From husbands, grandfathers, and stepfathers to godparents, mentors, and dads of furry-four-legged friends, Father’s Day is celebrated in all shapes and sizes. Just like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day presents an opportunity for brands to make meaningful connections with customers and boost their KPIs in the process.
Like with any sentiment-driven holiday, we’ll be looking at ways that marketers can create promotions that resonate and customer experiences that stick. We’ll also explore creative campaigns from recent years that are at once clever and memorable to boost long-term brand awareness and repeat purchases.
Father’s Day by the Numbers
According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), 75% of Americans planned to show dads their love in 2021. This translated to total spending of $20.1 billion — the highest record yet since the NRF began its survey in 2003.
The top three American Father’s Day gifts in 2021 were greeting cards, clothing, and special outings. According to Hallmark, the holiday remains the fourth largest occasion for sending cards in the United States, with 72 million Father’s Day cards purchased each year.
Meanwhile, clothing remained a tried and tested gift option. Consumers also became more comfortable going out in 2021 after the lifting of national and local restrictions and increased vaccinations. The majority of gift-givers were tech-savvy customers between the ages of 18 and 44.
6 Best Practices for Father’s Day Marketing Campaigns
Whether you’re a preloved brand like White Rose or not, explore the marketing strategies below to create promotions that resonate and customer experiences that stick.
1. Have a Landing Page Specific to Father’s Day
Shoppers will arrive to your site from many channels — be it from an ad, a search engine, an email, or social media. Having a landing page on your online shop ensures that customers can jump into Father’s Day shopping from the get-go.
Make sure you direct shoppers’ attention to the landing page with captivating banners or a special section in the navigation menu. In terms of content, incorporate inspirational galleries for buyers that feature top-selling products for fathers from specific demographics. Product suggestions based on users’ previous purchases or real-time browsing behavior can also make the landing page more relevant for Father’s Day.
2. Build Persona-Based Gift Buying Guides
Customers are keen on celebrating every father’s individuality. You can cater to this type of buying behavior with gift guides aligned to their various interests. Is the dad athletic or adventurous? Can they create tools? Are they grilling aficionados? Inject the guides with user-generated videos and social proof, so customers have an easier time envisioning dads using your products.
For a more tailored approach, add a personal touch to the gifts, which can be as simple as engravings or a greeting card. Exclusive gifts that tell a story also create memories that shoppers will closely link with your brand.
3. Adjust Pricing Accordingly
Encourage potential buyers to purchase Father’s Day items at special prices. You can prioritize such products in the search results, particularly for those on the hunt for the perfect gift.
You can also recommend Father’s Day-related products no matter where customers are in the buying journey. Suggesting items that complement what customers are searching for is a great way to encourage larger basket sizes.
4. Create Reminders and Urgency
The best time to build excitement is when shoppers are already on your website. Add promotional copy on the product detail page to instill a sense of urgency. Countdown banners or popups are simple yet proven ways to achieve that.
Send timely Father’s Day email reminders to your subscriber list and give them a reason to visit your store through product previews. You can also use the power of email through abandoned cart reminders and entice visitors to pick up where they left off.
5. Be a Social Butterfly
Meet shoppers where they are. By the time shoppers search for what they’ve seen on social media channels, your on-site search engine should be primed to deliver hyper-relevant results. Boost this with a visual-AI-powered deep tagging layer.
To make things more intuitive, simply allow shoppers to search your products using an image. Other ideas include collaborating with influencers, giveaways exclusive to social media platforms, and hashtags that encourage followers to create Father’s Day posts as part of a contest entry.
6. Deliver Seamless Customer Journeys
At the end of the day, the ultimate goal is to make the shopping journey frictionless. By helping shoppers find the perfect Father’s Day gift, your brand can reap the benefits of winning not only one-time buyers but long-term customers.
Brands can optimize the customer experience from product discovery to recommendation carousels. Ensuring your backend operations, such as product tags and inventory, are updated is also a must.
6 Standout Father’s Day Campaigns
There’s no single way to be a dad, but these campaigns were able to capture the nuances of being a parent while celebrating fatherhood in a relatable way.
For Dove Men+Care’s 2020 campaign, fatherhood was seen in the context of the pandemic. The video is a collection of clips and photos from social media showing dads bonding with their children at home, practicing good hygiene, and holding down the fort. Besides being timely and relatable, the ad acknowledged that different types of fathers show up in different situations. Dove also made donations and resources available for at-home parents.
Carhartt’s Heartfelt Video
“Canvas of My Life” may be considered a run-of-the-mill Father’s Day ad, although it realistically portrayed what it’s like to be a dad with a sentimental undercurrent. In the video, Jason Momoa discusses fatherhood along with other dads. What makes it unique is that the brand was able to connect its values, such as hard work and determination, to the importance of fathers by featuring real-life parents. The use of Carhartt products in the campaign was also bridged in an organic rather than a forced way.
Michelob Ultra’s Combination of Social and Advocacy
Dads can be found in the form of stepfathers, sports coaches, and teachers. Through the hashtag #UltraDad, Michelob Ultra was able to engage with customers and drive attention towards their products. The campaign also supported a social cause, and the company made a $1 donation to the nonprofit organization Up2Us for every mention of the hashtag on social media.
Dollar Shave Club’s Sense of Humor
Dollar Shave Club opted for recognizing the different manifestations of the “Dad bod.” Known for its humorous ads, the brand knows that its target market is often not one for gifts, which is why it released a DadBod gift set. The special edition kit includes razors, lotions, and shampoos, which are perfect for everyday use.
Tic Tac’s Limited Edition Perk
In 2019, Tic Tac released a customized pair of cufflinks that could hold Tic Tac mints for dads to freshen their breath in an unusual yet convenient way. The accessories are sleek and created with handcrafted white gold detailing. The limited edition pieces could only be won through an Instagram contest that had dads posing with a Tic Tac Giphy sticker.
Canali’s Interactive Multichannel Experience
The Italian luxury menswear brand Canali provided an interactive Father’s Day experience on mobile, making a seamless transition from online to offline. Using WeChat, the luxury menswear brand sent dads warm letters with an animated video at the end, directing them to browse an assortment of gift options and where to buy them in-store. A similar approach was also executed in American and European markets, where Canali launched video and photo campaigns on social media, email, and the brand website.
Bonus Tips for Second-Hand Brands
For Father’s Day 2022, Syte spoke with White Rose, one of our clients in the sustainability sphere. White Rose was established in 2009 as a social enterprise by two Nottingham Trent University graduates who were inspired by the work of Aegis Trust.
For the shop, which currently offers hand-picked recycled clothes for men, women, and children, gift cards are a mainstay both online and offline. “We don’t see a rise in the last-minute gift rush, but gift cards are our most searched-for item this time of the year. They can be spent in-store or online to shop for trainers, trousers, dresses, and similar,” explained White Rose.
As part of its 2022 Father’s Day campaign, White Rose shared a few of its strategies with us, including:
- Creating a dedicated page on-site with Father’s Day gift ideas, as well as showcasing gift-appropriate donations in-store
- Promoting gift cards, which is all the more important for vintage brands, as the selection is both unique and limited
- Sharing the Father’s Day sale and promo code across its social media channels to generate awareness outside of White Rose’s online and brick-and-mortar shops
Win Shoppers With Flawless Gift-Buying Journeys
Father’s Day is an opportunity to connect with customers and make them feel seen. With carefully planned strategies, you can succeed in creating seamless shopping experiences that lead to valuable customer interactions, more reach, and continued loyalty.
With your core customers and brand values in mind, you have many opportunities to craft out-of-the-box experiences, be distinct, and delight dads and their gifters – not only on Father’s Day but all year round.