Black Friday 2020 presented a diverse array of freebies and promotional offers across various consumer sectors, including food and beverage, beauty, audio software, and retail services. These promotions ranged from complimentary food items and gift cards with purchases to free digital products and limited-edition beauty samples. The availability of these offers was often tied to specific purchase thresholds, promotional codes, or time-limited events occurring primarily in late November and extending through December and into early 2021. While many deals were publicly advertised, some required active participation in online forums or newsletter subscriptions to discover.
Food and Beverage Promotions
Several food and beverage brands offered significant incentives during the Black Friday 2020 period, primarily structured as rewards for gift card purchases or minimum spending thresholds.
The Cheesecake Factory offered a popular "Slice of Joy" promotion. From November 23 to November 30, 2020, customers who purchased a $25 gift card on the Cheesecake Factory website received two "Slice of Joy" cards. These cards were valid for a complimentary slice of cheesecake from January 1, 2021, through March 31, 2021. The offer provided a delayed gratification freebie, encouraging gift card sales during the holiday season while providing a food-related reward for the purchaser or recipient in the new year.
Copper Cow Coffee provided a free gift for higher-spending customers. During their early-access Black Friday sale, customers who spent over $50 received a free gift box valued at $65. To redeem this offer, customers were required to add the specific coffee gift box to their cart and apply the promo code FREEGIFT at checkout. The contents of this gift box reportedly included 22 assorted flavors (20 coffees and 2 free samples) and 22 assorted creamers, representing a substantial value-add for coffee enthusiasts.
Godiva and Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf focused on percentage-based discounts rather than free physical items. Godiva offered up to 25% off for customers in the US and provided free delivery on orders over a certain amount (specific threshold not detailed in the source material). Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf offered 25% off a variety of coffees, teas, and powders, available in-store at participating locations through November 30.
Dylan's Candy Bar also focused on discounts, offering 30% off chocolate bars and swatches for Black Friday, with an additional 40% off apparel available both in stores and online.
Beauty and Personal Care Freebies
The beauty sector, specifically nail care, featured a limited-edition freebie offer from Fairy Glamor. For Black Friday 2020, the brand planned to release a limited edition freebie color in their 1oz powder size. This color was described as new and exclusive to the Black Friday event.
To qualify for this free beauty product, customers needed to place an order totaling $35 or more. It was explicitly noted that the cart total must be $35 or higher after any discounts were applied. If a coupon code brought the total below $35, the freebie would not be added. The freebie was not visible in the online cart or order page during the checkout process; instead, Fairy Glamor stated they would manually add the item to the shipment for qualifying orders. The brand maintained a limited stock of the freebie and warned that if stock ran out, they would issue a $10 refund to the customer as compensation. This offer was part of a larger site-wide sale offering 30% off store-wide.
In the nail care niche, Revel was identified as a brand offering a "Black Friday Freebie 1." This item was categorized as a dip and glitter type polish in pink and purple colors. While the specific redemption mechanics were not detailed in the source material, the listing confirms the availability of a specific free product code-named "BF Freebie 1" within their Black Friday Freebie collection.
Audio Software and Digital Product Deals
The digital audio production market saw a significant volume of freebies and flash sales on Cyber Monday 2020. These offers were heavily concentrated on plugin deals and free software downloads.
Plugin Boutique ran several promotions, including a "Free Plugin of Your Choice" offer with any purchase, which ended on November 30, 2020. Customers could choose between specific titles such as Eventide Quadravox, D16 Drumazon, Reason Lite Rack Plugin, and Mastering the Mix ANIMATE. Additionally, Plugin Boutique offered a free iZotope Audiolens with every purchase, valid until January 3, 2023.
2B Played Music offered their product "2B Clipped" (normally €9.99) for free. To obtain this, customers had to apply the coupon code CYBER at checkout.
Cymatics provided a vintage sample pack called "Memories" (valued at $37) for free with the coupon code CYMFREE1 for a limited time.
Rigid Audio offered their cinematic library "Granulat" for free via VSTBuzz.
Slate Digital offered "Fresh Air" for free, though this was a limited-time deal requiring iLok Cloud.
Loopcloud offered "Bass Master" for free to customers who purchased a three-month subscription for $3.
Free To Use Sounds made 52 of their sound libraries available for free, which were handpicked from their paid product collection of 330 items.
Analogue Instruments released "Industrial Pulses," a free sound library.
PreSonus offered a free bundle to users of PreSonus Studio One Pro and Fat Channel plugin users.
UVI offered "prime8+" for free using the code FREEP8.
Soundtoys offered "Little Radiator" for free until January 2, 2023.
Arturia offered "Tape Mello-Fi" for free until November 10.
Melda Production offered "MTransient" for free.
In Session Audio offered "Fruit Shake" for free until November 22.
Function Loops offered "DrumVault" for free.
KV331 Audio offered "SynthMaster One iOS" for free.
Divisimate offered "Synchron Prime Template" for free.
iZotope offered "Audiolens" for free until November 22.
W.A. Production offered "Vocal Mega Pack 4" for free with a purchase.
Pulsar offered "Relab LX480 Essentials" for free with the purchase of "Pulsar Massive."
Waves announced a "New Black Friday Plugin" to be announced on November 25.
Isotonik Studios offered "Twelve weeks of Christmas Giveaway" for newsletter subscribers.
macProVideo.com offered a free course "What's New in Logic Pro 10.7.5."
ADSR offered "Yum Audio LoFi Flux Light" with every purchase (ending Nov 31).
VST Alarm offered "Blaque – Dark Electric Guitar" for a limited time.
While many of these digital offers were free, some were tied to purchases or specific conditions.
Retail and General Consumer Freebies
General retail freebies in 2020 included offers from Belk, Starbucks, and various other unnamed retailers.
Belk ran a promotion from November 4 until December 24 where shoppers using curbside pickup had a chance to get their entire order for free, limited to $575. Additionally, shoppers received an extra 10% off with free in-store or contactless curbside pickup. This was a high-value sweepstakes-style freebie.
Starbucks offered a buy-one-get-one-free-drink offer until 10 a.m. on Black Friday (specifically noted as a deal from the previous year, with 2020 offers to be confirmed).
Unspecified sister stores hosted a "Santa's Wonderland" where customers could get a free photo with Santa by making a reservation. Another unspecified retailer offered free coffee until December 31 with no purchase necessary.
An unspecified bookstore offered a daily entry chance to win a $100 gift card until November 29.
Another retailer offered a "Weekender Bag" as a free gift when making an online purchase of $39 or more using the promo code BFSPECIAL. This offer was valid from Thanksgiving through November 29.
When spending $100 or more in the home, apparel, or electronics departments at a specific retailer on Black Friday, customers earned a $20 coupon. This retailer also hosted a gift card giveaway every 15 minutes from 5:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.
Finally, a retailer offered early in-store entry at 2 p.m. on Thursday, November 28, with a chance to be entered into a coupon giveaway. The coupons included $500 off $500, $100 off $100, and $10 off $10 coupons.
Conclusion
The 2020 Black Friday and Cyber Monday period offered a wide variety of freebies across food, beauty, digital audio, and general retail categories. Consumers could access free food slices through gift card purchases, limited-edition beauty products with minimum orders, and a vast selection of free audio plugins and software, often requiring specific coupon codes or purchase triggers. Retailers also utilized sweepstakes-style free orders, free gifts with purchase, and high-value coupon giveaways to attract shoppers. Successful participation generally required careful attention to specific purchase thresholds, promo codes (such as FREEGIFT and BFSPECIAL), and limited-time windows.