mix Modelling, you see both the short-term sales effect and the long-term brand impact.”
Planning a Black Week campaign?
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