How posterXXL Aced Their Golden Quarter Strategy From 2018 to Today
As it is for many brands, for posterXXL, one of Germany’s leading online retailers for photo products, the final months of the year are its most important. And in 2018 they had a challenge: having led with a performance-minded outlook for so long, how could they integrate brand into their strategy? And how could they produce a number of creatives that would fit all the different seasonal hooks – and on a lean budget to boot? That’s where DCMN came in with our Golden Quarter plus Q5 strategy.
Since 2004, posterXXL GmbH has been printing digital photos and images in a wide variety of formats for private and business customers. Currently, the brand operates in Germany, France, Austria, and the Benelux.
Objectives
- Make creatives that boost both performance and brand for online photo retailer posterXXL.
- Run successful Golden Quarter and Q5 campaigns over the course of many years.
Approach
- Having mastered their performance marketing approach, posterXXL came to DCMN wanting a new campaign that would set them apart from their rivals on a brand level.
- After working together for a year, they approached DCMN to produce extra creatives for them for the Golden Quarter and Q5 of 2018 that would achieve both their brand and performance aims on a lean budget.
- We produced two new creative concepts for TV and online (YouTube) but with 20 different TVC variations: for example we adapted the CTAs to reference different products, offers or seasonal events like Black Friday, Cyber Week and Christmas.
- These 20 spots aired between October and January, ensuring posterXXL could advertise at any point in the Golden Quarter and Q5 — with different offers and conditions.
- Some of the ads were such a hit that they stayed on air for two years until September 2020!
But first, it’s crucial to remember that at DCMN we organise our end-of-year calendar a little differently than just “Q4”. In our planning, the Golden Quarter is from October to Christmas Day, essentially the bulk of Q4, and is primetime for consumer spending. And then we add Q5: the period between Christmas and the end of January, which advertisers often ignore despite its efficiency and reach.
Our Munich-based team, in collaboration with our Creation and Production department, helped posterXXL make the most of both of these periods by producing just two creatives that could be adapted for different calendar hooks, including Black Friday, Christmas and the post-holiday Q5 period. Instead of producing different creatives for each calendar hook, posterXXL saved a lot of money with only one day of shooting resulting in 20 adaptations of the two TVCs.
Before rocking Golden Quarter and Q5, optimise your performance TV marketing
TV marketing is a tried and tested way to send your reach to the stars. But you want more than just eyeballs. You want campaigns that drive traction to your website or app – with measurable results.
“We’d been focused on performance-based marketing for so long, so it was refreshing when DCMN came to us in 2018 with their Brandformance approach. The creatives they produced were fun and innovative — and the evolution of our marketing strategy has worked wonders,“ says Markus Winkler, General Manager DACH, posterXXL
How did we make the creatives?
The process was a simple, yet effective, one. We produced two new TVCs in 15″ for TV and online (YouTube) that told a family story in a simple and appealing way, all leading up to the perfect photo moment. These were titled Mandel and Spüli. We aimed to make people smile, exude relatability and increase brand recognition with these spots — in addition to hitting posterXXL’s performance KPIs too.
To make sure these ads were truly flexible, we organised a photo shoot in which the products were featured on dedicated sets that were tailored towards the seasonal focus. For example, we even spray painted a Christmas tree black for Black Friday. Once the shoot was done, our motion designers ensured that the spots were adapted to add different calendar hooks. This meant that at every point between November and the end of January we had consistent and targeted ads ready to go on air. And there was no need to change the creatives after the Golden Quarter was over, as there were already variations made for the Q5 period.
What were the results of their Golden Quarter & Q5 strategy?
With strong and effective creatives, plus strong media planning, we were able to showcase how a Brandformance approach can elevate a brand beyond a growth plateau. We saw the brand increase its industry share by 15% over the year after the ads launched, while you could see the short-term impact just by looking at how the ads increased website visits from October to November ‘18 — with a 28% increase in visits to the posterXXL website month-on-month.
This Golden Quarter plus Q5 strategy has defined our approach for working with posterXXL to the current day. In fact, we used those iterations of the ads for two years before we refreshed them – undeniably saving the brand a lot of money – with the Mandel variation playing until December 2020. And throughout it all, even with the new versions, Brandformance remained a staple of posterXXL’s strategy — a sign that the performance-only approach isn’t the only way to boost your bottom line.
“Built for variety and to endure the high-pressure media setup of the Golden Quarter and Q5, our ads managed to excel in performance KPIs and increase brand awareness and likability at the same time. And they stayed on air for more than two years too!” says Jan Interthal, Creative Producer at DCMN
