Holiday Marketing Ideas to Connect with Early Shoppers

With the summer season winding down, if you’re anything like us, your mind is already on the upcoming holiday season and marketing ideas. While consumers still have plenty of time to shop for everyone on their nice list, brands may miss out on valuable holiday airtime if you don’t start planning now. Shoppers are ramping up their spending and planning earlier, and with 93% of listeners saying music enhances the holiday atmosphere, digital audio is a crucial component throughout the holiday experience. 1

The window is widening for holiday planning

Sure, holiday traditionalists may say that Christmas music shouldn’t start until after Thanksgiving, but the widening of the holiday window is an ongoing trend for both listening and shopping behavior. With the current economic climate, consumers are on the lookout for a good deal and spreading out their holiday spending—with 76% actively seeking out deals and value. Additionally, 48% say they like to take advantage of sales and deals all year—and then save it for the holidays. 1 Even last-minute gift buyers are exposed to holiday messages earlier and earlier, and one in five listeners learn about holiday gifts from streaming audio or podcast ads.¹ And consumers report using those messages to help find gifts for friends and family. 

Connect with consumers who prepare early

Early shoppers like to be prepared—perusing holiday shopping guides, making lists of needed gifts, and marking sales on the calendar. How do you find them? Easy. They’re already listening to Pentatonix, Kelly Clarkson, Andy Williams, and more. 2 And if you’re targeting them as early as September, you can find them tuning in to top stations like Indie Pool Party during holidays like Labor Day

Thanks to the amount of data that listeners share with SiriusXM Media, you can find your perfect early-shopping audiences. And with dynamic audio, you can even create variable ads that adapt based on listener profiles. Tailor your messaging based on where your audience actually is (like Los Angeles or Houston), when (like a Tuesday in September), and device (like mobile). 

Holiday shoppers are on the hunt for deals

With current concerns surrounding tariffs, inflation, and what remains in stock, consumers continue to spread out their holiday spending. Shoppers now expect to be incentivized with bargains and bonuses if they prepare early. Think of Amazon Prime Day, which has taken place over four days for the last two years compared to two days in the years before. Following last years’ event, Amazon announced record sales and billions of dollars in customer savings. Additionally, Black Friday is no longer exclusive to November. Major retailers, from Target, to Best Buy, to Macy’s, jumped on the “Black Friday in July” wave this year, offering multi-day discounts for consumers getting a headstart. 

To keep up the savings spirit, reward early shoppers with Pandora solutions like sponsored listening, a rich media or video ad that offers an hour of uninterrupted listening in exchange for ad interaction. Or give consumers a discount code for taking advantage of early-season shopping. 

Diverse consumers get a headstart on the holidays

Taking a one dimensional approach to the holidays would do brands a disservice. Multicultural consumers hold $7T in purchasing power and they’re extremely influential in the trends of today—making it crucial for brands to prioritize this audience and create messaging that reflects cultural nuances and traditions. 

Take a look at different multicultural audiences and their holiday spending habits 3

• 76% of Asian gift purchasers spent the same amount or more on gifts compared to previous years.

• 69% of Black gift purchasers are most likely to start and finish their shopping within 60 days.

• Over nine in 10 Hispanic listeners (91%) spend the holidays with any family, while holiday music is the common denominator when they’re gift shopping, traveling, or dancing at family gatherings.

While many might think of Christmas when they think of the holidays, don’t forget to acknowledge all the holidays—like Hanukkah, Noche Buena, Kwanzaa, and more. Diverse holidays call for brands to cater to diverse music tastes. Reach multicultural consumers with Pandora’s Sponsored Stations, a scalable and turnkey way for your brand to resonate with target audiences. Take your pick from the below stations (and there are more where these came from): 

• Soulful Holidays 

• R&B Holiday 

• Gospel Christmas 

• Navidad Boricua 

Use audio to transform your holiday marketing ideas

For many households, audio is the first sensory experience to trigger the holiday season. Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” and Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” hit heavy rotations before holiday decorations take over store aisles and displays. And thanks to connected home devices, families come together around their smart devices for live streaming coverage of broadcasts or sporting events. 

Speaking of bringing families together, audio is a prime opportunity to reach friends and family who co-listen. Thanks to co-listening, multiple groups or generations are tuned in, with ads often garnering in more listeners than impressions. Whether families or friends are gathered together for Labor Day or Halloween, leverage connected home or connected car to get your holiday message into multiple sets of ears at once. 

Holiday shoppers turn to audio for inspiration

When consumers are stressed out and looking for gift inspiration, they turn to audio for some sensory relief (complete with ads for inspiration). The good news for brands is that 68% of listeners took any action after hearing or seeing a holiday ad. And almost one in four SiriusXM Media listeners looked up a product online before visiting a store after seeing or hearing a holiday ad. 1 That means that while you’re looking for holiday marketing ideas, your listeners are ad-receptive and already looking for holiday shopping ideas. 

Advertisers on our networks can follow those audiences across shows, media, and even platforms. Shopping continues to be a cross-channel experience, and brands need to show up across every touchpoint. Imagine this: One of your audience personas is listening to their favorite podcast host promote your brand before switching to a holiday playlist. Then they find out you’re offering a limited-time discount code. Finally, when they look down at their phone to switch stations, they see a carousel ad in the Pandora app showcasing your products, complete with a direct link to your online store.

Bring on the holiday cheer with SiriusXM Media 

So what’s the ho-ho-low down? The holiday shopping season is no longer confined to Q4, meaning it’s time to bring your holiday marketing ideas into your Q3 strategic plan. As for the “where,” digital audio is a sure bet if you want to connect early and grow your audience throughout the holiday season. 

Ready to find the right audience for your holiday marketing ideas? Let’s talk.

Learn more about seasonal listening