For many retailers, Black Friday once again did not live up to the hype. As predicted, sales at retail stores fell 10% to $10.4 billion on Black Friday, down from $11.6 billion in 2014, according to research firm ShopperTrak. Cyber Monday faired a little better, beating projections according to Adobe. But overall, the kick-off to the holiday shopping season left a lot to be desired, and many brands are now left scrambling to make up their sales for the rest of the holiday shopping season.
From a social perspective, there were a few brands that knocked it out of the park and leveraged the crazy weekend to increase their brand value. Kohl’s ran a social sweepstakes campaign that earned the brand more than 112,000 mentions on Twitter in the days leading up to Black Friday—more than any other brand—according to data from social marketing firm Spredfast. Cards Against Humanity ran a campaign where consumers spent $5 to buy nothing. It was a clever campaign that got a lot of buzz on social, and somehow racked up around $33,000 for the company. And finally, REI closed all of its stores for Black Friday, and instead encouraged shoppers to #OptOutside, giving the brand widespread praise.
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