Carter's eyes millennial parents with Santagram video greetings on Cameo

Brief:

Children's clothing brand Carter's is offering families a chance to win a virtual visit from Santa Claus. Winners of the "From Santa with Love" contest will get a video message from Santa on Cameo, the website that offers personalized video messages from celebrities, according to an announcement.
To enter the contest, Carter's is asking participants to submit a name and email address on a special "Carter's Santagram" microsite by Oct. 30. The company will notify the 1,500 winners by email and send them a code to redeem on Cameo's website, where they can select a Santa to record personalized video messages.
Carter's utilization of Cameo to deliver personalized messages from Santa comes as the pandemic prevents consumers from seeing the jolly old elf at shopping malls.

Insight:

The yearly holiday ritual of visiting a department store or mall to sit on Santa's lap is less likely for millions of children this year as social distancing becomes a necessity to help stop the coronavirus pandemic. Carter's is responding to that disruption with its online contest for a chance to receive a personalized video message from Santa on Cameo.

Cameo is mostly known for letting people pay to have celebrities record personalized messages like birthday wishes and congratulatory statements for friends, family and colleagues. Its website currently lists celebrities ranging from rapper Snoop Dogg, who charges $900 to record a personalized message, to sports figures like New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso, whose fee is $269. Carter's is updating holiday traditions for the post-pandemic era by letting families receive a video message from Santa through Cameo.

By running an online contest to win a Cameo message and promoting it on social media, Carter's aims to engage younger parents who are more likely to use apps like Instagram to share their everyday experiences. Millennials are most likely to be younger parents and tend to be heavy users of social media. With many people stuck at home during the pandemic, social media usage by U.S. adults rose an average 9% to 82 minutes a day this year, per a survey cited by eMarketer. The forecast predicts social media usage will decline somewhat as people resume former activities outside the home in greater numbers, like commuting to work and in-store shopping.

Carter's campaign comes as the maker of clothing for babies and kids works to bounce back from the pandemic slump and lockdowns on stores. The company's revenue plunged 30% to $515 million in Q2 from a year earlier, though it saw continued improvement toward the end of the three-month period. E-commerce comparable sales more than doubled, and the company reported strong growth of exclusive brands to Target, Walmart and Amazon, per a quarterly announcement. Carter's will offer more insight into the back-to-school shopping season and the upcoming holidays when it reports Q3 earnings, most likely later this month.

Carter's is the latest brand to run a contest to win personalized video messages on Cameo. Kool-Aid, the brand of flavored drink mix owned by Kraft Heinz, last year was the first brand to show its mascot on the video platform. To celebrate National Kool-Aid Day, the brand gave 50 fans a chance to receive custom cameos from Kool-Aid Man, the mascot known for bursting through walls in TV commercials.