Chief Marketer: Shutterfly CMO explains holiday marketing campaign

Chief Marketer writer April Berthene caught up with Shutterfly CMO Bree Casart, who spelled out the company’s fourth-quarter marketing plans.

“While some consumers may be looking to spend less this season, they still intend to spend on holiday traditions and gifts with meaning,” Casart said to Berthene. Shutterfly’s tagline is similar to prior years: “Make something that means something.” 

Consumers can hear the tagline in the retailer’s first-ever jingle that it’s using in video ads to create a direct-response element, Casart said.  

“There’s a lot of power in that stickiness, which we’ve actually seen through testing of the concept,” she said. “We know it created both a stronger intent to buy and brand awareness — having a jingle in the spot,” she said.  

“Make something that means something” was Shutterfly’s tagline for the 2024 holiday season as well. The brand had a “good” season last year and found that this tagline resonated with shoppers and would likely again this year, Casart said.   “We prepare for this moment all year long, and we have been doing a lot of incrementality testing across our paid digital channels. We have found some very strong results, particularly in search engine marketing; We see value in CTV, YouTube, and of course, our paid social channels.” 

Part of Cesart’s challenge is to adapt to AI search, which is she said, the company is well-positioned to handle.

“Maybe five years ago, you might have simply searched ‘Best holiday cards,” Casart said. “Now, customers are searching, ‘Modern holiday cards with an evergreen tree.’ So with much more specificity. And we don’t only want to bid on those terms and paid search, but we want to make sure that we’re showing up in those organic searches as well. So we’ve been optimizing our website content to make sure that whatever a customer is looking for, if we have it, we show up in those search results.” 

Another way to prepare for the shift to AI search is to ensure it has relevant content not only on its website, “but everywhere shoppers look for information by working with public relations firms, partnering with content creators, and having robust product reviews.”  

Shutterfly is collaborating on an exclusive card and ornament line with influencer brand “Chris Loves Julia” and is also is working with children’s pajama brand Little Sleepies with a collection of cards and ornaments that match the brand’s patterns of holiday pajamas.