This year, holiday shoppers plan to celebrate as much as they can. They’re finally ready to throw those parties they’ve dreamt of for the past couple years. Big Halloween bashes. Formal winter fests. Giant Thanksgiving potlucks with everyone they’ve been waiting to see.

But big is only half the story. During the pandemic, people adapted. They traded the big parties for intimate gatherings with immediate family and close friends—things like gift-wrapping parties, or holiday movie nights. And now those smaller mini moments are here to stay, too.

Our research shows that this is a holiday season unlike any other. One that blends big and small, monumental and mini, tradition and innovation. And for holiday shoppers, it’s all starting right now. Which means your holiday season needs to start now, too.

This year’s holiday shoppers are planning for more celebrations and seasonal moments than ever before. 80% of holiday shoppers in our survey said they plan to have more mini moments throughout the holiday season, punctuating their bigger festivities with every chance they can get to celebrate, connect and create new traditions.¹ That means fun new traditions like harvest festivals, leftover parties and group trips to see festive lights.

It’s great news for brands like yours. The more people want to celebrate, the more they’ll shop for all kinds of holiday categories, from decor to gifts to food. You can tap into the emerging behavior by being ready to go for all kinds of moments across the season, big and small.

More moments means more ways to win
Adding more seasonal moments to your holiday ad mix pays off. In 2021, Pinterest advertisers who activated against multiple holiday moments saw a 4x higher increase in conversion rates than those who only activated for Christmas.²

In other words: Don’t save all your spend for December. Those big holiday moments still do matter, but you’re better off allocating your holiday campaigns and budget throughout a longer, more varied season. Take advantage of the smaller micro moments throughout the season AND the bigger, more traditional moments for maximum payoff.

On Pinterest, the holiday season kicks off with Halloween and goes well into January of the following year. But here's the thing: the planning starts way before the celebrating. To maximize your holiday opportunity, you need to start promoting your holiday ideas and products months before the actual moments hit.

For example: take Halloween. As we all know, it’s celebrated on October 31st. But our data shows that the peak ad opportunity for Halloween actually runs all the way from July to October.⁴ Brands that wait for that last month, miss out. Brands that start running their Halloween content during the summer reach more shoppers, and reach them earlier in the planning process.

Consistent, timely marketing throughout the season leads to better results. Brands on Pinterest see 5x more conversions when people are exposed to their ads earlier in the season, compared to brands who wait to advertise later on.³

Michaels saw this work last year with their multi-objective holiday marketing. They simultaneously ran different campaign objectives geared toward getting shoppers at every step of the marketing funnel throughout the season. Michaels only saw a 6% overlap in audiences for each objective, showing that Pinterest was effective at reaching shoppers in every phase.⁵

Think about this opportunity spread over so many holiday marketing moments throughout the season—there’s always someone in each phase getting ready to plan, shop or buy.

As holiday shoppers prepare for a celebration-packed season, they're actively searching for all sorts of holiday ideas. And Pinterest is where they come to find them. Take advantage of this moment in time and influence their big and small holiday celebrations while they’re still in planning mode—not documenting them after the fact.