Holiday Advertising: Get Your Pitch Ready for Retail, Hospitality, Restaurants and More

Consumers are shopping earlier and earlier for the holidays. In fact, a recent survey found that 21% of shoppers begin in August, and 32% do so by September. What it means for you is that holiday advertising discussions also need to happen earlier.

Promotions for shoppers are only part of the advertising local businesses need. They may also need help with recruiting seasonal workers and launching events. Let’s look at what factors are impacting holiday shopping.

Holiday Advertising: Pitches That Get Noticed

Anyone can go to a local business and offer holiday advertising. You’ll want to stand out with results-focused, integrated campaigns that align with advertiser needs and consumer trends. Here are a few ideas to get started.

Craft Campaigns That Respond to Consumer Trends

The intelligence from the research presented can be part of the campaign. An understanding of shopper motivations may give it more traction. The campaign could include things like:

• How buying local can make dollars go further for those cutting back
• Including why shopping local is important to the community and economy
• Promoting early deals before the “official” holiday shopping commences
• Offering promotions that span across digital and in-store shopping, so customers can make transactions in the space they choose

Go Beyond the Standard Holidays

There are unique ways for your customers to engage with their audience. The traditional holidays deserve their own campaigns, but what about national days that are a bit more niche? They offer a way for businesses to be relevant and visible to audiences. Check out our November and December national day ad ideas to determine if these could be good options for your advertisers.

Propose Linear and Digital

You are in a good position to offer linear and digital advertising options. They can complement each other nicely. Digital has more ways to target accurately, while radio has great reach and is considered credible by viewers.

The key is a consistent message distributed in multiple channels. The message can be anything from a specific deal or discount to sharing the perks of working as a seasonal employee. Consistency improves recall, so when someone is ready to buy or apply, they’ll remember the company more often.

Additionally, omnichannel shoppers make purchases 70% more often and spend 34% more than those who do in-store shopping only.

Recommend New Channels

If your advertisers want to branch out and attract new customers, you should propose new channels for their ads. It will, of course, depend on their goals. For example, if they are eager to attract younger generations, they may be open to advertising on Snapchat, TikTok or YouTube. If their intent is to recruit seasonal workers, Facebook could be a good option.

For advertisers that create experiences (e.g., hosting parties, taking holiday vacations), SEM can help them meet consumers at every touchpoint in the buying process. With action-oriented paid search ads, they can also be visible when someone is ready to purchase (e.g., buy, hire, book, reserve).

Reach Out to New Advertisers in Restricted Categories

You can also pitch holiday advertising to new advertisers in restricted categories. For states where it’s legal to advertise for cannabis, online sports betting and physical casinos, you can offer integrated campaigns, which you may have been unable to do before. There has been some movement on linear for cannabis, and sports betting and casinos have been long-time advertisers on radio.

Digital advertising has been out of reach for many in these categories. It’s now available through our third-party digital solution, so you can offer these companies display ads (static and video) with geofencing and retargeting.

This represents a significant competitive advantage as you work with advertisers in these industries, which have been hungry for a greater digital presence!