Hindsight is 2022: Make it a Memorial Day to Remember

5 Min Read

If summer, barbecues and vacation are the first things that come to mind when you hear the words ‘Memorial Day,’ you’re not alone. But perhaps ‘revenue’ should be added to the list too, where retail sales are concerned. A survey conducted last year by Coresight Research found that almost two-thirds of consumers planned to increase their spending over the Memorial Day weekend for dining and drinking out, as well as both ecommerce and in-store purchases. 

Looking back to last year, total sales from March 2021 to May 2021 were up 36.2% versus the same period in 2020. Last year’s recovery has since worked up to a full recovery, as foot traffic is back to pre-pandemic levels and travel has made a roaring comeback as people make up for lost time—a survey conducted by GlobalWebIndex revealed that 78.7% of people are planning to take a trip this year, and 10.3% have already booked at least one vacation. And, if it’s not vacation, then it’s making moves (we mean of the real estate variety)—80% of all moves in the US occur between April and September. That explains all of the home improvement, furniture and appliance promotions that you see during Memorial Day.

We’ll cover:

• Memorial Day or Memorial Month?
• Your Targeting Tune-Up
• Clarify Your Message, Connect With Consumers

Memorial Day or Memorial Month?

This year, we’re expecting to see a similar theme—except with a few nuances. Inflation has hit a 40-year high of 7.9%, meaning consumers will be a lot pickier with their purchases. It also explains why the majority of consumers are planning to head into shops rather than online as they want to ‘see before they buy’ in order to make an informed purchase decision.

We also analyzed our own MNTN Performance TV data across key Memorial Day verticals, such as home and garden, ecommerce and retail, travel and leisure and consumer goods, and saw clear increases in both revenue for our prospecting and retargeting campaigns, spiking at Memorial Day. However, what was particularly interesting was revenue continued to increase exponentially leading into the summer months weeks after Memorial Day, as advertisers reaped the rewards of their CTV campaigns.

We also wanted to see whether this big increase in revenue the two weeks right after Memorial Day was correlated with a relative increase in ad spend and found that the latter increased nominally (by 7%), while revenue jumped almost 170%.  We saw a similar pattern with retargeting campaigns, where ad spend increased by 45% across the same time frame, but revenue increased by 84% in comparison.

Keep in mind that although Memorial Day lands on May 30, sales start as early as the start of the month—with most sales occurring in the week leading up to the holiday. Since last year’s data showed both retargeting and prospecting campaigns having a residual effect with bigger gains post-Memorial Day, we recommend that advertisers heavy up on their ad spend the month leading up to the holiday as this will give sufficient time to expand your targeting pool and reconnect with your current customers and reap the rewards sooner.

Your Targeting Tune-Up

You asked, we delivered—check out some of the audience segments you can (and should) target

Memorial Day Shoppers: Of course, no Memorial Day campaign would be remiss without this classic segment, targeting those who celebrate the holiday.

• Lotame > Holidays & Special Events > Holidays > Memorial Day
• Experian > Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Seasonal > Summer Sales Event Shoppers: High Spenders: Memorial Day Shoppers
• PlaceIQ > Holidays and Seasonal > Memorial Day

Sofa, So Good: Outdoor and indoor furniture, lawn equipment, mattresses and homewares are hot commodities during summer.

• Oracle > Retail > In-Market > Home and Garden > Outdoors > Patio and Outdoor Furniture
• Cuebiq > Geo-behavioral Audience > Retail > Housewares & Furniture Shoppers
• Oracle > Retail > Merchant Category Audiences > In Store Furniture and Home Decor High Spender

First In, Best Dressed: Memorial Day marks the unofficial start to summer, but retailers are looking to clear out their spring merchandise to make way for the new season’s styles.

• In-Market > Retail > Clothing, Shoes and Accessories > Clothing
• Datalogix > DLX Seasonal > Spring Seasonal > Spring Apparel Buyers
• PlaceIQ > Retail > Clothing Stores > Recent (Visited a clothing store once in the past 90 days)

Clarify Your Message, Connect With Consumers

So, you’ve got rising prices, a positive retail outlook, but pickier shoppers—this requires a nuanced approach to your campaign strategy this year. Creative will play a pivotal role in the way you deliver your message to capture the mind and hearts (and ultimately, dollars) from consumers. Some things you may want to consider is experimenting with value-based messaging to justify any price hikes. This includes:

• Enhanced product benefits: Prices might be rising, but if your product or services are getting a facelift, it’s prime time to have this front and center in your messaging.

• Loyalty programs: Price sensitive consumers are willing to experiment—and potentially switch brands. It’s important to retain and engage your current customers, through referral discounts and rewards.

• Monthly subscriptions deals: Retailers are offering discounts for regularly purchased or refilled products, which help to differentiate from competition and offset any price increases on a single unit product.

• A lower price point: A price per month, per mile, or per other unit of consumption is usually much lower, more transparent, and much more manageable for customers than an outright purchase price. Such prices also align better with how customers create and derive value.