What Marketers Keep Getting Wrong About Black Friday

Black Friday has become one of the loudest and most predictable days in the marketing calendar, but according to Penquin‘s Strategy Director, Thando Mxosa, the noise has disguised how disconnected brands have become from the people they’re meant to serve.

“Every year we see the same thing. Brands adopt the same colour palette, the same headlines, the same urgency cues, and we justify it by calling it competition,” Mxosa says. “But it’s not competition. It’s fear. Fear of missing out. Fear of flat numbers. Fear of silence. Black Friday is no longer a retail moment; it’s an industry reflex where brands forget who they are.”

As an agency rooted in strategic clarity and consumer truth, Penquin sees this pattern play out annually across the industry. For Mxosa and his team, this isn’t just a creative issue, it’s a strategic one.

The Real Black Friday Behaviour Marketers Ignore

While brands fight to out-shout one another, South Africans are behaving very differently. “Real people aren’t panic-buying TV sets. They’re collaborating,” Mxosa explains. “Families and friends are in WhatsApp groups comparing prices, checking grocery deals, splitting deliveries. Black Friday here isn’t indulgence, it’s ingenuity.”

Penquin’s behaviour mapping consistently shows that consumers don’t experience Black Friday as a frenzy, but as a moment of collective planning, where value is defined by saving smartly, not buying impulsively.

“This is one of the most overlooked behaviours in local retail strategy,” he adds. “Marketers talk about creating for culture, but we ignore the rituals right in front of us. South Africans use Black Friday to stretch their budgets. That’s value in its most human form.”

The Industry’s Blind Spot

Mxosa says the problem isn’t Black Friday, it’s the way the industry approaches it. “We keep chasing spikes instead of sense,” he says. “We optimise for traffic, not trust. We build mechanics that feel like puzzles instead of empowerment – and every year we call it innovation.”

He believes marketers have become desensitised to sameness. “When all the ads look the same, we convince ourselves that’s what competition looks like. However, sameness is not strategy.”

If Brands Truly Cared About Culture, They’d Show Up Differently

Marketers often claim their work is “culturally driven,” but Mxosa challenges whether that holds true during the biggest retail moment of the year. “If we respected the consumer context, our messaging would feel human,” he says. “We’d design mechanics that empower people instead of making them jump through hoops. We’d build for households, not algorithms.” Mxosa explains the issue isn’t Black Friday itself, it’s the industry’s blindness to its humanity.

The Harder Question: Who Are We When It Gets Loud?

Mxosa suggests that Black Friday is more useful as a mirror than a megaphone. “The real opportunity is reflection,” he says. “What if Black Friday became the moment brands ask themselves: Do we still sound like ourselves when the pressure is on? If the only way to compete is to shout louder, what does that say about the strength of the brand the rest of the year?”

For him, the challenge, and the opportunity, lies in restraint. “Silence can sell too, recognition can beat reach and meaning is the one thing you can’t discount.”

A Thought for Next Year

Before marketers roll out the templated noise once again, Mxosa leaves the industry with one question: “If your brand went quiet next Black Friday, would anyone notice? If the answer is no, what does that tell you?”