Creative inspiration: Our creative team’s top Black Friday ad picks

As we hit mid-November and the Christmas hype begins to build, many savvy shoppers have another seasonal event on their minds: Black Friday. In 2017, the revenue taken by UK online retail sites on Black Friday was up 11.7% – that’s £1.39 BILLION spent! With 2018’s event just around the corner, we’re rounding up some of our favourite Black Friday ads…

McDonalds

Last year, someone on the McDonalds social media team was left red-faced after sending what appeared to be an unfinished placeholder tweet, which was left unchecked for nearly nine hours. Instead of deleting the goof, McDonalds followed up by plugging their McCafé range, citing a lack of caffeine as a reason for the mistake.

There has been some speculation as to whether the whole thing was a pre-thought piece of advertising, however the lack of an actual Black Friday deal suggests it might genuinely be good old human error…

Why we love it: If it’s a publicity stunt, it definitely worked (receiving over 21,000 retweets and 70,000 likes) and inspired a few laughs. If it was genuine, it’s always nice when someone makes a mistake that isn’t you.

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Pie Minister

In 2016, Pie Minister got philanthropic and launched their #BlackPieDay campaign. Asking “what would you give for a pie this Friday?”, the pie makers gave away frozen surplus pie stock in return for a donation to Shelter, a charity that helps people struggling with bad housing and homelessness.

They’re even bringing the campaign back this year, this time turning two of their award-winning pies black with a charcoal pastry for the occasion.

Why we love it: The name is a pun (we love a pun). Plus, it gave people the opportunity to do something good and be rewarded with pie (we love a pie).

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Anastasia Beverly Hills

Is your make up bag ready for this? Anastasia Beverly Hills sent out a striking email last year for their Black Friday/Cyber Monday event, with some very clever font work going on…

With beautiful imagery against a slick black background, the email does its job simply and elegantly.

Why we love it: Although a straightforward email, it’s very eye-catching – vital when your inbox is inundated with Black Friday offers. We couldn’t stop staring at the ‘mirrored’ text in the header!

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Cards Against Humanity

In 2015, games company Cards Against Humanity (“A party game for horrible people”) shut down their website and gave customers the opportunity to buy exactly nothing for $5. A total of 12,448 people paid for a collective $71,145 worth of nothing and, after listing their previous charitable donations, the CAH folks declared that this year, they were keeping the lot. They proceeded to list what each employee bought…

With purchases ranging from luxury cat litter to divorce attorney fees, there were also several thousand dollars also donated to chosen charities. Considering they had made no promise at all about what everyone’s $5 would be spent on, this was actually pretty generous.

Why we love it: The pure, barefaced cheek of it. Also, someone bought a custom men’s suit of armour.

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Amazon

Sometimes you only need something simple to catch people’s attention. Online retail giant Amazon did just that in 2016 with this tweet that taps into what people on the internet most desire: free stuff, and funny cat pictures.

Using a really simple idea, they picked a particularly responsive group for this type of advertising and the joke was amplified by customers sharing their own pictures of cats in Amazon ‘cat beds’ – the post received over 4,000 shares and 20,000 likes. Given that Amazon’s Black Friday bargains were likely splashed over every inbox and social media feed, this break from pushing deals was as welcome as it was amusing.

Why we love it: The simplicity. And the cat.

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Looking to grab a bargain this Black Friday? We’ve got some awesome offers coming up in honour of the big day, so keep an eye on our deals page! If you need anything in the meantime, give our team a call on 03332 409 306 or email sales@Jigsaw24.com. For all the latest news, offers and inspiration, follow us on Twitter, Facebookand LinkedIn.