Who’s Your Audience: Back-to-School

3 Min Read

Back-to-school might seem the furthest from your mind (is it us or does everyone seem to be in Europe for summer vacation right now? Talk about distracting), but the season has unknowingly crept upon us. This year, back-to-school shopping is moving to an earlier time slot than usual, with a third of shoppers starting as early as late-June. However, we see the real peak coming from mid-July onwards, with shoppers following big box retailers like Amazon, who moved their Prime Day to this month (from their usual October time slot). 

We’re also expecting increased back-to-school spending this year, as the National Retail Federation reported that families with children in elementary through to high school will spend an average of $848.90 on school items—$59 more than last year. But more where that came from. Our recently released back-to-school report and white paper gives a lay of the land, arming marketers with all of the tools and strategies they need to succeed.

Audience segmentation is always a sore spot for marketers—and striking that fine balance of not too niche, but not too broad boils can be a challenge. We’ve come to the rescue with some additional segments to add to your campaign this season.

Audience Name: Early Holiday Shoppers

Audience Provider: Connexity

Why they’re valuable: Looks like back-to-school and the holidays are co-mingling this year, with 42% more shoppers worldwide and 37% more in the U.S. planning to start buying gifts earlier as a way to get better deals.

Audience Name: Price Conscious Shoppers

Audience Provider: Datalogix

Why they’re valuable: 61% of shoppers say that price is the leading motivator for buying back-to-school supplies and 64% of consumers plan their back-to-school shopping around sales events.

Audience Name: Brick and Mortar

Audience Provider: Experian

Why they’ve valuable: Back-to-school shopping will take place mostly in person this year—a trend we’ve been seeing in retail for four straight quarters.

Audience Name: Back-to-School Apparel

Audience Provider: Experian

Why they’re valuable: Looks like students want to top the best-dressed list as much as they want to top the class, with clothes and accessories topping the list of items that students are most excited about.

Audience Name: Walmart

Audience Provider: NinthDecimal

Why they’re valuable: Walmart is a consistent top-performer in back-to-school shopping, with 51% of customers planning to shop there this year.

Audience Name: Target

Audience Provider: NinthDecimal

Why they’re valuable: Oh, and we can’t forget Target—who, along with Amazon and Walmart, make up the top three big-box retailers where consumers do most of their back-to-school shopping.

If you’d like us to feature a specific area, send us your suggestions at audiences@mountain.com and we might feature them in an upcoming edition.

• Related: Learn more about CTV advertising.

Sign Up for the Connected TV Report

Subscribe to the report Apple, Amazon, NBC and more use to get their CTV news.