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054: ‘Black November’ could mean an earlier year-end campaign launch date
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While nonprofits have traditionally waited until mid to late November to launch their EOY campaigns, it’s no longer the standard.
In this season of information overload, achieving visibility is a delicate balance between emotional resonance and message repetition. The earlier you begin, the more effective your message becomes.
Just take a look at household names like Walmart and Coca-Cola, both of which have extended the traditional one-day Black Friday event into a month-long "Black November.”
In this week’s brief, I’ve curated resources to help you make emotional connections with supporters and scale marketing between now and December 31.
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Snackable snippets |
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8 best practices for EOY marketing campaigns 📖 To make sure you have crossed your t's and dotted your i's, check out their eight best practices for bringing your year-end campaign to the finish line. My personal favorites are No. 3, 4, and 7.
Tobes dives into the power of differentiating yourself from competitors and using creative as a driver for performance. The gold in this newsletter is what he calls his “no-panic project plan,” which has consistently helped him improve annual fundraising outcomes over a 5+ year period.
Take advantage of this incredibly useful nonprofit resource as he breaks down his year-end plan by week and channel.
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In the news |
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Playing off of the current trend of nostalgia, Walmart tries to make “fetch” happen by reuniting the cast of “Mean Girls” for its big Black Friday campaign. The two-minute ad is scheduled to air every Wednesday throughout November and on Cyber Monday. On top of the already-saturated nonprofit market, big players like Walmart have already entered the year-end scene, which goes to show the earlier and more aggressive your campaign launch, the more visibility you might have. |
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It might be only November, but that hasn’t stopped Coca-Cola from already launching its 2023 Christmas ad: “The World Needs More Santas.”
Shifting from a product-centric strategy, Coca-Cola focuses the ad on kindness, returning to its longstanding Santa-themed origins and emphasizing human-centered storytelling.
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For your inspiration folder |
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Tune into this on-demand Flight School and discover strategies to enhance your email campaigns through benchmarks, expert advice, and creative insights built to drive year-end success. For more helpful resources, check out the Nonprofit Digital Marketing Toolkit for Year-End, which is filled with articles, videos, and swipe files. |
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