Kobo Black Friday Campaign - Window Shopping
Role: Art Director, Lead Designer
Black Friday is one of the farthest reaching campaigns we do at Kobo, with creative spanning cross-platform such as web design, digital, social, retail, CRM and more. As Art Director I facilitated the whole campaign from research to concept to development, overseeing thousands of assets across multiple countries. I managed a team of designers, copywriters, production artists and an external agency, while working cross-functionally with developers and stakeholders throughout the duration of this campaign. I also created a comprehensive playbook and template / component library to ensure cohesive design across platforms.
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Knowing that the 2020 holiday shopping season looked different than most, it was important to remain conscientious and sensitive to people’s financial situations. This year, we wanted to focus less on the "stock up" messaging, and more on thoughtful and clear messaging about the products in the sale.
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With the need to be understanding of people’s differing situations, I proposed the concept of Window Shopping. Even the name itself is meant to imply a friendly environment where one can browse, but not necessarily be pressured to buy. Instead, I highlighted our products by literally putting them in the Kobo Frame (or “window”) as a means to display quality over quantity. There was still sales messaging, knowing that people are still looking for deals, (especially when budgets are a little tighter) but it was subtler than we had done in years previous.
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Overall the Black Friday 2020 campaign performed exceedingly well. Audiobook sales were up 609%, eGifting saw a 95% lift, email revenue increased by 38% and Device sales had a 339% increase in revenue. Due to the success of the 2020 campaign, Black Friday 2021 also leveraged the Window Shopping concept.
Copy Strategy
The approach we took with copy was to emphasize the benefit to the customer and show them a cost effective way to rekindle their love of reading. With lockdowns happening worldwide, people were looking for safe and educational forms of entertainment. Keywords like “Hobbies”, “Home Office” and “Homeschooling” were trending with an over 500% increase in search results. With this in mind we made sure our copy spoke to starting a new interest or staying comfy inside with a good read.
