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Whilst it may feel like the summer holidays are only just over, late August/September is the best time to start planning your Christmas content but you really should almost ready to push the ‘Green button’ and start production by early October, So now is the best time to be super focused on that all import Christmas marketing campaign.   

With the roles of high street and online stores reversing over the last 18 months, the need to get your digital seasonal marketing campaign right is now more important than ever and you may need to be more omnipresent meaning you need to create more content than you did last year to stand out against your competition.  

So planning ahead allows you time to ensure that you can deliver the last projects of the year with the least amount of stress. 

Here are 5 reasons why you need to be selecting your production partners asap: 

1-Find the ‘right studio or artist’ for you rather than rushing to find a studio with availability at the last minute.  This is a very common problem which results in us receiving a flurry of enquiries very late into the year which means that our clients are forced to work under pressure to deliver their campaign in very short time frames, which is often a shame as many of our clients have had the ideas already  thought out well in advance. Our philosophy is that it’s important to work with the right expert and not who is available at the time, because is that it’s never too early to start building your content especially if its built in 3D which can take some time to setup and you want to make sure you have the best person secured to do the right type of work. At Imaginar we are always more than happy to jump on a call to discuss ideas with our clients and advise on the best ways to make their ideas come to life whilst working within available budgets and most importantly making sure your project requirement is matched to the right artist. 

2-Get booked in with a studio in ‘well in advance’ to ensure that your project will be completed in time.  Let’s face it, a lot of Christmas marketing goes live well before December!  Agreeing your brief with plenty of time for the studio to complete it will not only ensure you have time to make any tweaks/changes you may want but will also keep costs down but most importantly it allows the studio to book the perfect artist for your project as we are a great fan of working with the right artist or team who have expert experience in their particular niche and not lose out to your competition who may book these people before you can.  

3-Choose the right content type for your campaign and price point.  If you leave your content to the last minute, you may not have enough time to make the content that you want.  For example, a 3D animation will take a lot longer to produce than a 2D image and if you want to make some kind of innovated interactive content you need to give yourself enough time to beta test the platform you are deploying it onto before it goes live.  Understanding the pros and cons of working in each type of media  could help you to avoid having to find work arounds and solutions to hit your deadlines that may not be exactly what you wanted!   

This is where working with an expert creative production teams who can offer multiple styles and formats all under one roof can speed up decision making processes, production time and reduce costs because a simple understanding for example the difference between 2D and 3D production times can be critical when designing your campaigns especially if you are slightly behind on finalising a campaign idea.  

4-Agree a fixed scope of work with the studio in advance of the production.  Having a fixed scope of work will ensure that you are able to keep within your budget with minimal amends.  Last minute projects and changes without a fixed scope will often overrun both in timescales and budget. So we advise you get your chosen production partner involved ‘as soon as you can’ as they may just be able to spot creative opportunities which you may have missed because of their extensive experience working with other brands and projects.  

5-Maximise the return on your investment!  The earlier you have your content in the public domain, the longer/more you can use it resulting in a higher ROI!  

Think about how many platforms you can use your content on and get it out early ..this gives you the ability gauge the reaction of a campaign and then make quick additions and iterations to your media tool kit that you may want to deploy across below the line social media platforms where ad space does not have to be booked in advance and does not come with the premium price tag but you can reach a wider audience. 

Bonus Idea! when planning your Christmas idea why not make an adaption of your campaign quickly and easily for the NEW YEAR !!!  by creating content in advance of the Christmas holidays when everything shuts down and everyone is enjoying some well earnt R&R.  Why not get match ready for the NEW YEAR and get your product or service scheduled and launched while your potential audiences are all at home looking for things to entertain them or spend their money on !!!  we noticed so many clients just concentrate on Christmas content and miss out on the opportunity to adapt their Christmas campaign cost effectively and efficiently with some well-considered adaptions. 

A bit about us…. ‘Imaginar’ is the original ‘creative collective’ established in 2007 we have built a well-respected reputation for creating premium quality digital content and being known as ‘The people who can make the impossible real’ having built a team of some of the most talented artists and imagineers from around the world.   

Our creative services have grown year on year enabling us to offer an ‘end to end’ creative service from expert specialist creative consultancy to help you get your campaign ‘production ready’ all the way  through to final broadcast ready content that will wow your audiences. 

If you would like to see some of our previous festive work then please feel free to click the image below to take you to our Christmas Portfolio.