Brands and retailers on both sides of the Atlantic are bringing forward the launch of their holiday advertising campaigns, partly in response to consumers bringing forward their spending plans.
What’s happening
- In the UK, Halloween was barely over before several supermarkets, including Sainsbury’s and Asda, aired their Christmas ads for the first time over the weekend.
- John Lewis, the department store which has come to “own” Christmas in the UK, launched its annual offering on 4 November, a full ten days earlier than last year.
- In the US, some ad spend has shifted towards the start of Q4 in response to changing consumer spending patterns.
- A recent McKinsey survey found that more Americans, under pressure from inflation and high prices, are thinking ahead: two-thirds plan to begin their holiday shopping well before Black Friday, which has been the traditional starting point.
- Anecdotal evidence suggests that total spending won’t increase, but that budgets will simply be stretched over a longer period. “We’re starting a lead-in to those brand-focused moments a little bit earlier… extending that flight,” Dan Rolli, chief investment officer of OMD US, told Digiday.
Why it matters
Consumers may complain about how they’re seeing festive goods on the shelves and festive ads on TV earlier every year, but increasingly this appears to be related to their own demand.
In past years, brands and retailers might have been trying to steal a march on rivals; increasingly, however, more shoppers seem to be actively looking for items weeks or months sooner. In that case, brands need to be there, too, if they’re to fully capitalise on the so-called golden quarter.
If advertisers aren’t increasing their budgets, however, there may be an issue about the timing of spend – consumers may say they’re shopping earlier, but you can be sure that many will still be in market in December.
What can brands do
The recent WARC report What’s working in festival marketing highlighted:
- how the most effective festive marketing is done by brands which have become part of the ritual;
- how brands can utilise AI-powered experiences, interactive OOH, and platform-led engagement to find fresh ways to show up, maximise engagement and increase consumers’ willingness to connect.
Sourced from YouTube, Digiday, McKinsey, WARC