Can you believe that summer has already passed us by? With October approaching its end, it's time to start thinking about the upcoming holiday season. According to a recent survey of US consumers, 50% of shoppers planned to start their holiday shopping no later than October, with 26% planning to forgo Black Friday entirely. Surprisingly, over half of Gen X and 50% of millennial shoppers start shopping as early as September and October.
The ongoing economic changes, particularly rising inflation rates, made consumers more focused on value and conscious and more attentive about their holiday shopping experience. Despite facing challenges, advertisers should plan their advertising strategies early as a robust holiday season is expected in 2023.
What might be the most effective strategy? Digital out-of-home (DOOH), geotargeted mobile ads and contextual video ads can be a crucial part of the omnichannel campaign, helping to increase awareness and consideration of the purchase and drive traffic to both sales channels: brick-and-mortar or online retailers. The programmatic nature of these channels can enable advertisers to more easily create impactful campaigns to attract consumers and entice them to purchase.
Including Location- and Context-based targeting in ad strategy helps retailers reach precise audience and increase brand awareness. Based on the latest Nielsen studies, nearly two-thirds of DOOH viewers have engaged in at least one measured action after seeing a digital billboard. These actions included visiting an advertiser's website, searching for them online, visiting a store or restaurant, visiting or posting to a social media site or blog, and more.
However, to reach that audience and engage them, it is crucial to know where and when to show your ads. With location data, advertisers can use insights to tailor their DOOH or Mobile ads to the audience's behavior and location throughout the day. Choosing the right venue types for the target audience can also increase the effectiveness of reaching them. By using dayparting, advertisers can optimize their ad budget and show their ads in busy and visible areas at the best times, making them more impactful.
In the U.S., according to Deloitte's annual holiday retail forecast, holiday retail sales are expected to grow by 3.5% to 4.6% in 2023. They project total holiday sales to reach $1.54 to $1.56 trillion from November to January. It seems that despite inflation and reduced post-pandemic era savings, almost 80% of consumers will spend the same as or more than they did last year. Besides that, more than 75% of consumers are on the hunt for deals this holiday as part of their effort to counteract price increases, and 72% of consumers are expecting to see deals before Black Friday.
As advertising tools, Mobile and DOOH channels offer the capability to incorporate various interactive elements that not only engage a broader audience creatively and enjoyably but also encourage both online and offline interactions. Among the most widely utilized and effective interactive features on mobile are interactive rich-media ads, gamified ads, and couponing creatives, and on DOOH are QR codes, hashtags, and short URLs. Furthermore, through device ID passback, audiences exposed to DOOH ads in geographically relevant areas can be retargeted via mobile and digital ads, thereby increasing brand touchpoints throughout their consumer journey.
As 2023 promises to be a dynamic holiday season, now is the opportune moment to embrace the potential of geotargeted advertising fully. Its ability to capture audience attention, drive sales, and engage with your target audience makes mobile, DOOH and social channels an invaluable component of your holiday marketing strategies.
Whether it's enhancing brand awareness, driving in-store traffic, or achieving a robust return on investment, leveraging these forms of ads can make a significant difference during the holiday season. It's imperative to explore the available options and maximize the effectiveness of your ads strategy to ensure that your brand features prominently on consumers' wish lists this holiday season. And we are here to support you with the targeting or performance measurement data!
