Fedex ‘Shipathon’ ads: Shop, ship early
As a man navigates an “American Ninja Warrior”-style obstacle course, a Fedex courier quickly leaps past him, swings on a rope to the next platform and taps the finish button to win — all while balancing a stack of packages in his left hand.
“We’ve been training for the ‘Shipathon,’ because the obstacles are bigger than ever this holiday,” the commercial’s narrator says. “Shop and ship early. Fedex.”
The “Shipathon Training Day” advertisement, broadcasted on television and online, is part of Fedex’s campaign to get customers prepared for the busy peak holiday shipping season.
“We wanted to be transparent about the fact that demand is expected to exceed capacity in this industry-wide endurance race, but we’re prepared,” said Monica Skipper, Fedex vice president of brand experience marketing.
The Memphis logistics giant expects a record-breaking number of packages to be shipped during this stretch, which traditionally gears up after Thanksgiving, and it’s emphasizing to shoppers that ordering gifts early is the best bet to keep deliveries on schedule.
One shipping industry expert — Satish Jindel of consultancy Shipmatrix – has said delivery capacity will fall short by 7.2 million parcels daily during the holidays. U.S. online shopping spending is projected to be up 33% year-over-year from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31, according to Adobe.
Fedex package volumes are already elevated amid the COVID-19 pandem
ic, which shifted brickand-mortar traffic away to online shopping. Fedex Ground, which focuses on business-to-consumer deliveries, saw its average daily package volume rise to 11.6 million in its most recently reported quarter, a 31% bump from the year before.
Skipper said the ad campaign is “a great demonstration of the training we’ve taken, and that we’re going to keep going until we cross the finish line.”
Creating the ad campaign during COVID-19
To abide by COVID-19 safety measures, those involved in the advertisement’s production in October worked digitally.
The only people allowed on set to film the spot were the actors and a few production team members, totaling about six masked and socially distanced people, Skipper said. Around 30 people, including Skipper, watched the filming process via Zoom and provided feedback throughout.
“We did it all virtually,” she said. “I’ve pulled a lot of all-nighters in my life. I never pulled an all-nighter on Zoom until a couple of weeks ago, when we produced this spot.”
Skipper said the direct and concise message of “shop early and ship early” is an important one to communicate ahead of the holidays. COVID-19 has already caused a surge in demand, and the holidays will add more packages to the equation.
“And, of course, we’re also praying that (COVID-19) vaccines will be shipped on top of that,” she said. “We just want to be very transparent that this is a Shipathon, we’re in it, we’ve trained for it and you should train for it, too.”
Shipping deadlines
Fedex has set up a holiday shipping schedule page on its website, which includes a listing of the last days to ship for delivery by Christmas.
The cutoff day varies by Fedex service, and Fedex noted dates may change. For Fedex SmartPost, in which the U.S.
Postal Service handles the last leg of delivery, a package delivery must be shipped by Dec. 9 with certain exceptions, per the website Monday. Other services, including Fedex Home Delivery and Fedex Ground, have later ship-by dates.
Fedex has rolled out other “Shipathon” marketing approaches, including seconds-long ads on social media of Fedex couriers training for peak season.
“We can use little bits and pieces to tell our story, or we can put those bits and pieces together to tell a bigger story,” she said.
Fedex even has its own “training day mix” on music streaming service Pandora, and Fedex-sponsored NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin revealed a “shop and ship early” special paint scheme on his #11 Toyota Camry in October.
“We’re helping merchants keep their businesses on track and making sure consumers know this is going to be a demand unlike any other for our industry,” she said.
Max Garland covers Fedex, logistics and health care for The Commercial Appeal. Reach him at max.garland@commercialappeal.com or 901-529-2651 and on Twitter @MaxGarlandtypes.