Season of Savings: Your Holiday Email Guide!

The holiday season brings major opportunities to boost engagement, increase sales, and connect with fans and patrons before the new year!

Before launching your Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or holiday promotions, make sure your audience targeting is dialed in. We recommend building segments that focus on recent engagement and expressed interest. Start by including fans or patrons who have clicked on previous sale or special offer emails within the past year, as well as anyone who opted into specific sports or show categories that match the offers, you’re promoting. You can also strengthen results by targeting contacts who have engaged with at least 2–3 emails in the past 90 days. These high-intent audiences are more likely to convert during peak holiday shopping, helping your campaigns drive stronger open rates, click-throughs, and revenue. As a best practice, exclude long-term inactive contacts to maintain strong deliverability, and if you're planning to message a large portion of your database, consider sending in batches to reduce the risk of being flagged as spam.

Below is a collection of previous Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and holiday-themed campaigns from across the Paciolan community. These examples highlight creative offers, limited‑time promotions, and unique seasonal themes that marketing teams can easily adapt for their own campaigns.

Notre Dame Athletics – Multi‑Sport Ticket Discounts

Notre Dame features an array of holiday savings, including $50 football tickets and 50% off men's basketball, women's basketball, and hockey home games. Highlighting multiple sports widens appeal during seasonal promotions. The teaser email had an impressive 21.98% open rate and a 35.14% click-to-open rate. They then created sport specific emails that pulled past ticket buyers of that sport and pushed them to the games that were on sale for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Northwestern Athletics – Ticket & Gear Holiday Savings

Northwestern promotes up to 60% off select tickets and merchandise, paired with individual game‑specific offers for men’s and women’s basketball. This approach keeps fans scrolling through multiple opportunities. This email had a 17.5% unique open rate.

Select Your Tickets – Holiday Discounts on Multiple Events

Open rate 15.63%

This campaign bundles three different touring shows with a consistent 25% holiday discount, giving patrons an easy way to browse a variety of event options.

Iowa Wild – Merchandise & Mystery Gift Promotion

Iowa Wild focuses on fan shop revenue with 20% off apparel and novelty items, plus a free mystery gift with purchase. A strong option for teams looking to boost retail sales.

Fox Theatre Atlanta – Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale

Click-to-open rate 31.90%

The Fox Theatre anchors its holiday sale around a single, clear offer: up to 50% off select shows. A straightforward promo code and limited‑time availability help drive urgency for patrons.

Oregon State – 12 Days of Merriment

Oregon State ran a multi‑day holiday series, revealing a new ticket deal each day. This format builds anticipation and encourages fans to check back daily for new offers.

Meyer Theatre – Black Friday Ticket Savings

Meyer Theatre offers 25% off select seats for an upcoming concert. A single-event discount like this is ideal for performing arts organizations looking to fill key dates during the holiday shopping window.

Toledo Rockets – Holiday Game Promotions

Toledo highlights themed holiday games for men’s and women’s basketball, including teddy bear tosses, sweater contests, and in‑arena activations that add value beyond the ticket itself.

These examples showcase how arenas, athletics, and performing arts organizations are using holiday‑themed offers, limited‑time discounts, and creative activations to engage fans and patrons. Whether you're promoting single‑game tickets, holiday performances, merchandise, or multi‑day sales, these ideas can be easily adapted using Marketing Automation to reach your audiences at the perfect moment!