This is unique, so immediately these guys got a lot of attention because they were doing something different.

A lot of news outlets and blogs and a lot of industry experts are looking for clever and cool things happening around the Royal Wedding. The benefits are, one, a lot of people are talking about this. They look for particular events like the Royal Wedding, and they created a product around that. This is different than Ice.com in that seasonality isn’t just a marketing piece for them. What these guys did was, it says, ‘The Royal Breakfast Company proudly presents special Kate’s and Will’s Royal O’s.” They took Cheerios-like cereal and corn flakes or similar cereal and branded the cereal box around the Royal Wedding. PEC: Another example involves the British Royal Wedding.įinkelstein: If you go to, you can see a very funny site. It’s a great example of a strong retailer that uses seasonality more so in their marketing.” But this is a really amazing store they view seasonality in a very compelling marketing sense. Maybe it’s the 4th of July, maybe it’s Labor Day, or Halloween or Christmas. When Father’s Day passes, they’ll be looking for something else. Even if you go to Ice.com today, one of the first things you see is it says “Get more face time with Dad” - the current campaign with Father’s Day.

They had this really amazing marketing push not just from other sites talking about Pinny’s interviews - which helped from an SEO perspective - but they really created a lot of energy around Valentine’s Day. He was able to generate some amazing content. What Ice.com did very early in its existence, when something like Valentine’s Day was coming around, Pinny Gniwisch himself would grab a camera and hit the streets in New York City, for example, and would ask people questions about Valentine’s Day, such as “Who’s your Valentine?,” “What are you doing for your Valentine?,” “Can you tell us a funny Valentine’s Day story?” It’s very compelling, one I’ve been looking at for quite a while. They’re one of the largest online jewelers. PEC: You have three examples of sites that use seasonality well.įinkelstein: The first is a really interesting site, Ice.com. But the truth they do very little business. They may leave it there dormant, and people can buy on it. In my experience, if a site is built around, for example, Valentine’s Day and all it sells are goods or services related to Valentine’s Day, a week after Valentine’s Day, the owners might not pull the site down. PEC: Have you seen sites that have launched around a specific seasonal event or a specific special event and then go down?įinkelstein: No. We’re seeing a lot of great success from stores that are utilizing the timing and the seasonality. Second, other sites are there throughout the year and time a lot of their marketing pieces and many of their campaigns with a certain event - whether it’s the Super Bowl, Mother’s Day, or Father’s Day. They’re up for Mother’s Day, perhaps they’re down until Christmas, and then maybe Halloween they come back up, and then they’re back up Valentine’s Day. Something that I’ve been noticing over the last couple of years is that there are two categories of ecommerce sites that utilize seasonality almost as a competitive advantage.įirst, some sites are built around seasonality entirely. Harley Finkelstein: A lot of online retailers are searching for new ways and new tactics to not only get eyeballs to their site but also to get some general attention.

Seasonality core for ios