Why marketers are looking to these key trends to inform their holiday campaign planning

Three key trends shaping how marketers are approaching this holiday season include consumers shopping evenly throughout the holiday season, most sales coming from in-store sales as online shopping levels out and CTV serving as a top channel to reach shoppers.

Marketers who take these trends into account when planning their seasonal campaigns will reach target consumers more effectively, strengthen brand relationships and drive significant returns.

With earlier holiday shopping, marketers need to prepare for sales surges, especially with this year’s election

Sales and special offers now start in October, meaning holiday shopping begins before the usual Black Friday and Cyber Monday craze. In November 2023, the five-day period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday — Cyber Week — represented 8% of the year’s total holiday sales and the first consumer spending surge. 

This year’s presidential election could result in increased holiday spending post-election. U.S. holiday retail sales have shown significant growth during election years, with a 4.1% increase in 2016 and an 8.3% surge in 2020. As the 2024 election approaches, the stakes are even higher, with election-related spending projected to surpass $12 billion. 

Political ad spending is shifting to new swing states like North Carolina, Nevada, Arizona and Georgia, while congressional races in key battleground states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania are attracting significant ad dollars. 

This wave of political spending is set to reduce ad inventory across media platforms, creating challenges for brands vying for consumer attention during both the election and holiday season.

To navigate this, marketers must be proactive by identifying and activating key political or holiday audiences across major ad platforms to ensure their messages break through to consumers.

Additionally, for holiday shopping, December is the peak spending month, with the week before Christmas representing the second surge of consumer spending and 9% of total holiday sales. To maximize impact during the extended season, marketers are focusing on scheduling their campaigns and sales initiatives during the peaks of Cyber Week and the week before Christmas.

With in-store shopping increasing, marketers need a balanced approach

Online holiday spending has grown to about one-third of total holiday spending, but growth has slowed. People are returning to in-store shopping, shifting away from the high online activity seen during the pandemic.

Consumers are spending more in-person at department stores (e.g. Macy’s, Kohl’s) and discount stores, (e.g. Big Lots, Five Below) but are shopping online at office, electronics and games stores (e.g. Best Buy, Office Depot), mass retailers (e.g. Costco, Sam’s Club) and apparel stores (e.g. Aerie, Gap).

For example, 84% of holiday shopping was done in-store across discount stores, 79% of department store holiday shopping was conducted in-store and 64% of office, electronics and games store holiday shopping was done online (according to a U.S. survey of 1,000 adults 18+, conducted by Experian).

To best reach all of these consumers, retailers should integrate digital and physical experiences into a cohesive multi-channel plan, tailoring strategies to their target audience and product, while ensuring in-store experiences are engaging enough to draw visitors.

As the ad industry faces growing signal loss, reaching and measuring customers across online and offline channels poses new challenges for retailers. This holiday season presents an ideal opportunity to test targeting and measurement solutions with partners that are not reliant on any one signal (e.g. cookies). 

Amid potential IP address concerns, marketers are adopting multiple identifiers to make CTV an essential holiday channel

More than two-thirds of the U.S. population now uses CTV, and the average time spent among adults is expected to surpass two hours per day in 2024. CTV offers a creative ad experience similar to its linear counterpart but provides more sophisticated targeting and measurement capabilities. 

With the high rate of logged-in, authenticated users on CTV, marketers benefit from reliable first-party data for personalized ads and accurate conversion tracking across devices. IP addresses have been the primary method for targeting households with CTV devices, but the future of this signal remains uncertain. Unified I.D. 2.0 (UID2) was introduced as a new tool in the CTV ecosystem. UID2 offers a standardized way to target users on CTV devices while respecting privacy and is crucial for linking CTV ad exposure to conversions on other devices. 

The industry needs to adopt authenticated signals and universal IDs to help CTV ad spending catch up to consumer viewing time. Identity graphs integrate multiple signals and identifiers to improve targeting accuracy, deliver more personalized viewing experiences and increase ad revenue for publishers.

Power data-driven advertising through connectivity this holiday season

In addition to driving transactions this holiday season, marketers are focusing on building meaningful connections with their audience by anticipating consumer trends and understanding what’s on their minds. Key trends such as the extended shopping period, the intersection of digital and physical experiences and the growing use of CTV will help guide advertisers in planning and developing holiday campaigns in 2024.

With the right approach and a reliable partner, marketers will reach more customers, strengthen their brand’s relationships and drive significant returns this holiday season.

Sponsored by Experian