How was Amazon Prime Day created and why should artists run sales during it?

Amazon Prime Day is actually copied from a holiday invented in China called Singles’ Day (11/11) - the biggest e-commerce day in the world. It was a completely made-up holiday created out of thin air with no theme except commerce and deals. Jeff Bezos saw its success and created Prime Day as a mirror concept. The key point is that this ‘holiday’ has absolutely no cultural or thematic meaning - it exists purely for deals. Yet it generates massive sales. This proves that the thematic connection doesn’t matter. What matters is that massive advertising dollars get injected into the marketplace, conditioning consumers to expect deals and putting them in buying mode. Artists should run sales during Prime Day specifically because of this heightened buying psychology, regardless of whether their art has any connection to the ‘holiday.’

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Asked by an artist learning about non-traditional sales opportunities · Answered by Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2022-04-18