5 Ways Your Brand Can Reach Holiday Shoppers This Year 

When the holiday season becomes overwhelming, millions of Americans turn to their local TV stations for guidance on everything from buying the best gifts at the best price, decorating their homes for family gatherings, recipe ideas, and which holiday activities to attend.  

A local marketing strategy is key to holiday marketing, and this guide can help put your brand front and center as you help them navigate this wonderful but hectic time of year.  

Holiday Shopper Insights 

First, let’s look at the mindset of this year’s holiday shoppers so you can better tailor your holiday campaigns to meet consumer needs and find which platforms to reach your ideal audience. The National Retail Foundation found: 

• Thanksgiving Shopping: 196.7 million Americans shopped in stores and online over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend in 2022, spending an average of $325 on holiday-related items. Most of this spending, around $229, was directed toward gifts. The average spend per person on gifts and other holiday items is $832.
   
• Shopping Destinations: The top Thanksgiving weekend shopping destinations include online stores (42%), department stores (42%), grocery stores (40%), clothing stores (36%), and discount stores (32%).
   
• Early Shopping: 60% of holiday shoppers start browsing and buying by early November. The top reasons for early shopping include spreading the budget, avoiding the stress of last-minute shopping, avoiding crowds, finding promotions and prices too good to pass up, and ensuring they don’t miss out on specific items.
   
• Desired Gifts: According to consumer preferences, 54% of people want to receive gift cards, followed by clothing/accessories (49%), books/other media (30%), electronics (24%), and home decor (23%). 

Media Usage of Holiday Shoppers 

According to MRI-Simmons and TVB studies, holiday shoppers are highly engaged with various media platforms:

• Holiday shoppers spend approximately 28 hours per week using the internet. 
• They are 2% more likely than the average adult to have visited a TV station’s website in the past 30 days. 
• Three of four holiday shoppers love to stream TV shows, with 1 in 3 enjoying streaming TV shows with ads. 
• In-store and online shoppers highly trust local news sites/apps. 

• Holiday shoppers are 8% more likely than the average adult to agree that internet ads provide useful information about bargains and 7% more likely to agree that internet ads provide helpful information about new products and services. 

With these insights, you’ll want to consider the power of a cross-channel campaign that includes linear broadcast TV, OTT streaming, and digital elements.  

5 Ways Your Brand Can Reach Holiday Shoppers 

Capturing the attention of holiday shoppers is a paramount challenge for businesses looking to thrive during this festive season. Let’s explore effective ways your brand can engage holiday shoppers with creative ways to boost your brand’s visibility and foster lasting connections that extend well beyond the holiday season. 

1. Align With Your Local News Station 

Throughout the holiday season, local TEGNA stations will air feel-good and informative holiday programming, including news and lifestyle content. This presents an opportunity for brands to experience a halo effect from key content alignment and sponsorships. Three ideas and holiday sponsorship opportunities with TEGNA include:  

• Mom Squad: Broadcast to 50+ markets on 49 streaming apps and local station sites, this weekly parenting show will offer episodes focused on holiday gift guides, tips to get into the holiday spirit, and more.  

• Black Friday & Cyber Shopper’s Guide: This special features experts offering advice and tips for the holiday season’s biggest shopping days, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. See an example of the content from WNEP here.  

• Tis The Season: Holiday Cocktails & Mocktails lets viewers dive into festive cheer with recipes for classic favorites and innovative creations, making your holiday gatherings even more special. 

2. Severe Weather & Winter Storm Alerts

The threat of extreme weather often causes a spike in ratings and search traffic, especially around the holidays. As millions of viewers turn to their trusted local news outlets for answers to these holiday questions, TEGNA meteorologists create a unique bond with loyal users who depend on them to provide accurate, real-time weather forecasts. 

The spike in weather interest around the holidays also means that brands and advertisers can expand their reach among a loyal and engaged audience with consistent, highly visible branding and benefit from the halo effect. For example, the following sponsorship opportunities organically intercept consumers during a time of need and create a ‘go-to’ consistency that can build a brand’s affinity as a community partner.   

• First Impression Sponsorship: With the First Impression Sponsorship, your brand takes top billing atop every TEGNA station’s weather page.​ 
• Integrated Weather Headlines: With a sponsorship of Weather Headlines, you ensure your brand is alongside essential information and with an engaged audience. ​
• User-Generated Weather Stories: Your brand can partner in sharing user-generated stories across every TEGNA market when the weather comes alive.  

• Severe Weather Sponsorship: With Severe Weather Sponsorship, your brand is a trusted and valued partner when weather news is at the height of importance.  

3. Cause Marketing

More than a wealth of stats show that more and more consumers are interested in buying from companies that give back to social causes – especially during the holidays. 

• 72% of consumers say purchasing from companies that reflect their values is “more important than ever” (Porter Novelli). 

• 60% of consumers want to buy from companies that give back to charitable causes (The Blackhawk Network).
• 68% will purchase gift cards that benefit philanthropic endeavors (The Blackhawk Network).
• 57% will support brands that give back to local communities (Integer Group). 

Aligning your brand with content that helps serve the local community is a win-win-win: A win for the brand, the consumer, and the community. TEGNA’s mission is to serve the greater good of our local communities, and this mission is front and center with initiatives such as KARE 11’s annual Toys for Tots drive and ABC10’s Angel Tree Program.  

Want to learn more? Here’s why marketing your brand’s purpose is so powerful for your bottom line. 

4. Tis the Season for Sports

The holidays are a great time for advertisers to align with sports content and reach a vast, co-viewing audience gathered for the holidays. In fact: 

• 94 of the top 100 telecasts of 2022 were sports events, including 82 NFL games​ 
• 81% of sports consumers either completely or somewhat trust brand sponsorships at sporting events​ 
• Sports sponsorship can drive a 10% lift in purchase intent among the exposed fanbase​

Sports advertising can be beneficial in several ways, and opportunities abound with TEGNA’s Sports Report, NFL and Super Bowl opportunities, and the upcoming Olympic games. Learn more about the power of sports sponsorships here.

5. Location and Event Targeting with Geofencing 

From attending haunted houses and hayrides, Christmas parties, and holiday concerts, using Location and Event Targeting with Geofencing to target an audience within a specific location could be the answer your holiday strategy needs to celebrate holiday cheer.  

No matter the industry, geofencing allows advertisers to stay in front of potential customers while they are in the buying process and is an excellent advantage for any marketer to have in their toolkit. For example, let’s say you’re a dancewear retailer in New York near a theatre performing “The Nutcracker.” You could draw a geofence around the venue and target attendees with mobile ads for your relevant product or service. Then, when the ad viewer clicks through and makes a purchase or visits your store, you can attribute conversions to your Location Targeting campaign.  

About TEGNA 

As we embrace the holiday season, TEGNA’s 64 stations in 51 markets are trusted sources of news, information, and holiday cheer. With linear, streaming, digital, and measurement solutions available, we’re here to help your brand capitalize on the most wonderful time of the year. Let’s get in touch and see how we can amplify your brand’s marketing and advertising efforts.