While Christmas & New Years were only a few days ago, it is already time for advertisers to start looking forward to the next major spending event. In the US and many other countries around the world, that is Valentine’s Day. BingAds has recently published an article giving some important tips on how you can best market to this massive Valentine’s Day audience.
If you haven’t run any special promotions for this event in the past, you may be missing out big time. While it isn’t nearly as big as Christmas, people did spend about $17.4 Billion on Valentine’s Day related items last year. That is an average purchase of $134, which is quite significant.
Timing is Everything
As you can see from this graphic, the majority of Valentine’s Day purchases occur in the last week just before the actual holiday. This procrastination can work in your favor, if you are able to promote your products properly. While 51% of all Valentine’s Day gifts are purchased within a week of the holiday, a full 90% are purchased within three weeks of it, making targeted advertising much easier.
Audience is Larger than Expected
Most people only think about couples buying gifts for each other on Valentine’s Day. The fact is, however, that many other people buy gifts as well. Family members often exchange gifts, and so do friends, classmates and event pets. Valentine’s Day has become a major gift exchange opportunity, and savvy companies are working hard to take advantage of it. Look at the following graphic to see just how many people are exchanging gifts each year:
Market to the Sweet Tooth
Each year about half of all Valentine’s Day gifts include candy, cards and/or flowers. In fact, US consumers will spend about $1 billion on candy this Valentine’s Day, with 75% of that being on chocolate.
Here are a few more interesting statistics provided by BingAds regarding this romantic holiday that is also quite a great marketing opportunity.
