The document highlights effective Christmas email marketing campaigns from various brands in 2014, showcasing their catchy subject lines, engaging designs, and focused messaging that intrigued recipients amidst the festive season's email clutter. It features successful strategies like urgency in offers, personalized touches, and creative visuals that effectively captured the attention of consumers. The compilation aims to serve as inspiration for marketers looking to enhance their holiday email campaigns.

1. Email
BOOK
Mini
WOW

2. Christmas is a time when email marketers ramp it up a
notch and produce their best efforts to get us to engage
with their fantastically festive campaigns. Whether it’s
express delivery promotions to ensure gifts arrive on time,
huge sales and discounts, or gift guide emails, our inbox is
brimming with information and offers at this time of year.
2014 was no exception and we were especially impressed by
the quality of emails this time round. Having been inspired by
the great content, we compiled all the best emails and put
together another edition of our Christmas Wow Book.
So here it is
‘
the Red C Christmas Email “Mini
Wow Book”. We hope it brings you
some inspiration the same way
it has for us.
Enjoy!
Steve White
Strategy Director
Contents
Topshop
The Body Shop UK
F RESH
Boden
Virgin Trains
Top man
Nails Inc
Boden
Accessorize
Victoria’s Sec ret
Next
Ciate
Apple
ASOS
Christmas2014The Email
Mini Wow Book

3. Date: 24 December 2014
Subject line: Christmas came early! Up to
50% off in the sale
Topshop
Hannah Walker
Artworker
Jessica Williams
Account Manager
Date: 23rd December, 2014
Subject line: GIFT TEAM to
the rescue!
The BodyShop
With a subject line of ‘Christmas came
early!’ and the promise of up to 50% off
in the sale, this email grabbed my
attention straight away.The header panel
reminds customers to order in time to
receive their purchase for New Year’s Eve
– keeping Topshop front of the mind in
the post-Christmas sales.The animated
gif ‘ready, set, sale’ was what really caught
my eye in this email.The simplicity of the
design and messaging, which focused on
the sale rather than on lots of products,
made it more memorable when I was
shopping for a NYE outfit!
We all know how busy the Christmas
period can be, and the panic that ensues
when you realise you’ve left someone off
your list. Luckily,The Body Shop offered a
helping hand with their Gift Rescue team
‘It’s not too late, we can help!’ they cried
and presented a bold CTA inviting us in
store to take advantage of their aid, as
well as a generous 40% off! The single
minded messaging and lack of clutter
meant that this email stood out against
other Christmas emails that showed a
range of products and gifts, because the
focus stayed on the offer and service. Eye
tracking research shows that people are
drawn to the left hand side of an email and
the inclusion of a picture of a real member
of the gift team was a great personal touch.

4. Date: 17 December 2014
Subject line: Perfect gift picks from
Fresh fans + FREE FACE MASK!
Fresh
Sonya Clibbens
Senior Art Director
I love this email as there’s no messing
around! The bright and bold design gets
straight to the point and there’s no way
you can miss the great offer and tips
for shopping online in the Boden sale.
Naturally, sale emails flood into everyone’s
inbox in January but Boden kindly give
you the option to unsubscribe for a short
while to evade their sale messages – this
was a great addition to the email and a
reminder that great customer service can
be achieved through email.
Chris Morey
Account Manager
Date: 16 December, 2014
Subject line: Get straight to your
size | Up to 50% off
Boden
There’s usually someone on everyone’s
Christmas list who is notoriously hard to
buy for! I loved this email from Fresh
because rather than simply showing
products to buy, each one came with a
customer review which is a great touch
for a Christmas email.The animated gif
of the presents stacking up one by one
made an impact. I also really love the
clean look of this email and the use of
simple and clean photography as it’s
really easy to follow. Plus the reviews
make Christmas-gift-buying easy.

5. Date: 15 December 2014
Subject line: Keep the change,
ya filthy animal!
Jonathan Wilcox
Account Manager
NailsInc
Date: 10 December 2014
Subject line:This nail polish has
your name on it
This email had by far the best subject
line I received over Christmas.‘Keep
the change, ya filthy animal!’ is
arguably one of the most memorable
lines from my favourite Christmas film
Home Alone! This email from Topman
further referenced the McCauley
Culkin classic with tips on how to ‘get
the look’ of Kevin, the Wet Bandits and
Fuller – a quirky and unique way of
showing off their products!
Rosemary Walton
Client Services Director
Topman
Personalisation has become the norm
in email marketing, with recipients’
names being used in the subject lines
and body copy more and more
frequently, making it harder to
impress.This email felt really bespoke,
from the subject line to the nail
polishes with my initials engraved on
the bottle – a great way of promoting
Nails Inc’s personalised gift service!

6. Date: 11 December 2014
Subject line: Go on, twinkle our bulbs...
VirginTrains
Azania McFarlane
Junior Account
Executive
Date: 10 December 2014
Subject line:Woof.
I love emails that are clutter free and
get straight to the point, and this
email from Boden does just that!
There are no cross sell elements
either which leaves the focus on the
speedy delivery times.And, you really
can’t go wrong with a Jack Russel
‘Sprout’ in a scarf!
Abi McSherry
Copywriter
This cheeky subject line from Virgin
Trains definitely got my attention
with the emphasis on their new
“arrive awesome” campaign line being
big, bold and twinkly! Getting home
for Christmas can be a bit of a
nightmare so the witty reference to
the classic Christmas song ‘Driving
Home For Christmas’ encouraged
people to ditch the traffic and arrive
awesome with Virgin Trains!
Boden

7. Date: 10 December 2014
Subject line:WIN prizes: our
#WindowWonderland is open |
Free Delivery
Accessorize
Jess Wood
Account Executive
Date: 16 December 2014
Subject line: Last chance for standard
delivery by Christmas!
Natalie Lowe
Senior Account Manager
There’s nothing worse than putting a
Christmas gift in your online basket and
getting to the checkout only to realise it
won’t arrive in time for Christmas!
Victoria’s Secret really push the sense of
urgency in this email, with the focus on
the ‘last chance’ to order in time for
Christmas in the subject line, HTML line,
header panel and the first section of
content.The simplicity of the messaging
increases the sense of the urgency to
order in time for Christmas.
I’m firmly on team Christmas in the
office, so any email with glitter and
snowflakes and a mention of Christmas
preparations gets my attention straight
away! Around December, my inbox was
full to the brim with emails from
retailers recommending Christmas gifts
and winter must-haves, but I really liked
how Accessorize broke this down into
relevant festive categories.This makes
the email easy to follow and helps
create a more effective cross sell.The
different CTAs in the Secret Santa
section ‘Shop £5 and under’ and ‘Shop
£10 and under’ are great as they take
you right to where you want to be on
the website.
Victoria’s Secret

8. Next
Date: 12 December 2014
Subject line: Shop for those who
love Christmas...
I really liked the idea for this email
from Next – a quick Christmas gift
guide.This was quite a product heavy
email but the design meant that it was
really easy to follow and it didn’t feel
too cluttered. I loved the way the
email was split into different
categories of gifts as this helps with
the flow of the email and made sure
recipients could click through to
exactly where they wanted to be on
the website to browse for the perfect
Christmas gift.
Ciate
Date: 24 December 2014
Subject line: Shh! Our 50% Sale is now on
Frankie Metzinger
Senior Account
Executive
I loved the eye-catching design of this
email.The unmissable calendar was a
great way to show the sale dates and
added to the sense of exclusivity to the
secret subscriber sale days.The cross sell
section was simple and concise showing
a range of great, relevant gift products.
The copy “We think you might like
these Ciate products” adds to the sense
of exclusivity and made me feel like the
email was really tailored to me.
Steve White
Strategy Director

9. Apple
Date: 19 December 2014
Subject line:There’s still time to
get great gifts from Apple.
Nick Holt
Senior Art
Iirector
ASOS
Date: 12 December 2014
Subject line: Up to 50% off
Christmas wins
This is a great responsive email from
ASOS! The cross sell and CTA was clean
and simple and worked well on both the
desktop and mobile version. I really loved
the animated gif in the ‘going out vs
staying in’ section. Bunny slippers
making their way across the product
image is a fun and unique way of cross
selling such opposite products.
Luci Salt
Account
Manager
The design of this email is classic
Apple – clean, crisp and concise.As
always, there is beautiful product
imagery and a simple single minded
CTA. Everyone is familiar with Apple’s
branding and I find it difficult not to
like. Mainly because they can do very
little, and still get it so right.

10. Threadless
Date: 10 December 2014
Subject line: Bundle up – cold weather
styles on sale
This email from Threadless is great from
an eye tracking perspective.The diagonal
split of the top sections of the email
ensures that your eye is drawn down the
email linearly. Plus the sections of bold
block colours are great and the CTAs
really stand out.
Sophie Bardsley
Account Executive
2015
Design Stuff
To find out how we can give your email marketing
the WOW factor, contact Steve
on swhite@redcmarketing.com or call 0161 872 1361