What Cheesy Christmas Movies can Teach YOu about Marketing
It’s that time of year when Hallmark debuts their cult-favorite Christmas movies.
I, for one, am a fan. A HUGE fan.
There’s nothing more I’d rather do than sit on my couch and watch someone needing to come home again for Christmas.
A girl uprooting her carefully curated life for an ex-boyfriend who’s struggling with their business. Or a scrooge who somehow gets their long lost Christmas spirit back.
It truly is a thing of miracles.
This season, I noticed a few psychological triggers I hadn’t noticed before.
Maybe it’s my honed marketing eye, or perhaps I’ve seen them so many times I can recite the movie on demand.
Whatever it is, I saw my favorite cheesy Christmas movies in a whole new light this year.
Mistletoe Match — A Tale of Psychological Triggers
Although not a Hallmark movie, Mistletoe Match has the same formula.
A single woman, Olivia, meets a man, Thomas, at a singles event. The Secret Santa Singles Event, if we’re being technical.
They don’t hit it off at first (surprise, surprise) but end up finding love.
The two psychological triggers I saw within the first 20 minutes of the movie were Reciprocity and Social Proof.
Olivia is a reporter for a newspaper in New York, tasked with going undercover at this event to see what makes it sooo successful. She’s a little jaded, so she’s looking at this event with a critical eye.
Thomas, a father, a widow, and a children’s art teacher, is also looking at this event with a critical eye.
While at the first event, these two meet, realize they have people in common, look around the room and after hearing different conversations of awkward small talk decide, yeah, we’re not putting ourselves through this.
For the sake of these events, we’re dating.
Showing reciprocity- you do something for me, and I’ll do something for you.
You might use this tactic in your business, whether to get an email subscriber or a new customer.
You give something of value in hopes that the person will give you something in return.
The second psychological trigger has to do with Thomas and, well, everyone who attends the Secret Santa Singles Event.
Thomas’s friend attended the event last year and found that special person he’ll spend every Christmas with until the end of time. Just like seemingly everyone else who attended.
This wasn’t some regular regular degular singles event. No, this event was THE event to attend if you wanted to find love.
Thomas’s friend told him he needed to go to the event to find love because HE found love.
People went to the event because of the reputation it holds.
Social proof can be seen at work here.
No one would go to this event expecting they’d find love if it wasn’t screamed about from the rooftop!
Social proof is basically someone co-signing on what it is you’re doing.
Have you used social proof when marketing your business? Maybe had a well-known influencer use your product/ services and talk about it?
Holly’s Holiday- Focused On The Future
This movie starts with Holly, an advertising executive focused on having “the perfect life.” The perfect job, the perfect apartment, the perfect man… you get it.
While talking on the phone with her colleague about a new campaign due right before Christmas, Holly gets caught up in the bustle of holiday shoppers and pedestrians.
She trips over her heels and falls on the concrete in front of a department store.
When she comes to, there’s a handsome man above her, hand extended, to help her up.
Holly takes his hand and is instantly smitten. Plot twist: this handsome stranger is not a man but is, in fact, a mannequin.
Unsplash photo by Robinson Greig
Holly finds love at the end of the movie, but is it with the handsome man-nequin or someone else in her life? You’ll have to watch the movie to find out.
The marketing tactic I noticed while watching this movie is another psychological trigger: Future Pacing.
Holly’s perfect man-nequin, Bo, has a surprise for her. The surprise? His parents (I wish I was joking, especially since they’ve only been on a handful of dates).
Bo brings his parents (also mannequins) to Holly’s apartment for dinner.
Over dinner, Bo’s parents shared how they met and fell in love while also showing off their poses (something Bo did during his and Holly’s first date).
Overwhelmed by the surprise and events of the dinner, Holly excuses herself and goes to the bathroom.
While in there, she overhears Bo’s plans for their lives with his parents (they’ll have 3 kids and a golden retriever). He’s planning for them to have “the perfect life.”
You can see Future Pacing at work in this scene. Holly has always wanted a perfect life, and Bo shared his plan to give it to her.
The catch is she can only get it if she stays with him.
Maybe you’ve used Future Pacing while marketing your brand?
Made claims of what your customers’ lives will look like after using your product.
Or sharing how they’ll feel if they don’t use your product or service.
If so, you’re giving your audience a look into their future, whatever action they decide to take.
Christmas on My Mind- The Tale of a Wakeup Call
This Hallmark movie is one of my favorites. The movie begins with Lucy, a former art teacher who took over her aunt’s art foundation, running out of a bridal shop.
Wedding dress in hand, Lucy slips on a piece of ice, falls, and bumps her head. She is face to face with a donation Santa clause when she comes to.
Santa helps her up as Lucy asks where they are. She hails a cab and is off- seemingly to see her fiancé.
However, she ends up at a familiar restaurant owned by the family of the unbeknownst to her, former fiancé.
It turns out that the fall she took gave her retrograde amnesia, and she’s unable to remember the last two years of her life!
Can Lucy figure out what happened to her first engagement and who she will marry? It’s a Hallmark movie so I’ll let you guess.
The most significant marketing tactic I noticed is actually a storytelling tactic, The Wakeup Call. The Wakeup Call has three parts.
There’s a crisis — your main character may not even know there is a crisis. Here, Lucy has a crisis- she can’t remember the past two years of her life.
How did they get here — Lucy stays in her old hometown of Bedford Harbor to figure out why she and her former fiancé broke up and how she became the person she is today.
What’s the calling — Lucy discovers why she and her former fiancé, Zach, broke up and decides what to do.
You see this storytelling tactic in a lot of disaster and hero movies. But I’m curious if you can find a way to use it to market your brand?
Married by Christmas — Scarcity for christmas
Carrie has her eyes set on taking over the family business when her Dad retires.
So when she finds out there’s a clause in her Grandmother’s will granting the company to the husband of the first sibling to be married. Carrie is anything but happy.
She realizes in that moment she has no love interest and her sister is set to be married by Christmas. Carrie needs a plan!
Typical Hallmark movie hijinks ensue, but the end isn’t anything you could imagine.
J/K its a Hallmark movie, there’s only a few ways it can end.
The marketing tactic I noticed while watching this gem of a Hallmark movie was Scarcity. Another psychological trigger.
Scarcity is used to elicit a response and is positioned as “we’re almost sold out,” “times running out,” or “these deals won’t be here for long.” It can be either time or product amount Scarcity.
Carrie is dealing with time scarcity.
She only has a limited amount of time to find a man, make them fall in love with her, and marry her before her sister gets married.
To ensure she gets control of the business she’s been working and investing her time into for years.
Carrie ultimately ends up happy, which is what matters in the long run, right?
What kind of Scarcity can you use to market your brand?
Although the holiday season is wrapping up, it shows that even the corniest movies can teach you something if you’re open to it.
Will you watch cheesy Christmas movies with a different eye now? You should. You never know how one can help you market your brand.
