Tis the Season for Holiday-Themed Marketing

It’s not exactly a new tactic to base your marketing campaign around a popular theme or trending topic, and the holiday seasons are of course no exception. And like anything, there are good ways to do this, and bad ways. For our own holiday-themed post, we thought we’d take a look at marketers in the scientific space who are tweeting, posting, – and finding themselves on Santa’s Nice List.

Social Media Holiday-Themed Marketing

You know you’re a science marketer when… your personal account is being targeted by a medical device group. The below is a tweet MITA promoted on Twitter.

The tweet is light-hearted, charming, but still very particular to what their company does. It’s a great example of how to take a theme and apply it to your messaging, as well as how to use Twitter’s Advertising program effectively. Because as we discussed in a recent post, advertising on social media can be tricky, as you’re often targeting people who haven’t chosen to follow you yet, and may be adverse to seeing that content. You should be putting a great deal of effort into the tone and content of your promotions then, instead of just pushing out a generic call-to-action. Ask yourself: if this tweet simply advised you to learn more about a medical imaging device, do you think it would have as much engagement?

A Time to Show Gratitude

Another social media example takes us back to the Thanksgiving holiday season. Dow Chemical chose to use the time not to promote a product per say, but to thank its staff. This is just a simple quote in a company’s template, but it also doesn’t seem to be a one-off tweet either. In other posts, they take time to announce new staff, awards, and other stories centered around their employees, which makes this holiday-themed marketing message genuine. In short, don’t just talk the talk for the sake of a trending topic.

Content Marketing

Malvern Instruments has been doing a great job with their content marketing for awhile, and we’re big fans. If you haven’t seen their blog, Materials Talks, click here to take a look. In a recent post, they used one of their instruments to test beer viscosity, and blogged about it. Genius. It shows their company personality, they went to a local pub and supported their community, and they did something of interest to their clients and readers. The first holiday themed post that caught our eye though, surfaced on twitter.

If there’s one thing almost everyone can agree on, it’s that 3-D Printing is the coolest. Malvern Instruments once again created a clever way to celebrate the season, and provide relevant content to boot. They teased their audience with some great imagery on social media, and followed up with a blog post announcing the contest and its winners. That Hovercraft Santa? Yeah, that hovercraft works. There are clearly many benefits to mixing science and marketing.

Have you seen other great holiday marketing? Share links below.