The Countdown to Christmas: How OOH Can Captivate Your Audience

We’re incredibly sorry (not sorry) to announce it, but there are less than 100 days to go until Christmas! After spending Christmas in lockdown last year and with 66.1% of the UK now fully vaccinated, it’s no surprise that Brits across the country are already planning their celebrations for the most wonderful time of the year.

With retail events such as Amazon Prime Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday leading up to Christmas, this is a crucial time for brands. If we’ve learned anything over the past couple of years, it’s that this is not the time for brands to go quiet; but to accept the challenge and step up to the mark of engaging with consumers with exciting, meaningful campaigns.

The Three Types of Christmas Shoppers

There are three types of Christmas shoppers to be aware of: The early birds, the festive shoppers and the sale shoppers.

For the early birds, Christmas shopping has already commenced; with over 1/4 of Brits already starting to shop for gifts and 48% planning to start shopping by October (Advanis). These shoppers will likely be at home with their feet up and a cuppa by the time that the festive shoppers begin.

The festive shoppers are consumers that LOVE Christmas shopping. They love everything that the festive season has to offer, including bopping around the stores to Mariah Carey, fully absorbing the magic of Christmas.

The final type of Christmas shopper is the sale shopper. These are the consumers who are on the hunt for the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, whether it be gifts for their friends and family or themselves…

Although these three categories can’t be determined exclusively for each individual person, it’s likely that everyone will be a mix of all three when it comes to shopping for Christmas gifts this year. However, one thing that is clear, is that 30% of Brits plan to spend more this Christmas and 25% feel that Christmas will be more exciting this year – up from just 16% last year.

What are Consumers Shopping for this Christmas? 

Source: Google Trends

In the last 30 days, we’ve seen a huge increase in Google search queries for Christmas, ranging from gift ideas and traditional items to fun days out. Consumers are clearly excited to get started with preparations for this year’s festivities.

Where will Consumers Shop this Christmas?

Last year, a third of Christmas shopping was estimated to be online due to non-essential stores closing. However, this year with stores now open, 45% are actually planning to avoid major online retailers, instead opting to physically shop for gifts.

For those choosing to shop for gifts in person, 31% are planning to window shop on the high street, 23% are planning to visit independent retailers and 21% are planning to attend local Christmas markets.

Targeting Consumers with OOH this Christmas 

Whether consumers are out on the high street, driving from A to B or hitting the shopping centres; OOH is perfectly placed to engage audiences no matter where or what they’re doing. And with 40% of people who live in urban areas seeing bus stop and roadside OOH at least once a week, OOH is the perfect medium to reach target audiences. Of those exposed to OOH, 1 in 3 spent over 300 on gifts last Christmas (YouGov).

TV Vs OOH Advertising for Christmas? 

One common misconception is that 16-34 year olds are permanently glued to one type of screen or another. However, they are in fact light TV users and a huge 84% of them are heavily exposed to OOH, making the medium a natural complement to a TV schedule. 70% of light TV viewers are also heavily exposed to OOH.

So, OOH or TV for your Christmas campaigns? How about both! When combined, OOH and TV can boost reach for 16-34s, increasing cover by +25.8%. When 26% of the 16-34s TV budget is invested into OOH, total 1+ cover is maximised (OMD).

With consumer excitement building for Christmas, now is the perfect time to start thinking about and implementing campaigns to start priming your desired audiences whether they be early birds, festive shoppers or sales shoppers. OOH is perfectly placed to reach these audiences no matter where they are and when combined with TV, the benefits are huge.

Please get in touch with marketing@talonoutdoor.com if you’re interested in how your brand could use OOH to captivate your audience this Christmas.