Global Insights for Marketers to Build the Best Mother’s Day and Father’s Day Campaigns

The time of year where we honor moms and dads is just around the corner. These holidays are a big deal for a lot of the world, and part of the celebration is gift-giving, in order to show our appreciation for our parents.

For marketers and brands, these holidays also mean big potential earnings.

According to the National Retail Federation, last year Mother’s Day hit a record $23.6 billion in sales, and Father’s Day a record $15.5 billion in the US alone.

Gift giving on these holidays is typically associated with technology, fashion or beauty items.

We took a look at recent data from Taboola Trends, which provides up-to-date image and keyword trends on a weekly basis based on 75 million clicks and 50 billion impressions to help marketers capitalize on this massive gift-giving opportunity.

For holidays with such high potential, it’s important for advertisers to get their campaigns right. We’re diving into tips on building the best creatives for your digital campaigns this Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.

Technology Marketers: Drive Clicks for Father’s Day and Mother’s Day.

In the months leading up to both parental appreciation holidays across the globe, technology marketers will be taking advantage of the increase in clicks on technology content.

They’re taking advantage for good reason:

The National Retail Federation found that in the US alone, 19.7% of shoppers will pick out new gadgets for Father’s Day such as a tablet or smartphone, totaling $1.6 billion. For Mother’s Day, 15% of shoppers will purchase consumer electronics, for a total of $2 billion in sales.

As you run your digital campaigns for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, keep our headline and image insights in mind to drive the most clicks.

• Global keyword insights. Headlines for your content and creative could benefit most from using these words: edition, idea, iPhone, gadgets, phones, selfie, video.
• Global image insights. Contrary to what we’re seeing in other verticals, including images of people didn’t largely affect clicking behavior—we saw a 3% increase in CTR in the beginning of March.
• Global image insights. Now, images that include people actually decrease CTR by 59%.

Not all countries react similarly to technology content. Here are some differences that we saw across Europe and the Americas:

• UK and Germany image insights. In the UK and Germany, technology imagery is unrelated to animals, while in the US, we’re seeing a 116% increase in clicks on images with animals, even in the technology industry.
• US image insights. This could be indicative of an increase in animal related gadgets in the US, in comparison with Europe.

This is How Fashion Marketers can Reach the Right Consumers on Both Holidays.

In the months leading up to these holidays, fashion marketers should be in high-gear preparing campaigns for this Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, much like technology marketers.

Just like technology marketers, fashion marketers have the opportunity to capitalize on big bucks this year:

The same study by the National Retail Federation found that 39.7% of shoppers will purchase apparel items, such as a new dress shirt or necktie, and will spend a total $1.7 billion overall.

For Mother’s Day, consumers plan to spend $5 billion on jewelry to be purchased by 36% of shoppers, and $2.1 billion on clothing to be purchased by 37% of shoppers.

As you run your fashion campaigns, keep these insights in mind:

• Global keyword insights. Headlines for your fashion content and creatives could benefit from including these words: make, dresses, gorgeous, shop, gowns, women and watches.
• Global image insights. All of the countries running a substantial amount of fashion campaigns showed an increase in clicks for images of men as opposed to women.

Here are some differences we saw across the Americas, Europe and APAC for image performance.

• US & Canada image insights. Images of men see a 20% higher CTR than images with women.
• UK image insights. Images of men see a 13% higher CTR than images with women.
• India image insights. Images of men see a 100% higher CTR than images with women.
• Australia image insights. Images of men see a 8% higher CTR than images with women.

This preference for male-related fashion items changes a bit when we look by device globally.

• On desktop devices, images of men see a 27% higher CTR than images with women.
• On tablet devices, images of women see a 26% higher CTR than images with men.
• On mobile devices, images of women see a 1% higher CTR than images with men.

Men’s fashion is most likely being purchased more on desktop devices, when consumers are settled down at home or at work, whereas women’s fashion is being purchased on the go.

Beauty Marketers, Keep Colors in Mind When Shaping Campaign Creatives.

For beauty advertisers that want to advertise their products as either Mother’s Day or Father’s Day gifts, not-surprisingly, the colors used in your campaigns are of utmost importance.

The beauty industry will be just as booming this year as technology and fashion industries.

For beauty marketers, the National Retail Federation estimates a total of $684 million spent on personal care items for dad, and $19.4 billion spent on personal care services, like a day spa, for mom.

For beauty marketers, there’s one major trend in image performance to keep in mind—colorful images see a CTR that’s 2.5x higher than black and white images.

In addition, images taken outside see a 40% increase in CTR as opposed taken inside—so be sure to take advantage of that natural light.

Savvy advertisers who are preparing their campaigns for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day should keep these insights in mind, for success in these popular verticals this season.