Bite-Sized Insights: 1 in 4 Parents Happy for Christmas Advertising to Begin in September
Bite-Sized Insights: 1 in 4 parents happy for Christmas advertising to start in September
For this week’s bite-sized insights topic, we were interested to find out when parents think it’s appropriate to start advertising for the Christmas season. Take a quick read of this week’s bite-sized insights to find out what parents are saying about brands and Christmas communications.
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We asked our Insights panel of parents to tell us when they think brands should start advertising about Christmas. Here’s how they answered:
We also asked “Any other thoughts on buying and planning for Christmas?” Comments from our panel members included:
“With having four kids I would love to see offers and promotions all year round as it would help spread the cost over the whole year instead of it being confined to a short period of time.”
“Even though I know we have to spread out the cost, I prefer to have the money saved each week from the summer but I don’t start shopping until November – maybe October in recent years.”
“I usually plan for Christmas once the kids are back in school and I have all of their ‘back to school’ bills paid. It can be hard to know what they would like on their lists but when the Smyths catalogue comes through the door, usually around late September, I get a fair idea what they will ask for. Also, as soon as booking opens up for visits to Santa, I’ll book that straight away. We are hoping to return to Ailwee Caves as they didn’t do it last year, so we are really looking forward to it this year. Especially since they have already said it will be bigger and better for Christmas 2022. It can be an expensive time of year but we always just about manage it and give our kids the best Christmas we can within reason.”
“There is too much pressure placed on the materiality of Christmas, advertisements are unavoidable and place unrealistic expectations on families. The spirit and joy of Christmas is exhausted and lost by the time Christmas arrives when advertising and brand marketing begins as soon as October 31st is over.”
“I think the shops and influencers put a lot of pressure on people to buy and it’s constant all year round. Christmas especially should be left until well after the kids go back to school and parents get that expense out of the way. I don’t buy into the hype that is around some influencers but I would think people are using credit to follow the latest trends etc and it’s worrying.”
Actionable Insights for Brands
- For the Christmas season, communicate and get offers out earlier. It might feel odd to be talking about Christmas in summer time but our findings show that over 10% of parents start their budgeting, planning and research around this time. Tap into this early planning to get your brand front of mind with useful planning related content helping parents with this research stage.
- If you are concerned about being accused of doing seasonal advertising too early, why not go direct just to parents much earlier? Target your marketing and communications only to parents, using parent-specific media and your own channels, rather than going on mass media. Focused messaging to this target audience at the right time has the potential to turn them into early advocates leveraging their network.
- Understanding what would motivate parents to buy from you for Christmas as well as how to activate them to recommend your brand is key, contact us today to find out how we can help.
