Holiday Branding

1st edition — by Patrick McNeil — Nov. 15, 2006

The Design Element

Holiday branding is a design element that you mostly find in high budget corporate web sites. You will see this reflected in the sites below: ', 145)";>Starbucks, ', 145)";>ebay, and ', 145)";>Target , all huge names with gigantic budgets. This serves them well as it keeps in line with their in store holiday branding. Starbucks in particular does this very well.

I was recently in a Starbucks and immediately noticed that the new holiday elements in the store matched the web site perfectly. It is really awesome to see big companies that can create such a unified message. Consider how many departments had to communicate and agree on this stuff to get it all together. Many great ideas like this die in committee in a corporation; then again, maybe they just got an early start. Either way, the end message is ultimately positive.

So if anything it tells me these are vibrant active companies, exactly the type of place I want to do business with. I don't see this same sort of message coming out of other big retailers and it is ironically inline with my opinion of them

The Small Guy

I believe the small guy could use this sort of element effectively as well. Even a subtle element like a santa hat on your logo, or an elf peaking around a photo. This element might even be more powerful for the little guy. Everyone knows the small sites don't have teams or budgets or all day to sit around and make holly leaves to put on a site. So if you do take the time to do it, it shows you value your site very very much. That you give it lots of attention. That the content it contains is the best you have, the most you have, and is continuously updated. I believe showing activity in a subtle way can reveal a truth about you to your audience. It shows your commitment to your site.

So where is the Design Meltdown holiday branding? Well, after I get caught up on the four sites I am working on I will get right on that!

So here is where I ask for your help. If you run a small site and you have some holiday branding, please send me your site. For that matter, send me any sites you find with holiday branding!

Sample Usage

Links

7 Tips on preparing your site for the holidays

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