Change your plans. Your audience already did.
People are searching for and saving festive season ideas earlier than they ever have on Pinterest. Months earlier.
Find out why – and why it matters for your brand
By Andréa Mallard, Pinterest CMO
‘There may never be another festive season quite like this one. Pinners started searching for festive season ideas in April.’
Andréa Mallard
Pinterest CMO
Brands love reaching their most passionate customers.
As a former retail CMO myself, I get it. When you reach early planners, you reach the CEOs of the household – an audience that buys and spends more. Reach them first, and you have a shot at being their first choice when it’s time to shop.
And yet, for as long as marketers and advertisers have been prioritising planners – the early, A-types – they’re making some seriously incorrect assumptions about this key audience right now. I heard from a CMO recently: ‘I’m holding off on all of my Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas planning. Nobody is thinking that far in the future yet.’ Right?
Wrong. Our latest research suggests the opposite. People on Pinterest aren’t delaying. They’re starting earlier than ever this year. And that’s saying something, because at Pinterest, we’re used to early. As you can see in the graphic below, searches related to festive season start appearing on Pinterest months before other search platforms.
Indexing festive season search trends across platforms
But this year, Pinners are starting to search for festive season ideas even earlier than ever before.
Historically, people on Pinterest start making festive season plans in September. This year, they started searching and saving for the festive season… in April. Festive season searches jumped 77% in April 2020 vs April 2019.1 That trend included a 3x increase in searches for ‘Christmas gift ideas’—eight months before December.
Why the shift? First, there are the rational reasons. People are worried about the pandemic’s impact on preparations that they used to take for granted. Pinners pointed to concerns like delayed delivery, a potential shortage of ingredients to make their favourite recipes and a need to work harder this year to create the same festive season experience in the face of a pandemic. As one Pinner put it, ‘I’ll be starting to look online much earlier than normal because delivery delays are quite likely at the moment. You don't know exactly when you're going to see the products.’2
But there are also more emotional reasons. After a tough year, consumers are craving the comfort of the festive season. And the early planning that once felt like a chore now feels extra special, and imbued with new meaning. One participant told us: ‘I really want it to be super Christmas-y and kind of over the top this year… I'll be going above and beyond with lots of decorations and a tree and activities.’2 Hey, I get it. Last weekend, I helped my daughter to research her costume for Halloween, which she can’t stop talking about, and we're still only in June..
Our research also shows that Pinners are explicitly looking for help from brands this year, in navigating the shifting festive season climate while still making their celebrations feel special. As you develop content, think about designing specifically to meet customers’ early planning needs. For example, our research shows that Pinners who plan are also more likely to self-gift.3 This year, we predict that they’re also more likely to host for the first time. Consider these different planner archetypes when crafting your content—from the self-gifter and the traditionalist to the delivery-first shopper and amateur host.
When we published our research this week, I shared it with the CMO mentioned above. Her reaction? ‘Look, we follow their lead. If our audience is early, we’ll be early, too.’ Don’t be late to the party. Be the brand that they discover first. Show up on time for the earliest festive season planning ever.
This article originally appeared as People on Pinterest are already looking for Christmas ideas in Adweek on 30 June 2020.
See all of our 2020 festive season insights