We are deep in the holiday shopping season. Consumers are expected to spend an average of around $1,652 this year, according to a Deloitte holiday survey. So how are advertisers looking to attract that money? And is inflation hitting their wallets the same way it’s hitting ours?
To learn more, David Brancaccio recently spoke with Adrianne Pasquarelli, senior reporter at Ad Age who covers marketing in retail and finance. Below is an edited transcript of their conversation.
David Brancaccio: This holiday season, if you think of the whole industry, how are things going?
Adrianne Pasquarelli: Well, I cover a lot of retail and so I am seeing a lot of advertising the last few weeks. This is their Super Bowl for retailers. We’re talking like Macy’s, Kohl’s, JCPenney, Best Buy, Target — they are all going all out.
Brancaccio: How do they actually reach people who so often are submerged in a sea of content? It’s a little hard to break through.
Pasquarelli: It certainly is, especially when you think about a marketing channel like email, where I can’t even tell you how many emails I’ve received over the last few days for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. And it all kind of goes into a blur with everyone screaming about their deals and promotions. I think this year in particular, we are seeing more of a reliance on the live events. I don’t know if you watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, but it got record viewership this year. I think the statistic was something like 6% over last year, and a few years ago, [it] didn’t look that way at all. It was certainly not as rosy. And the commercials, those that I saw were really great during the parade. And then I think other events like TV events, like the NFL Black Friday football is also bringing in, attracting a lot of viewers.
Brancaccio: Alright, so advertisers can adapt to current conditions. I mean, when they see the sales numbers that we’ve been reporting in recent days showing pretty solid spending by consumers, they can buy more.
Pasquarelli: Yes, I think that there is a reliance also on social media. There’s a lot in those channels that are not as as pricey as a splashy TV ad during the Macy’s Parade, for example. And like you said, we are seeing better than expected sales results from the past few days, which paint a different picture than I think what even the National Retail Federation expected when they came out with their forecast a few weeks ago. Of course, the season is just beginning. So kind of tempering that. But I think the holiday sales, the NRF forecast was a 3% to 4% increase for that the holiday sales of November and December. And that’s much less than last year’s 5% rise. So they kind of tempered our expectations. And then Black Friday and Cyber Monday and the last few days came out with these blockbuster numbers. And now it’s like, “Well, what’s going to happen?” So it’s hard to say, but we are seeing heavy promotional activity.
Brancaccio: Seeing anything especially interesting in terms of innovation in trying to communicate these, “please buy our stuff” messages?
Pasquarelli: It’s tricky. I think the promotional advertising really does blur together. I think a lot of the retailers that I saw pushing messages of value, and it was most of them. I’m hard pressed to distinguish one from another in my recollection. And that’s not great, because the average consumer certainly wouldn’t be able to distinguish. I think there are a handful of advertisers that are pushing a more emotional narrative for some of their spots. And those stand out against the sea of sameness from the others. We saw this great stop-motion puppetry spot from Apple, which was great for the holidays. Chevy had an ad about a woman suffering from Alzheimer’s. And Amazon was out early this year with a spot that was emotional about three older ladies reliving their glory days going for a sleigh ride.
Brancaccio: Interesting. You said value, meaning companies understanding that people are facing inflation and trying to make the pitch that their thing is cheaper.
Pasquarelli: 100%, pushing value-driven, “you can get the most here for the least amount of money.” That kind of messaging is really the top of what we’re seeing the most of; it’s really been a focus for a host of advertisers. Even companies like Etsy, which you don’t really think about as like a value-driven brand, they have their spots. And they did follow more of a narrative than than just you know, strictly screaming about deals. But even some of those ads said “Oh, we have gifts under $50.” So even they kind of push this message of financial focus.
