Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) have transcended their origins as simple sales events to become the pivotal, make-or-break moment for countless e-commerce brands. This period is no longer just a weekend; it often extends into a week-long or even month-long peak season that can drive over 20% of a brand's annual sales¹. In the fiercely competitive digital landscape, simply having a discount is not enough. The battle for consumer attention and wallet share is won long before the shopping cart is opened—it's won on social media. Nearly 9 in 10 consumers now report that social platforms directly influence their holiday purchase decisions².
This shift in consumer behavior underscores the critical role of influencer marketing. Modern shoppers are increasingly skeptical of traditional advertising and instead place their trust in authentic voices. This is especially true during the holiday rush. A staggering 58% of Black Friday and Cyber Week buyers actively seek out and purchase products recommended by the influencers they follow online³. In essence, shoppers are already turning to creators they trust to curate deals and discover products. If your brand is not part of that conversation, you are missing a monumental opportunity.
Whether your primary goal is to drive direct conversions, boost long-term brand visibility, or build a loyal community, strategic influencer campaigns remain one of the most effective ways to achieve tangible results. The key lies in moving beyond one-off posts to integrated campaigns that blend authenticity with clear commercial objectives.
Below, we delve deep into five proven Black Friday campaign ideas that helped brands of various sizes and niches skyrocket both online sales and brand equity in past holiday seasons. Each case study breaks down the strategy, execution, and the underlying "why it worked," providing you with the actionable inspiration needed to craft your own winning BFCM 2025 strategy.
1. L’Occitane’s Holiday Gift Guides, Curated by Influencers
About the Campaign
Recognizing the intense noise and promotional fatigue that characterizes the Black Friday period, L’Occitane en Provence took a refined, trust-centric approach. Their campaign focused squarely on the art of gifting. Instead of blasting generic "50% OFF" messages, they partnered with a diverse roster of beauty and lifestyle influencers to create personalized holiday gift guides.
These creators, selected for their authentic alignment with L’Occitane’s brand values of natural ingredients and sensory indulgence, shared their curated recommendations through visually appealing Instagram Reels, engaging TikTok videos, and detailed Instagram posts. The content didn’t just list products; it told a story. Influencers shared who in their life would love the Lavender Harvest Gift Set, why the Shea Butter Hand Cream was the perfect stocking stuffer, or how the Immortale Divine Cream made for a truly luxurious present. The call-to-action was subtly woven in, often pointing followers to an exclusive deal or a link in their bio, making the content feel more like a helpful tip from a knowledgeable friend than a sales pitch.
By emphasizing value, brand storytelling, and seasonal inspiration over aggressive discounting, L’Occitane successfully positioned its products as gift-worthy indulgences. This strategy built significant trust and fostered deeper customer engagement, turning a transactional moment into an emotional one.
Why It Worked: The Power of Trust and Curation
In a season saturated with identical, aggressive promo codes, L’Occitane’s campaign stood out by focusing on taste and trust. The influencers acted not as mere billboards, but as expert curators. Their personalized gift guides served a dual purpose: they were valuable content that solved a real problem for viewers ("What do I buy for my mom/sister/friend?") while simultaneously building strong product affinity.
This approach elevated the brand's perception beyond a simple beauty retailer to a purveyor of thoughtful gifts. It increased buyer confidence significantly; when a trusted influencer explains why a product is perfect for a specific person, it reduces the perceived risk of purchase. The campaign is a masterclass in proving that influencer-led storytelling can drive commercial success even when the core message is "gift-worthy indulgence" rather than "flash sale." It demonstrates that value can be communicated through context and quality, not just price.
Wondering how you can replicate L’Occitane’s approach?
With our creator matching feature, you can efficiently identify creators who are already genuine fans of your products. You can then send them personalized briefs that inspire authentic storytelling—from curated gift guides to seasonal inspiration—to build trust and engage holiday shoppers effectively.
2. MyProtein’s Personalized Discount Code Play
About the Campaign
MyProtein, a global leader in sports nutrition, executed a highly performance-driven Black Friday campaign rooted in the affiliate marketing model. Their strategy was straightforward yet powerful: equip a wide network of fitness influencers with unique, personalized promo codes to share with their audiences. These codes offered an additional discount on top of the brand’s sitewide Black Friday deals, creating a compelling sense of added value and VIP access for the influencers' followers.
The brilliance of the execution lay in the content integration. Influencers didn’t just post a code in their bio; they seamlessly embedded it into their regular, high-engagement content formats. Fitness creators shared gym tutorials using MyProtein shakers, posted "What I Eat in a Day" videos featuring the brand’s supplements, and created TikTok reviews comparing different protein flavors. The promo code was presented as an exclusive bonus for their community, a reward for their loyalty. This approach masterfully merged authentic social media engagement with clear conversion goals.
Why It Worked: Urgency, Affiliate Incentive, and Niche Trust
This campaign was successful because it perfectly aligned influencer content with performance marketing mechanics. By turning creators into affiliate partners, MyProtein created a win-win scenario: influencers were financially motivated to drive sales, and their audiences received a special benefit.
The campaign leveraged several key psychological triggers:
- Scarcity and Urgency: Phrases like "use my code before it expires" or "limited spots available" created a fear of missing out (FOMO), prompting immediate action.
- Personalization: Each code was tied to a specific creator, allowing for precise tracking of sales and enabling the brand to reward top performers. It also made the audience feel a direct connection to the influencer.
- Niche Authority: Health and fitness audiences place immense trust in their chosen creators' recommendations. When a respected fitness expert recommends a product and offers a personal discount, it significantly lowers the barrier to purchase.
MyProtein’s campaign is a textbook example of how to use influencers as a direct sales channel, providing clear, measurable ROI.
Wondering how to create and manage promo codes for your Black Friday influencer campaigns?
With SocialBook, you can bulk-generate hundreds of unique, trackable codes for each creator in seconds—saving immense time, reducing errors, and streamlining your entire campaign execution from outreach to payout.
3. Dior’s Masterclass in Luxury: The Exclusive Advent Calendar
About the Campaign
In a bold move that defied conventional Black Friday wisdom, luxury fashion house Dior chose to completely opt-out of discounting for their 2024 campaign. Instead of slashing prices, they doubled down on exclusivity and aspiration. The centerpiece of their strategy was the launch of two ultra-premium holiday products: the breathtakingly packaged "Le 30 Montaigne" Advent Calendar and the "Trunk of Dreams."
Dior adopted a "less is more" philosophy for influencer activation, carefully selecting a small, elite group of mega and macro influencers in the beauty and luxury lifestyle space, such as the renowned French creator @lenasituations. These influencers were given early access to the products to create high-production-value unboxing content for TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube. The content focused not on a sale price, but on the artistry, craftsmanship, and sheer magic of the Dior brand. The videos were cinematic, filled with awe, and designed to capture the unforgettable experience of unveiling such an exclusive item.
Why It Worked: Scarcity, Storytelling, and Defying Convention
While countless brands fought for attention in a race to the bottom on price, Dior’s campaign cut through the noise by moving in the opposite direction. It was a powerful reinforcement of their luxury positioning. The campaign succeeded by masterfully executing on several fronts:
- Fueling FOMO with Virality: The unboxing content was optimized for visual platforms like TikTok, where the spectacle and desire-driven nature of the products could go viral. Viewers weren't just seeing a product; they were witnessing an aspirational experience.
- The Power of Scarcity and Exclusivity: By focusing on limited-edition, high-price-point items and partnering with only top-tier creators, Dior created an aura of exclusivity that money alone couldn't always buy.
- Strategic Early Launch: The campaign launched well before Black Friday, building desire and establishing these products as the season's must-have items long before the shopping frenzy began.
Dior proved that for premium brands, Black Friday success doesn't have to mean discounting. By turning influencers into aspirational storytellers, they drove brand equity and desire that translated into sales without compromising their brand value.
4. Gymshark's #BigDealEnergy: Harnessing Hype and Humor
About the Campaign
Gymshark, a brand built on a foundation of community and influencer partnerships, leveraged its strengths perfectly for its Black Friday sale. Known for its limited-time offers, the brand created a cohesive campaign under the catchy hashtag #BigDealEnergy. They collaborated with high-profile, massively popular influencers within their niche, such as YouTube giants KSI and Behzinga, who resonate deeply with Gymshark's core demographic.
These creators were tasked with generating immense buzz and hype. They created dynamic, high-energy video content across Instagram and YouTube, often using trending sounds and incorporating humor and relatable gym scenarios. The content felt organic to the creators' usual style while amplifying Gymshark’s key message about the unmissable deals. This wasn't a traditional, polished ad; it was authentic, shareable, and designed to spark viral moments.
Why It Worked: Built-in Community and Multi-Platform Domination
Gymshark’s strategy was effective because it tapped into the powerful community it had already cultivated. The influencers were not external hires but integral parts of the Gymshark ecosystem, making their endorsements highly credible.
Key success factors included:
- Leveraging Built-in Hype: The brand’s reputation for limited-time offers created a natural sense of anticipation that the influencers amplified.
- Authentic Virality: By using humor and trending formats, the content felt native to the platforms, encouraging organic sharing and engagement far beyond the influencers' immediate follower counts.
- Multi-Platform Saturation: The campaign ran simultaneously on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, ensuring maximum reach and reinforcing the message across the entire digital landscape of their target audience.
The campaign's impact was so profound that it entered the community's lexicon, with customers and smaller creators creating their own #BigDealEnergy videos months after the sale had ended, demonstrating incredible staying power.
Want to see more examples of winning e-commerce campaigns?
Discover how Simply Bread drove 50% of their sales on Shopify and how Branded 10x their ROI on Amazon, all by leveraging the power of creators managed through the SocialBook platform.
5. NA-KD’s Global Black Friday Showcases
About the Campaign
Swedish fast-fashion retailer NA-KD provides a masterclass in scaling influencer marketing for global impact. For their Black Friday campaign, they leaned heavily into a conversion-focused strategy built around a proven formula: massive product showcases and compelling deals. NA-KD’s influencer marketing is not a seasonal affair; it's a constant, integral part of their marketing engine. This allowed them to execute a highly effective Black Friday push without needing to build a strategy from scratch.
They executed a large-scale gifting campaign, sending out huge hauls of clothing to a vast network of micro, macro, and mega-influencers across the globe. Crucially, they didn't limit themselves to English-speaking markets. They activated creators in countries like France, Germany, and Spain, using local influencers to expand their global footprint and connect with audiences in a more culturally relevant way. These influencers created "try-on hauls" and styling videos, showcasing the breadth of NA-KD’s Black Friday collection. They shared personalized promo codes and trackable links, making it easy to drive and measure direct conversions.
Why It Worked: Consistency, Global Scale, and Lower CAC
NA-KD’s success stemmed from leveraging their existing, robust influencer relationships and content strategy. They didn’t need to craft a grandiose narrative because their constant stream of influencer content had already built strong brand awareness and trust.
The campaign excelled by:
- Delivering Exactly What the Audience Wanted: During Black Friday, the audience is primed for deals and new styles. NA-KD’s influencer showcases delivered this directly.
- Lowering Cost of Acquisition (CAC): By opting for a product-gifting strategy (especially with micro-influencers), they often compensated creators with merchandise instead of high fees. This dramatically lowered their acquisition cost and increased overall Return on Investment (ROI).
- Thinking Globally, Acting Locally: By partnering with influencers in different regions, they ensured their message was culturally adapted, which is far more effective than a one-size-fits-all global campaign.
NA-KD demonstrated that for brands with an always-on influencer strategy, Black Friday is the time to scale efforts you already know work, using a mix of creators to drive global conversions efficiently.
Want to do like NA-KD and find the best fashion influencers—or creators in any niche—worldwide?
With SocialBook’s Advanced AI Search, you’ll discover the most relevant creators across any industry. Our platform gives you the flexibility to filter by geolocation, audience demographics, performance metrics, engagement rates, and platforms to build the perfect partner list for your global campaign.
Win Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2025 with Influencer Campaigns That Sell
The lessons from these five diverse campaigns are clear and powerful. There is no single "right way" to run a Black Friday influencer campaign, but the common thread is strategic alignment. L’Occitane showed us the power of trust and curation, MyProtein demonstrated the effectiveness of performance-driven affiliate mechanics, Dior proved that luxury brands can win without discounts, Gymshark highlighted the impact of community and hype, and NA-KD exemplified the results of a scalable, always-on global strategy.
Regardless of your brand's size, niche, or primary goal—whether it's boosting visibility through authentic storytelling or driving sales with precision-targeted offers—influencer marketing provides the toolkit to cut through the noise during the busiest shopping weekend of the year.
To succeed in BFCM 2025, start planning now. Identify your goals, understand your audience, and choose the campaign model that best fits your brand identity. The most successful brands will be those that view creators not as a last-minute marketing tactic, but as strategic partners in revenue generation.
Ready to turn creators into your most profitable sales channel this holiday season?
With SocialBook, e-commerce brands on Amazon, Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and Magento can manage their entire Black Friday influencer strategy end-to-end in one powerful platform. Our suite of features includes:
- Advanced AI Creator Search: Discover perfect partners across any niche and location.
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- Unique Code & Link Generation: Track sales and commissions effortlessly.
- One-Click Payments: Pay your global creator network with ease.
- Real-Time Sales Tracking: Monitor your campaign ROI live on your dashboard.
- New! Creator Marketplace: Get discovered by ready-to-collaborate influencers.
This BFCM, don't just compete—dominate. Let SocialBook help you build and execute the influencer campaigns that will drive massive sales and set you up for success in the new year.