The holiday shopping season kicked off last week with a major emphasis on football among retail TV advertisers. From Nov. 24-28, 12.65% of retail brands’ TV ad impressions were delivered by the NFL, which was up from 9.02% the year before. College football also got in on the action, with 3.87% of retail TV ad impressions during the long holiday weekend (up from 2.77% the previous year).
With such a retail focus on football, networks that aired games were also among the biggest for the industry’s TV ad impression deliveries. Football and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade helped push NBC to the top with 9.24% of retail TV ad impressions. Fellow NFL (and college football) broadcast partners CBS and Fox placed third and fourth, respectively. Even without football, though, Hallmark Channel was No. 2 on the strength of a new batch of holiday specials.
Overall, retail brands’ est. national TV ad spend jumped a modest 6.4% on Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday compared to last year. Though TV ad impressions dipped slightly, down 4.6% year-over-year.
The brands that jumped into the holidays with both feet shouldn’t surprise. Walmart led the way, with 8.91% of retail TV ad impressions over the five days, followed by Target (6.74%), Amazon (6.10%), Macy’s (5.81%) and Kohl’s (4.53%).
The top 10 most-seen retail TV advertisers featured a couple notable newcomers as well, in direct-to-consumer brands Etsy (No. 7 by TV ad impressions) and Wayfair (No. 10). Etsy accounted for over a quarter of DTC retail TV ad impressions, while Wayfair had 18.83% and Bombas made up 8.91%.
Target’s “Get Ahead This Holiday” was the most-seen retail ad for Nov. 24-28, with 2.73% of TV ad impressions. The brand’s Black Friday ads resonated with consumers, according to iSpot’s Creative Assessment, as survey respondents saw value messaging come through while also deeming the ads 8% more likable than the norm for retail spots in the last 90 days.
Amazon’s “Joy Is Made” accounted for 2.51% of retail TV ad impressions in the time period, but used a different approach to convey a heartfelt holiday message (successfully, we might add, since survey respondents shared “heartfelt” was the top emotional reaction to the creative). The spot, which shows a father using Amazon to create a real-life snow globe, was also 6% more watchable than the norm for retail ads.
The holiday season is far from over. Want to keep tabs on retail TV ad performance trends throughout the festivities? Contact us to learn how you can track every TV ad dollar you and your competitors’ invest with real-time TV ad measurement from iSpot.