Why the run up to Christmas is a great time to stage a super demo
For many, Christmas is a whirlwind of activity. This is both a blessing and a curse for brands.
Yes, consumers spend a lot of money at Christmas, but they’re also bombarded with marketing messages left, right and centre. It stands to reason that if you can find a way to cut through the noise, Christmas can be a very profitable time of year. And that’s especially true if your products are well suited as gifts, or if you can find a way to reposition your products as gifts or suited to the festive market.
So how can you cut through the noise? Here’s one way: run an effective product demonstration.
Why the lead up to the festive period is a great time for a product demo
The impact of experiential marketing is well documented. But it really comes into its own at Christmas when consumers are hit with marketing messages from brands across every channel, from TV through to their mobile phones. Providing a face-to-face, human experience in the form of an in-store product demo can represent an antidote to all this.
Costco gets a lot of extra foot traffic in the run-up to Xmas. Those crucial weeks leading up to this period can be a fantastic opportunity to gain extra sales.
Here’s what we’ve learned from years of festive product demonstrations and how we recommend you maximise the opportunity that Christmas offers.
Go larger with a super demo
Single demos run for one day from a standard WDS demonstration stand. You can feature up to two products and have skilled brand ambassadors interacting with customers. Super Demos, on the other hand, are high-impact, high-profile warehouse events that last for a week, and operate all day, every day of the week. You can also add optional extras like pop-up counters, pallet wraps and branded clothing to maximise impact.
- You may like: Everything you ever needed to know about Super Demos
Super demos give you a larger footprint for maximum visibility in Costco warehouses and you can feature multiple products. And they come into their own at Christmas.
Here’s why: on different days of the week, you get very different audiences. Monday-Thursday you might get a larger trade audience. Friday-Sunday you might get more families, individuals, couples. So, not only do Super demos give you more time to physically see more people, you also see a broader spectrum of people.
Human-to-human experience
Human-to-human interaction is key to standing out from a crowd of brands which consumers interact with over the festive period.
But with so many people visiting Costco over Christmas, you do need to make sure the interaction between your customers and brand ambassadors is as good as it can be.
So, it’s worth investing in the training of brand ambassadors. Work with WDS by visiting our regional meetings and talking to Demo Service Manager’s (DSMs). And, work with us to determine how we can adapt briefs and scripts to align them with a gifting message.
Get your timing right
The best way to maximise brand awareness and sales over Christmas is to time your demo well. Philips and Ferrero, for example, are both running Super Demos between October and December this year, in order to speak directly to consumers buying gifts for loved ones.. So plan ahead for Christmas 2020.
We recommend taking your first steps towards planning and scheduling a Christmas Super Demo no later than the summer. Don’t worry though! We’ll remind you next year so you have time to plan ahead and make the most of the opportunity.
Yes, Christmas is a hectic time where many brand’s marketing activities scale new heights. So leverage your presence of Costco and make the most of the experiential marketing opportunity that a demo or super demo offers. Cut through the Christmas marketing noise by talking to your customers face to face.
Find out more about super demos here.
