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2021
Holiday
Season
Black Friday & Christmas 2021: How Fashion & Beauty Advertisers Can Build an Informed Campaign Strategy Using Past & Present Trends
Black Friday and the holiday shopping season are one of the year’s most important retail milestones — especially for fashion and beauty retailers.
To ensure marketers don’t miss out on sales and stay ahead of the competition, we dug into the most valuable trends, creative strategies, and targeting solutions that brands can use to get a head start on their campaign planning for Black Friday and Christmas 2021.
We’re going to show how you can get started today, including:
Our 2020 Trends and Predictions
Fashion and beauty usually strong categories for end-of-year sales, but with people stuck at home and prioritizing essential purchases due to the pandemic in 2020, consumers were spending less on clothes, makeup, and accessories. According to Statista, fashion revenues in the UK in 2020 dropped by 9.7% compared to 2019.
Still, Taboola was able to pinpoint some niche readership trends across these verticals at the end of last year:
At-home beauty: The keyword “hair color" saw a pageview spike of 238%.
Self-care: The keyword “pedicure" saw a whopping 2,508% increase in pageviews.
Comfort: The keyword “sweatpants" saw a 632% increase in pageviews.
Overall trends also emerged from other industry sources, painting a clearer picture of how the 2020 holiday shopping season was predicted to unfold:
- eCommerce boom: In 2020, holiday season Ecommerce was given a boost by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to eMarketer, while overall holiday season sales dropped, Ecommerce sales rose by 16.7%.
- Less spending: Financial uncertainty caused by the pandemic led many to reduce spending. Data from McKinsey showed that 43% of UK consumers planned to reduce their holiday spend in the 2020 season.
- Small business support: The pandemic revived community spirit in the UK. A survey by YouGov found that as a result of coronavirus, 64% of people expressed a desire to support local businesses and buy local products.
Huge Gains for Online Fashion Retailers
Now let’s look at how 2020 holiday shopping actually shaped up.
While both overall retail sales and fashion sales specifically dropped significantly in 2020, there was a sub-section of fashion retailers that thrived in the new normal.
Specifically, online-only fast fashion retailers such as Boohoo, ASOS, In The Style and Very.co.uk all reported like-for-like sales growth during the 2020 Christmas season. These retailers, which offer affordable clothing options and the convenience of online shopping and fast delivery, proved a popular choice for a mid-pandemic Christmas. Meanwhile, these brands’ high street competitors such as Primark, which famously does not have an online store, suffered drops in sales as high as 30%.
Interestingly, Cornwall-based retailer Seasalt, which specialises in durable clothing for the outdoors, also reported a 17% growth in sales as consumers invested in practical apparel for UK staycations and retreats to nature.
Like-for-like sales growth of clothing and apparel retailers during the Christmas period in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2020
Source: Statista
What We Predict Will Be Popular This Year
This year, some of those 2020 trends are expected to stick around and even increase in prevalence.
- Online shopping will be the new normal. The growth trend in Ecommerce sales that we saw in 2020 is likely to continue in the coming years. Statista's Digital Market Outlook for 2021 predicts that online fashion revenues in the UK will grow 29% by 2025 compared to 2020.
- Considered shopping is on the rise. While fast fashion retailers like Boohoo saw considerable growth last year, we've also seen some indicators that the pandemic has led many consumers to be more considered in their shopping habits. For example, according to a 2020 YouGov survey, 39% of shoppers say that the COVID-19 pandemic has led them to adopt a more environmentally friendly mindset towards shopping. The same survey found that when 18-24 year olds were asked whether they would spend an unexpected windfall of cash if they received it, just 2% said they would, with the majority choosing to take a more considered approach.
News Trends for this Holiday Season in the Fashion & Beauty Categories
For the fashion and beauty verticals specially, Taboola’s data from UK news content pulled from the start of the year until August 25th reveals high levels of readership around celebrity topics: it seems British consumers have their eye on the fashion and beauty choices of the likes of Kate Middleton, Amanda Holden and Khloe Kardashian.
Taboola Publishers That Support These Trends
How to Build an Ad Campaign Strategy Using News Trends
Advertisers can take advantage of trending news topics and build more effective and engaging campaigns by figuring out which types of ad creative their audience responds to most.
We pulled our Taboola Trends data in the UK fashion and beauty categories in August 2021 to discover which images, videos, and headlines drive the most clicks in these industries.
Beauty Creative Image Trends
In the beauty category, image trend data shows that photos perform significantly better than illustrations.
Images without text are normally the strongest performers for CTR. The beauty category is no exception, with a big CTR uplift for a glam shot without words.
Sorry A-Rod, but your Blur Stick will have to take a back seat to Jenny from the Block. In the beauty category, images of women will get you a higher CTR than those with men.
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In the beauty category, image trend data shows that photos perform significantly better than illustrations.
Images without text are normally the strongest performers for CTR. The beauty category is no exception, with a big CTR uplift for a glam shot without words.
Sorry A-Rod, but your Blur Stick will have to take a back seat to Jenny from the Block. In the beauty category, images of women will get you a higher CTR than those with men.
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Fashion Creative Image Trends
With more consumers shopping online, it's not surprising that people prefer to see clothes modelled on a human subject before buying: images with people perform better in the fashion category
Fashion has a long-standing interconnection with the arts. Those looking to try something edger than your typical eCommerce shot may opt for an illustration for higher CTRs.
With dressing comfortably at home (and now as we are returning to the office, comfortably at work) being a top priority in a post-lockdown world, it is unsurprising to see indoor styling making a splash.
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With more consumers shopping online, it's not surprising that people prefer to see clothes modelled on a human subject before buying: images with people perform better in the fashion category
Fashion has a long-standing interconnection with the arts. Those looking to try something edger than your typical eCommerce shot may opt for an illustration for higher CTRs.
Les photos sont également plus fortes que les illustrations quand vient l'heure de choisir l'image la plus performante pour votre campagne de publicité dans le secteur de la mode.
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Creative Trends Video
According to Taboola's Video Trends data, Advertisers can boost video completion rates by including winter scenes.
Colourful settings can create nice contrast to printed garments and bold make-up
Advertisers would also be wise to keep their visuals simple and striking with no text. Let the clothes speak for themselves!
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According to Taboola's Video Trends data, Advertisers can boost video completion rates by including winter scenes.
Colourful settings can create nice contrast to printed garments and bold make-up
Advertisers would also be wise to keep their visuals simple and striking with no text. Let the clothes speak for themselves!
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Next
Creative Trends Headlines
Use the Taboola Title Analyzer to find the best-performing titles for your campaign. It tests your headline options against each other to pinpoint the ones with the highest-predicted CTR.
It’s easy to see that “7 Beauty Tips for Self-Care Success” is expected to drive the highest CTR while “Need a Better Skin Routine? These Solutions Can Help” is down at the bottom with a low-predicted CTR.
Need a Better Skin Routine? These Solutions Can Help
Treat Yourself at Home with Hair Care Products
7 Beauty Tips for Self-Care Success
Predicted
CTR
Putting Trends
Into Action
Putting all these trends together, here are a few examples of what a high-performing ad might look like.
7 Beauty Tips for Self-Care Success
Fashion & Beauty Website
Inside Amazon’s Best Retail Deals This Season
Fashion & Beauty Website
10 DIY Colours to Try at Home
Fashion & Beauty Website
Taboola Products to Fuel Your Holiday Campaigns
We’ve compiled the top products and strategies marketers like you can use to shape campaigns during high-performing seasons like Black Friday and Christmas.
Creative
Strategies
These strategies can help you elevate your message and encourage users to take action after they visit your website.
Video ads
Static images
Descriptions and calls to action (CTAs)
Repurposing social media content
A/B test multiple creatives with Taboola’s expedited learning, which lets our algorithm predict your highest-performing creative assets in less than 24 hours.
Targeting
Solutions
There’s no better way to learn someone’s interests than to learn about what they’re reading online. We’ve built a wealth of targeting solutions to connect audiences and brands, including:
- Contextual Targeting: Show ads alongside content your ideal customers are already reading, with the help of machine learning and contextual intelligence that scans content and analyzes audience behavior in real-time.
- Audience Targeting: Tap into an editorial marketplace with a deep, ongoing understanding of your audience's interests and behaviours.
- Taboola Audiences: Our platform offers hundreds of pre-packaged and custom interest segments to choose from.
- 3P Audience Targeting: Reach consumers based on work profiles, age and demographics, unique behaviours, and the types of consumer tech products they might be looking to purchase using 3P cookies.
- First Party Targeting | Direct CRM Onboarding & Lookalikes: Onboard your CRM data into the Taboola platform, to deliver personalized customer experiences. Build lookalike audience segments and suppress or target specific customers.
Bidding
Solutions
SmartBid auto-optimizes your bids at scale. This tool does the heavy lifting for you, automatically identifying your ideal audience and adjusting your bids for the right opportunities. Fixed Bid lets you manually adjust your bids.
Learn more about Taboola’s bidding strategies here.
Essential
Recommendations
Install the Taboola Pixel
The Taboola Pixel maximizes your ad performance by illuminating audience’s behaviours and the impact your ads are having. Discover new site visitors or interact with your content the way you expected.
Re-engage them with the help of customized click actions or targeting based on their time spent, length of sessions, or how far they’ve scrolled down a page.
Targeting Strategies
Implementing the Taboola Pixel will be beneficial for retargeting users:
- Pixel Audience Targeting: Re-engage users with custom messages based on actions they've taken across your sites. You can track actions such as "Add to Cart" and "Learn More." For example, retarget 'add to cart' users with a new offer or marketing message.
- Attentive Audiences: A group of users that have spent a significant amount of time on your website, but haven't yet converted. Retargeting these audiences enables you to re-engage users based on the attention they've paid to your brand.
Proven Results: These Fashion & Beauty Brands Saw Unimaginable Results with Taboola
Sportswear giant Adidas needed to increase awareness for its new BOOST footwear technology and distinguish it from its legacy product lines. They leveraged Taboola Video to share content at scale across premium publisher websites — with overlaid CTAs that enticed viewers to click and convert.
Adidas saw a 50% uplift in CTR and 25% higher CTR than other video platforms. The black men’s model of the BOOST footwear presented in the video also became a best-seller as a result.
Tech beauty startup eSalon offers custom-blended hair color for at-home application. With such a unique product, the brand was eager to spread awareness and reach just the right customers who might be interested in what they have to offer.
eSalon used Taboola’s expansive Data Marketplace to segment and target highly engaged audiences. The brand also leveraged Taboola’s storytelling platform to reach those readers with organic, long-form content about its offerings.
As a result, eSalon grew by 15X since working with Taboola, acquiring tens of thousands of new customers and increasing CTR by 53%.
Start Your
2021 Holiday Campaign Today
In 2020, consumers started their holiday shopping as early as October, proving that it’s never too soon to start your seasonal campaign planning. Advertisers need to be ready with the outreach strategies and creative content they need to make their messages heard.
Just remember to stay on top of emerging trends, make data-backed decisions, and access the right tools and platforms to fuel your campaigns through the end of 2021 and beyond.