Alliant Blog

2023 Holiday Activation Guide: Top Retail Audiences for Every Shopper

Written by Eric Bratten | Aug 17, 2023 1:22:03 PM

The holiday season represents a massive opportunity for marketers to take full advantage of increased consumer spending. Now is the time to begin setting up marketing campaigns to connect with consumers and drive conversion across the lineup of key seasonal dates including Halloween, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, and more. 

 

U.S. holiday retail sales are expected to increase by almost 5% vs. last year, with nearly 50% of consumers saying they plan to start shopping early to get deals and avoid crowds. 

 

To help brands and agencies activate the right audiences to drive demand and generate sales for their seasonal programmatic efforts, Alliant delivers over 2000 on-demand segments. Let’s explore which of those retail and ecommerce gifting segments were activated the most across digital, television, and social media platforms last holiday season based on spending. 

 

The below rankers include top Alliant audiences used by advertisers and their media buyers for campaigns placed between September and December of 2022. Alliant's unique view into advertiser spending includes details by brand and product propensity, along with purchase behavior categories.  

 

Top 10 Brand Propensity Audiences

1.  Adore Me Buyer

2.  ULTA Buyer

3.  Shopify Buyer

4.  Skechers Buyer

5.  Lululemon Athletica Buyer

6.  Amazon Buyer

7.  West Elm Buyer

8.  Black Friday Buyer

9.  Levi's Buyer

10.  Nintendo Buyer

Alliant brand propensity segments are modeled audiences built from 175MM+ credit and bank card transactions for specific brand purchases.

 

Holiday gifting can drive spending of certain retail and consumer goods categories more so than others. The usage of different brand, product, and purchase behavior audiences reveal that advertisers are using a multitude of targeting strategies to tap into these areas of concentrated consumer spending across home goods, clothing, outdoor and sports apparel, pets, entertainment, and gaming.

 

Top 10 Product Propensity Audiences

1.  Pajamas

2.  Kitchen & Dining

3.  Dog Treat

4.  Jeans

5.  Denim

6.  Outdoor Recreation

7.  Outdoor Furniture

8. Cameras

9.  Exercise & Fitness

10.  Jewelry

Alliant product propensity segments are modeled audiences built from 175MM+ credit and bank card transactions for types of products purchased.

 

Media buyers should consider using a blend of audience types that map to their brand ICP (ideal customer profile) which many times can include a combination of demographic, propensity (brand, product, or interest), and behavioral segments. For example, an outdoor men's apparel brand aiming to drive holiday sales of their new boots should consider activating men 25-54 in combination with timberland brand propensity, along with nature lover purchase behavioral audience segments for a robust targeting strategy.

 

Top 10 Purchase Behavior Audiences 

1.  Cooking & Food Enthusiasts

2.  Nature Lovers

3.  Cosmetic & Beauty Lovers

4.  Entertainment & Pastimes

5.  Health, Wellness & Fitness

6.  CPG - Household Goods

7.  Lawn & Garden Enthusiasts

8.  Sports Enthusiasts

9.  Holiday Products

10.  Pet Lovers

Alliant purchase behavior segments are deterministic audiences built from DTC transactional data derived from the DataHub for purchases across specific categories of products and services.

 

As we review the top needle-moving retail audiences from last year, it will be interesting to track how this year’s trends potentially alter marketer’s audience strategies and their use of specific segments in 2023. Brands and agencies will need to account for some of the large overarching trends including high inflation, new family dynamics, an increase in digital ecommerce – especially on mobile, less brand and store-loyal consumers seeking out deals and home delivery options, and more.

 

Alliant is relied on by thousands of brands and agencies because of our trusted people-based audience data available at scale across leading programmatic, TV, and social platforms. For more information on these top holiday audiences, our methodology, and more, explore Alliant’s full taxonomy of over 2000+ audiences ready for activation for any retail campaign.