Katie Bott
Creative Lead
The hard part isn't getting a Black Friday campaign out. It's getting one noticed. When everyone uses the same black backgrounds, the same red price tags and the same countdown timers, the brands that win are the ones that still look like themselves.
We've designed Black Friday campaigns that ran everywhere from Instagram stories to large-format outdoor screens in Manchester and London. Here's what we've learned about making them work.
Start with the offer, then design the campaign
Great design can't rescue a muddled offer. Before anything is designed, decide what the single offer is, who it's for, and exactly when it starts and ends. "Up to 40% off selected lines" is much harder to design around than "30% off everything, this weekend only". The clearer the offer, the bolder the creative can be.
Look like your brand, not like Black Friday
It's tempting to drop your brand guidelines for the week and go full black and neon. But a customer scrolling past twenty Black Friday ads needs to know in a split second that this one is yours. Keep your typeface, your colour palette and your tone of voice, then build the urgency on top. A premium brand can run a sale without looking like a discount warehouse.
That was the thinking behind our Black Friday campaign for William Wood. The visuals carried the brand first and the offer second, so the same creative worked across social, email, the website and, eventually, outdoor screens.
Design a campaign system, not a single poster
One hero image isn't a campaign. Over a single week you might need Instagram and Facebook posts and stories, LinkedIn graphics if you sell to other businesses, email headers, website banners, product page badges, paid social ads in several sizes, and in-store signage or print.
Designing all of these from one system (a set layout, a clear type hierarchy, a colour rule for prices and a few motion rules) keeps everything consistent. It also makes it quick to produce new versions when the offer changes for Cyber Monday.
Add movement
Motion graphics stop the scroll in a way static images rarely do. An animated price reveal, a product sliding in, a countdown that ticks: a few seconds of movement is enough. Animated posts give you an edge on Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn, and they're essential if your campaign is going anywhere near a digital screen.
For William Wood, the campaign visuals were animated and cut into a montage that ran on large-format outdoor screens, including the screen on Axis Tower in Manchester. Planning the animation from the start, rather than as an afterthought, is what made that possible.
Design for where people will see it
Every placement has its own rules. On a phone, text needs to be big and short. On a website banner, the offer has to work in a strip a few centimetres high. On a digital billboard you might have six to ten seconds, so it needs one message, very large type and strong contrast. Designing for each space, rather than shrinking one image to fit, is what separates a professional campaign from a rushed one.
Plan your timeline backwards
Black Friday has stretched into "Black November" for many retailers. If you want early access, a weekend sale and a Cyber Monday extension, work back from 27 November:
Three to four weeks out: agree the offer and the campaign idea
Two to three weeks out: design the core assets and motion
One to two weeks out: build email, web and ad variations, and book any outdoor screen slots
Launch week: schedule everything, and keep a designer free for quick changes
If you're reading this in mid November, there's still time to do it properly, but it's worth starting this week.
Don't forget the day after
Once the sale ends, update your website banners, remove expired offers and switch social back to your normal content. Black Friday graphics left on a homepage in December make a brand look neglected. It's also the right moment to note what performed best, so next year's campaign starts with evidence instead of guesswork.
Black Friday campaign checklist
One clear offer with fixed start and end dates
A campaign look that's unmistakably your brand
A full set of assets for social, email, web and ads
At least one piece of motion
Sizes and messages adapted to each placement
A plan for Cyber Monday and for taking it all down
If you'd like a Black Friday or Christmas campaign that looks like you and gets noticed, we design campaigns, social media content and motion graphics for retailers, e-commerce brands and service businesses across Cheshire, Manchester and the UK. Get in touch for a quick chat about what's possible in the time you have.
