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Maximising autumnal marketing: Pumpkin Spice or Maple Hazel? 🎃 🍁

Did you know the average time spent online six hours and 40 minutes per day? We’re consuming more content than ever before. There’s so much to take in! For marketers, this means it’s important to create content that stands out from the crowd. A great way to do this is proactive content marketing, but what is it and what does it look like?

Pumpkin spice lattes, cosy, candlelit evenings, spooky films and well, pumpkins in general, are all things that come to mind when you think about autumn. And it’s hard to avoid all of these things during October and November, as many companies embrace the autumnal spirit and paint the town orange.

Did you know the average time spent online six hours and 40 minutes per day? We’re consuming more content than ever before. There’s so much to take in! For marketers, this means it’s important to create content that stands out from the crowd. A great way to do this is proactive content marketing, but what is it and what does it look like?

Proactive Marketing 🗓️

Proactive marketing is the creation and distribution of content that can be planned well in advance. This approach is often based on market research and existing data. It allows you to produce an effective plan and create valuable content tailored to your target audience. These well-thought-out seasonal campaigns are perfect examples of proactive marketing.

Starbucks’ autumn campaign 🎃

For many, the autumnal season begins with the release of the Pumpkin Spice Latte. Each year Starbucks’ seasonal campaign is fresh and exciting. The brand taps into the anticipation and aesthetic that surrounds the iconic beverage. Whilst the coffeehouse caters to a wide target audience, its social media content leans into trends, aesthetics, and is visually appealing to engage with their millennial audience. And Starbucks isn’t afraid to have fun with their campaigns, showing you can do both!

Costa’s autumn campaign 🍁

Knowing that the Pumpkin Spice Latte is arguably its biggest competitor, Costa has taken an innovative approach with its seasonal campaign. From a ‘Pumpkin Flavour Blocker,’ to clever copywriting, Costa is encouraging customers to break up with Pumpkin Spice and favour Maple Hazel. Costa is collaborating with digital illustrators to create and share a sequence of content titled: ‘There’s 50 ways to leave your Pumpkin Latte with Costa Coffee.’

How to be proactive in your marketing? ❓

Looking to incorporate proactive content marketing into your strategy?

• Conduct research to understand your target audience.
• Generate a customer persona to create marketing campaigns tailored to the needs of your audience.
• Develop a content marketing strategy and create informative, value-led content that will educate and engage your audience.
• Create a measurement plan and monitor your content regularly, this way you can track which content is or isn’t performing.

Continuously improve your strategy and content based on data and feedback.