11 Fun holiday facts... Marketing or otherwise!
We’re a few weeks away from a new year! Entering the final holiday madness stretch, we thought we would have a bit of fun with a few holiday facts and stats that you might not know. Some of them can help your business, and some of them will make you seem like the smartest person at that party you plan on attending.
Santa wasn’t always so jolly: Early depictions of St. Nicholas are considerably different – not very jolly, and he certainly didn’t ride a sleigh through the sky pulled by your favourite reindeer! The Jolly Man as we know him now really came about because of how Clement Clarke Moore, a poet, portrayed him in 1822 in his poem “The Night Before Christmas.” One of the early examples of viral content marketing – but by accident! In the late 19th century, political cartoonist Thomas Nast helped to establish Santa Claus as we know him. And the rest is history – helped along by Coca-Cola and their depiction in a red suit!
Hey, Big Spender: On average, Canadians plan to spend $1500 this holiday season (a little higher than US consumers).
Self-gifting is a thing: About 58% of consumers buy a little something for themselves. (Mental Floss)
It’s all about social media… But you already knew that: Almost half of Canadians use Facebook as their go-to for product information and reviews, while 29% go to YouTube and 26% go to Pinterest. Although, Google indicates that up to 68% of consumer decisions are affected by YouTube.
We're all dreaming of a white Christmas: Your favourite Christmas song “White Christmas” by Irving Berlin is the best-selling single in history… over 100 million copies sold and counting!
https://youtu.be/w9QLn7gM-hY
Maybe Canadians do really like each other: 62% plan to do their holiday shopping at brick and mortar stores. If they shop on multiple channels, they tend to spend more, so don’t let anything fall through the cracks this holiday season!
Christmas is a time to break records: On December 19, 2015, a new Guinness World Record was set when 3,473 people organized to have the largest gather of people wearing holiday sweaters at the University of Kansas.
Consumers like to do research (surprise!): 8 in 10 consumers do their research online before making a holiday purchase. That means that all of the work you are doing to keep an engaged digital profile will do you some good this holiday season (Google).
Santa has his work cut out for him: Santa has to fly 31 hours (taking into account the different time zones) to deliver gifts – making it to 823 homes per second. Could you get down then up a chimney that fast? It might be the ultimate workout.
Gift-giving isn’t always planned: 1 in 5 shoppers will make holiday purchase decisions that are impulse buys.
Market to the end – December 22 will be the busiest shopping day of the year: Canadians are expected to spend more than $1.2 Billion on December 22nd alone – the final Friday before Christmas. Shoppers spent this much last year on the Friday before Christmas.
How are your holiday marketing campaigns coming along? (Bonus points if you tell us how you used these holiday facts!)