Christmas at the shopping center: how to plan your content

Planning a shopping center's Christmas content means planning an entire season. What works well is defining in October or November a core idea, a calendar in stages and the formats for each screen, and leaving spare capacity for whatever comes up in December.

December concentrates everything at once: gifts, promotions, extended hours, events, year end and many brands competing for the same attention. If each piece is thought out separately, the month ends up as a string of ads that look nothing alike.

Why December is planned as a season

A shopping center's Christmas has stages, and each one calls for something different. First the season has to be established. Then, help people decide on gifts. Closer to the 24th, communicate hours, benefits and urgency. And between Christmas and New Year, keep up the presence without repeating the same thing.

Thinking about those stages from the start changes the production. Instead of one video stretched over four weeks, a main piece and a system of pieces that accompany it are planned. It is the same logic worth applying to video for shopping centers throughout the year.

How a core idea organizes all the pieces of the month

The core idea is what makes all the pieces of the month recognizable as part of the same thing. It does not have to be complicated. It has to be able to carry promotions, gifts, hours and events without breaking.

We saw it in Noche Shopping at DOT. The date had to communicate promotions, hours and benefits amid very heavy advertising competition. The idea was to portray the night as a marathon: visitors get ready, go through the shopping center, find deals and pile up bags while the pace builds. The piece entertains first and organizes the promotional information afterwards.

Why it is worth combining several languages on the same date

Not everything has to be video. Within the same Noche Shopping campaign, DOT had a second execution in pixel art, where the facade became a video game's start screen, and a carousel that took up a social media trend in which the swipe gesture was part of the idea.

Three different languages, one date and one logic. That variety is what keeps a high-frequency campaign from wearing out in a week. The same goes for Christmas: the main piece can be audiovisual, and simpler, faster formats sit around it.

The shopping center's screens call for their own design

In December, indoor screens, totems and outdoor work harder than in any other month. And each has its rules: reading distance, exposure time, no sound, extreme proportions.

A piece designed for social media does not work the same way on a vertical LED screen seen from another floor. That is why formats are defined in the brief, not when the piece is already finished. We explain it step by step in how to adapt a campaign to several formats and screens.

How to design hours, benefits and promotions

Extended hours, benefits with conditions, prize draws, bank promotions. In December, a good part of the content is information, and information can also be handled with judgment.

A promotion with many conditions does not have to look like a static card. With motion graphics, the information can be organized in layers, the reading guided and clarity kept without making the piece complicated. What matters is that the tactical content looks like part of the same campaign and not a last-minute addition.

How to add the season's own events

Within the season there are usually moments of the shopping center's own: a shopping night with extended hours, Santa's arrival, an activation in the food court, an event for kids. Each one is a content opportunity if it is planned within the system.

The logic is the same as for any long date: a core idea that does not change, a piece of its own for each moment and a reserved slot in the calendar. That way, each event adds to the campaign instead of competing with it. Christmas closes the year; we organize the rest of the dates in the 2027 retail calendar for shopping centers.

A work calendar for a shopping center's Christmas

Each shopping center has its own approval times, but a sequence that usually organizes the season well is this one:

• October or early November: objective, core idea and map of formats and screens.

• November: production of the main piece and of the pieces that do not depend on exact dates.

• Late November: adaptations for each format and tactical versions with room for hours and benefits.

• December: capacity reserved for what cannot be planned, such as a trend, an event or a last-minute change.

That last part is the one most often forgotten. Retail lives close to culture, and December almost always brings something that was not in the plan. Having room to produce it well is part of the planning. We cover this in Retail and shopping centers: content is the bottleneck.

Frequently asked questions

When should a shopping center start planning its Christmas content?

Ideally between October and early November. That margin makes it possible to define the idea, produce the main piece without rushing and have the adaptations and tactical pieces ready before December.

Is video needed for everything?

No. A seasonal campaign works better when it combines a main audiovisual piece with simpler formats, such as carousels, animated cards or pieces for screens, all within the same idea.

How do you keep the campaign from repeating itself all month?

By planning stages with different messages and varying the language within a single idea. The identity stays and the execution changes.

If you are putting together your shopping center's Christmas, tell us what you have in mind or see our work for shopping centers.