Every year, around this time, Andy Williams can be heard on the radio telling us, “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” Apologies to Mr. Williams, but he never experienced a global pandemic, a social justice movement, and a stressful election cycle. This feels like the most confusing, uncertain, and un-normal time of an already crazy year.
It’s hard to know what the holiday season will bring when COVID-19 has already changed how we live and work, and interact with friends, family, and strangers. But as an eternal optimist, I believe there are many things to be grateful for this year. And even more, things to look forward to amidst the changes we have all endured this year.
First, we’ll look at how the pandemic will alter shopping trends and then we will discuss how it’s never too late to strengthen your holiday campaign performance. These posts will dig into the data driving industry predictions and provide tangible solutions for brands and marketers looking to break through this extraordinary holiday season.
Part One
This year has been challenging for many Americans, and with the end of the year approaching, quickly, sentiment and plans for the holidays have changed as well. Morning Consult’s Holiday Shopping research says that 90 percent of Americans aren’t looking forward to this year’s holiday season, and 47 percent already report that their family activities will be canceled altogether.
The shopping forecast shows just as many changes. The vast majority will be spending less on holiday celebrations this year: 71 percent will be spending less than usual on celebrations with friends, and 67 percent will be spending less than expected on celebrations with family. And Deloitte’s annual holiday retail forecast reflects that change in spending. Deloitte estimates that holiday retail sales will see only 1-1.5% growth.
Some bright news in this gloomy forecast is the news of a possible vaccine coming in H1 of 2021, reinvigorating struggling industries such as restaurant, retail, and rideshare. And eCommerce sales are set to grow by 25% to 35%, year-over-year, compared to sales increasing by 14.7% in 2019.
After months of uncertainty, traditional tools may not be as useful as they used to be. It is more important than ever to tap into real-time behavior and understand how they interact with your ads with AEROS Attention Analytics.
AEROS Attention Analytics picks up, in real-time, on human attention signals (gestural) and other page signals multiple times a second, factors them into unique AI algorithms, and automatically optimizes your media performance. These are PMPs designed to improve your KPIs.
How do you get these KPI lifts? Simple: The AEROS advantage. Our predictive analytics optimize toward your KPI without you doing any extra work and without increasing cost. AEROS picks up on swipes, scrolls, expands, touches, tilts, and other signals to train our unique AI algorithms. We capture these combinations of gestures as fluidly as they are happening in real-time. We also capture everything else that occurs while the ad is on the page and plug all of the data into our AI algorithms. And it works with or without cookies.If you’re already running on the Yieldmo Marketplace, you can improve your ad performance for high-value campaigns and improve the overall ad experience for their users. Our data connects you with your audiences even more closely. But more than that, it’s a long-term investment uncovering insights that will ultimately strengthen your business.
If you’re not on Yieldmo Marketplace yet, what are you waiting for? With a challenging fiscal forecast and an unpredictable pandemic, make sure your marketing dollars are working harder and smarter to push your brand through 2021.
But what happens when a campaign is up and running, and it’s not performing the way you need it to? For the final part of our holiday shopping blog series, we’ll look at ways to update, adapt, and change your current holiday media plan if you’re not meeting your pre-campaign KPIs.
There are several ways to work with Yieldmo and get results – Choose us within your DSP or reach out to our sales team at info@yieldmo.com to help you set-up a campaign quickly.
