Seasonal guide · 13 examples

Black Friday marketing ideas

Everyone runs a discount. These brands did something people talked about instead. Grouped into 4 formats, with a one-line idea for your brand and a budget guide on each.

13examples
4formats to copy
6with stated results
5small-budget ideas
Format
Budget
Showing 13 examples
Small budget
Doable with a small team, gifting or a simple partner swap.
Mid budget
Needs a paid creator, some production or a co-branded product run.
Big budget
Celebrity fees, TV airtime or a large custom build.

Budget is our estimate of what it would take to run the same idea yourself, not what the brand spent.

The anti-sale

4 examples

What it isThe brand refuses to join in: it closes, tells people not to buy, or buys back instead.
Why it worksGoing quiet on the loudest shopping day stands out, and it tells people what the brand believes.
Template: The anti-sale
Move: [CLOSE / DON'T BUY / BUY BACK / REPAIR] instead of discounting
Reason: one line about what you stand for
Offer: [NOTHING / A SLOWER SALE / STORE CREDIT]
Announce: a week before, so press can cover it

Budget: Small to big. Closing for a day costs sales, not production.

2015REIRetail & CPG

#OptOutside

Social + PR

REI closed all its stores on Black Friday and paid employees to spend the day outside.

Result REI later made Black Friday closing permanent.

Copy this Close on Black Friday, pay your staff, and ask customers to do what your brand is about instead.
Why it spread

Walking away from the biggest sales day of the year was the loudest possible way to say what the brand stands for. Source

Big budget
2020IKEARetail & CPG

Buy Back Friday

In-store + PR

Instead of a Black Friday sale, IKEA bought back used furniture in 27 countries, paying up to 50% of the original price in store vouchers.

Copy this Instead of a Black Friday sale, buy back your used products for store credit.
Why it spread

It flips the day from buying more to selling back, and it still brings people into the store. Source

Mid budget
2019DeciemBeauty & personal care

A moment of nothingness

Web + stores

The Ordinary's parent company closed its website and every store on Black Friday, and ran 23% off for the whole of November instead.

Copy this Switch off your site and shops for Black Friday and offer a slower sale all month.
Why it spread

Switching off on the one day everyone else shouts is louder than any discount. Source

Small budget
2011PatagoniaFashion & sport

Don't Buy This Jacket

Print (NYT)

On Black Friday, Patagonia ran a full-page New York Times ad showing its best-selling jacket with the headline "Don't Buy This Jacket", asking people to buy less and repair more.

Copy this On the biggest sale day, run an ad asking people not to buy your bestseller unless they need it.
Why it spread

An ad telling you not to buy is the last thing anyone expects on the biggest shopping day of the year, and it matched what the brand already stood for. Source

Mid budget

The joke sale

3 examples

What it isThe brand sells something absurd (nothing, manure, a hole) to mock the day.
Why it worksIt's funny, it's a story, and people pay to be in on the joke.
Template: The joke sale
Offer: [NOTHING / SOMETHING ABSURD] for [$1–$6]
Rule: pull your normal products for the day
Proceeds: [KEEP / DONATE] and say so
Update: share the total afterwards

Budget: Small. The joke is the product.

2016Cards Against HumanityMedia & entertainment

Holiday Hole

Livestream

During Black Friday week, CAH took donations to dig a giant hole with an excavator, for no reason, on a livestream.

Result Raised about $100,000.

Copy this Do something pointless and funny on [SHOPPING DAY] to mock the day itself, and let people pay to keep it going.
Why it spread

Satirising Black Friday with a pointless stunt was on-brand and newsworthy.

Mid budget
2015Cards Against HumanityMedia & entertainment

Pay $5 for nothing

Online store

For Black Friday, Cards Against Humanity took its store offline and let people pay $5 to receive nothing at all.

Result People paid $71,145 for nothing, per TechCrunch.

Copy this Let people pay a small amount for nothing, and tell them what you did with the money.
Why it spread

The absurd offer mocks the sales frenzy and becomes the story itself. Source

Small budget
2014Cards Against HumanityMedia & entertainment

Boxes of bullshit

Online store

Cards Against Humanity pulled its games from sale on Black Friday and sold only $6 boxes of sterilised bull manure.

Result 30,000 boxes sold out in under two hours, per TIME.

Copy this Pull your products on Black Friday and sell only something absurd for a few dollars.
Why it spread

It's a joke about Black Friday that people pay to be part of. Source

Small budget

The give-back

2 examples

What it isBlack Friday sales fund a cause, or prices go up to pay for one.
Why it worksCustomers still get to shop, and the story is about what their purchase did.
Template: The give-back
Cause: one that fits your product ([WORKERS / CLIMATE / MATERIALS])
Mechanic: [PROFITS / +$1 PER ITEM / MATCH] to the cause
Proof: report the total and what it paid for
Repeat: every year

Budget: Small to mid. The cost is the margin you give away.

2020AllbirdsFashion & sport

Raising prices for the planet

PR + web

Allbirds raised every price by $1 on Black Friday, matched it, and gave the money to the youth climate movement Fridays For Future.

Copy this Raise every price by $1 on Black Friday, match it, and give it all to a cause.
Why it spread

Going up when everyone else goes down is a headline, and the reason is easy to explain. Source

Small budget
2014EverlaneFashion & sport

The Black Friday Fund

Web + email

Everlane gives its Black Friday profits to projects for the factory workers who make its clothes, after closing for the day didn't work.

Copy this Give your Black Friday profits to the people who make your product, and show what it paid for.
Why it spread

Customers still get to shop, but the purchase does something they can feel good about. Source

Small budget

Make the sale an event

4 examples

What it isThe sale becomes its own entertainment: a new shopping day, a celebrity cast or a live billboard.
Why it worksA deal is forgettable. An event people talk about brings them to the deal.
Template: Make the sale an event
Event: [YOUR OWN SALE DAY / CELEBRITY AD / LIVE STUNT]
Hook: one thing people will talk about beyond the price
Deals: drop [DAILY / WEEKLY] to keep people coming back
Own it: same date and format every year

Budget: Mid to big. Celebrity casts and new sale days need scale.

2015AmazonRetail & CPG

Prime Day

E-commerce

For its 20th birthday, Amazon invented its own members-only sale day in July, promoted as bigger than Black Friday.

Result 34.4 million items ordered, more than Amazon's Black Friday 2014, per CNBC.

Copy this Create your own members-only sale day on a date that means something to your brand.
Why it spread

A shopping day you own is a sales moment no rival can join on equal terms. Source

Big budget
2009AlibabaRetail & CPG

Singles' Day

E-commerce

Alibaba turned 11 November, an informal day for single people in China, into a shopping festival.

Result Grew into what TechCrunch called China's $25 billion shopping festival.

Copy this Turn an informal day your audience already jokes about into your own sale event.
Why it spread

Owning a date gives a brand a sales event it controls every year. Source

Big budget
2025loveholidaysTravel

The living billboard

OOH

For Black Friday, rugby star Joe Marler lounged with a cocktail inside a glass-fronted billboard in Shoreditch.

Copy this Put a person inside a billboard acting out your offer (the holiday, the sofa, the calm) for one day.
Why it spread

A real person inside a billboard makes commuters stop, film and post. Source

Mid budget
2023WalmartRetail & CPG

The Mean Girls reunion

TV + social

Walmart's Black Friday ads reunited Lindsay Lohan, Amanda Seyfried and Lacey Chabert as grown-up versions of their Mean Girls characters.

Copy this Bring back a cast or character your audience quotes to announce your deals.
Why it spread

A cast everyone quotes makes a routine deals message worth watching and sharing. Source

Big budget

How to plan a Black Friday campaign

  1. Decide early whether you'll join the discounting or stand apart. Both can work; half-way rarely does.
  2. If you discount, make the sale an event, not just a percentage.
  3. If you don't, give people a clear reason and a story press can cover.
  4. Announce a week ahead. Black Friday coverage is written in advance.
  5. Report back afterwards: totals, what was funded, what you learned.

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Black Friday marketing ideas: FAQ

What are some good Black Friday marketing ideas?

Stand apart (close, buy back, or tell people not to buy), run a joke sale, give the day's profits to a cause, or make the sale an event with its own name and date.

What was Patagonia's Don't Buy This Jacket campaign?

On Black Friday 2011, Patagonia ran a full-page New York Times ad telling people not to buy its jacket, to encourage buying less and repairing more.

Can small brands do Black Friday differently?

Yes. A joke sale or a give-back costs little to run. Cards Against Humanity made $71,145 selling nothing.

When should you start Black Friday marketing?

Plan in September and announce in early November. Press and creators plan their Black Friday coverage weeks ahead.

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