chevron-down
chevron-down
Make once-a-year moments even more memorable
See how bringing insights to creative strategies and annual campaigns can help brands stand out, even during busy times of year.
Topics
TABLE OF CONTENTS
All around the world, people share and come together in once-a-year moments – festive periods, special events, global celebrations, even the changing of seasons. And many brand marketers plan their major campaigns and pushes to align with these calendar events. Because these can run during busy times of the year, brands that leverage insights can find stronger ways to stand out and gain attention.
As part of our series "Moments that bring people closer together", we explore insights around once-a-year moments. Annual events such as celebrations, birthdays and seasons are significant in people's lives, involving traditions, familiarity and shared memories.
Friends and family unite to celebrate the start of Lunar New Year.
People dance in the streets and on colourful floats at the start of Carnival.
Cheering crowds erupt at the end of the Super Bowl.
Football fans everywhere are glued to their screens during the UEFA Champions League Final.
Marketers bank on calendar-based events, celebrations and seasons, building their campaigns, sponsorships and social media takeovers with familiar traditions and references. During these key, once-a-year moments, brand marketers who use insights to help inform their campaigns can set their creative messaging apart and ensure that they reach their intended audience at the right time and on the right platform.
A year of extraordinary
People turn to the Facebook family of apps to share and celebrate moments throughout the year. Brands can be part of this story too. Below are just a few of the once-a-year moments in each month that can offer inspiration and guidance for your next moments-based campaign.
January is marked by key moments such as New Year's Day, Lunar New Year and back-to-school season in Latin America. January also features the start of Hollywood's prestigious film awards and annual music awards held at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
February highlights include Valentine's Day, the biggest game in American football and Black History Month (US).
March features Hollywood's biggest night which honours the best films (US), International Women's Day, Carnival in Latin America, St. Patrick's Day, Cheltenham Festival and Mother's Day (UK).
April can feature key moments such as Easter, Passover and International Moments of Laughter Day.
May brings the Met Gala, Coachella Festival, the Early UK Bank Holiday and Mother's Day (US).
June is known for being Pride Month, and also features Father's Day, Ramadan, E3, Europe's annual premier club football tournament and summer in the Northern Hemisphere.
July features Workaholics Day, Independence Day (US) and is also the busiest month of the year for air travel, as people enjoy summer in the Northern Hemisphere.
August features International Beer Day and back-to-school moments in the Northern Hemisphere.
September includes Fashion Week in London and New York, Octoberfest and more back-to-school moments in the Northern Hemisphere.
October features Halloween, International Coffee Day, spring in the Southern Hemisphere and even holiday planning for early birds.
November brings Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Diwali, MLB World Series finals and Singles' Day.
December shows the festive period and shopping in full swing.
One brand's insights-driven campaign
The video shows Facebook Live broadcasts per minute as midnight struck around the world. Each small blip on the globe represents 100 live videos, and each large burst represents 1,000 live videos. Countries are colour-coded based on the percentage of users that posted live videos.
Every year, New Year's Eve kicks off a celebration: In 2018, more than 10 million people around the world went live on Facebook to share their New Year's Eve moments with their friends. And the next day, many start a new year with resolutions for change and self-improvement.
One brand that made the most of this annual moment was Chevrolet. In 2017, the marketing team at the car manufacturer wanted to boost brand opinion with a campaign encouraging people to make every mile count. To help inform their creative process, they wanted first to better understand how people talked about their resolutions and the new year, when the campaign would run.
The team explored this once-a-year moment and discovered the following:
This desire to follow through on New Year's resolutions inspired Chevrolet's "Find new roads" campaign, in which they featured five real people (not actors) who had set large personal goals. The ads featured each of their journeys and their progress along the way, through to their ultimate successes.
In addition to videos, Chevrolet also created a global Messenger bot to help people stick to their resolutions beyond the three-day average. The bot provided virtual motivation and inspiration that ranged from expert advice to personal messages of celebration.
The success of Chevrolet's campaign was unmistakable:
- 200 million people reached worldwide
- 460 million video views
- 207,000 active users for Chervolet Co-Driver bot for Messenger
From Fashion Week to Singles' Day, every region around the world celebrates annual moments. With creative storytelling, marketers can build upon calendar-based moments, becoming part of larger shared experiences and connecting directly and meaningfully with people.
What it means for marketers
Be informed by insights.
Our easy-to-use tool Insights to Go offers information about individual once-a-year moments. Use these insights to inform your creative and media-planning strategies.
Be inspired.
Work with partners to create branded content to tap into the communities that they've built already around once-a-year moments and push your creative ideas further.
Extend impact.
Focus on strategic timing both leading in and out of once-a-year moments. Make plans for the most effective level of frequency and consider your market, message and media channels.
Topics
