Our Favourite Black Friday Campaigns!

Influencer marketing has become one of the most effective marketing tactics for companies of all sizes. Whether you are a small start-up or a large company with worldwide recognition, getting your brand and products in front of a new audience can lead to more sales, increased brand awareness and build trust through authenticity. 

With Black Friday approaching, it can be difficult for companies to stand out against competition during a very busy period. Therefore, Influencer campaigns need to be as disruptive as possible. With e-commerce now playing a bigger role than ever, collaborating with the right influencers is essential for leveraging user-generated content. To keep competition high, brands have started to steer away from the traditional unboxing content and instead have adopted new ways of standing out, including incorporating viral sounds, hashtags and special effects on TikTok to create a huge hype around Black Friday.

Here are some amazing examples of disruptive Black Friday influencer marketing campaigns we love: 

GYMSHARK

In 2020, Gymshark nailed their Black Friday campaign. Gymshark is known to only have two sales a year, their birthday and Black Friday – so there was already a huge hype on what was to come in the run-up to November.

They used their popular brand ambassadors including the likes of KSI and Behzinga (Ethan Payne) to build tension around when the sale would be launching, keeping people engaged and coming back for more! They created a hashtag #BigDealEnergy that coincided with the viral term ‘BDE’ (we’re sure you’ve probably heard of it 👀) and used it on all of their socials.

The brand’s followers skyrocketed after they posted a video with YouTuber and Podcaster Calfreezy, announcing their biggest ever Black Friday sale, cutting off before giving the date, this kept their audience needing to know more!

AMAZON

In 2021, Amazon celebrated Black Friday with a free pop-up experience in London named ‘Black Friday Live’. This pop-up marked Amazon’s return to in-person Black Friday shopping offering four days of entertainment, featuring a number of celebrities and Influencers including Laura Whitmore, Spencer Matthews and Jamie Liang.

The pop-up featured brands and their Black Friday deals, experiences and giveaways. Brands that attended included Deliveroo, Bosch, This Works and Candy Kittens. This was an incredible way to give brand exposure to some of the brands that sell their goods on Amazon.

WALMART

In 2020, Walmart created a Black Friday AR filter on TikTok for its #UnwrapTheDeals campaign. The filter revealed the deals and gave followers a chance to win them.

Walmart partnered with TikTok stars like Zach King to help spread awareness using the filter. This campaign was so successful, it generated more than 5.5 billion views and produced around 1 million pieces of user generated content.

I spoke to our Senior Influencer Account Manager, Hannah and our Managing Director, Stevie about the Black Friday campaigns that stick out in their mind, here’s what they had to say:

Stevie:

“I’d have to say my favourite in the past has been Gymshark. Previously they have done an annual ‘Blackout’ around Black Friday, to build suspense for the brand amongst their audience.

They had their athletes and influencers all in black on black backgrounds, with products and clothing not visible, driving more curiosity. From this they announced huge Black Friday discounts which resulted in sell outs on the website, something they have repeated on different years.”

Hannah:

“I love this Black Friday ad from Durex! It’s super creative. They may not a brand that immediately springs to mind when thinking of consumer products that are pushed through social, but wow did they do it right.

I love how this uses humour so its still super engaging as an AD. Plus they used someone who was very culturally relevant at the time and appropriate for the brand by being from Love Island.”

Influencer marketing adds a huge element of authenticity to brands’ Black Friday campaigns helping boost sales through the roof! The team at Disrupt is super excited to see what fun, whacky and disruptive Influencer campaigns brands come up with this year.

If you want to run a truly disruptive Black Friday campaign for your brand this year, contact us now! Connect with us on socials to stay up to date with all things Black Friday!