iSpot Data Shows Holiday Spending Up As Retailers Root for a Greener Holiday Season

Advertisers can’t do much to ensure a white Christmas, but they’re pulling out the stops to try to make sure they gather as much green as possible in the fourth quarter. 

With a shaky economy and tariffs impacting prices and consumer confidence, marketers, led by retailers of both the online and brick-and-mortar variety, have been pumping up their ad spending ahead of the holiday season.

According to data from iSpot, since October 1 holiday ad spending on linear TV has totaled $475.1 million, up 13.2% from last year at this time. 

iSpot, which monitors, measures and analyzes advertising, also notes that holiday ad spending has risen steadily each week, from $6.9 million the week of October 6 to $168.7 million the week of November 17.

The biggest holiday advertiser so far this quarter has been Amazon. The online giant has spent an estimated $90.7 million, 2.5 times more than it did last year during the same period, and aired 4,000 more commercials. It accounts for 12.9% of all ad spending. If you include the company’s spending on Amazon Prime, Amazon’s spending is up 3 times from last year.

Similarly, spending by Walmart is up 11.1% to $37.1 million The Home Depot has built up an 82% increase to $37.1 million, Target’s spending is 68% higher to $33.5 million and Kohl’s has boosted its advertising by 32% to $21.9 million.

Another advertiser with a big increase in ad spending is Verizon, up 36%, to persuade families to put new iPhones under the tree.

iSpot notes that the initial wave of shopping ads highlighted early deals. Walmart in particular featured a savings message.

Since then a majority of the most-seen spots focus on prioritizing convenience and the ease of finding the right items quickly. Walmart was part of that shift in tone, as was The Home Depot, Macy’s and Dick’s Sporting Goods. (Price remains a key point emphasized in advertising by the wireless providers.)

This year, most of the biggest retail and apparel brands have increased their share of streaming ad impressions. Amazon (including Amazon Prime) grew its share of streaming ad impressions to 14.4% this year from 9.4% last year. Michael’s and L.L. Bean have more than doubled their streaming shares and Target, The Home Depot, Lowe’s, Ulta and eBay have also shown bigger shares of streaming ad impressions.

Live sports have big reach among shoppers, but commercials during games tend to be expensive. iSpot notes that there are lower-priced alternatives for advertisers looking to reach shoppers.

The broadcast and cable series with the highest share of exposure in households that have made retail visits between October 1 and November 23 were NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas, SportsCenter, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir, CBS Evening News and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

Late night shows might be an endangered species, but for now, they’re a winning investment for retailers, reaching about a third of retail visitors.

Syndicated shows like Law & Order: SVU and The Big Bang Theory were also good for reaching shoppers at lower ad rates.

The most likeable new retail and apparel holiday commercial so far this season according to iSpot is Chewy’s Holidays: Junior spot. Also scoring high for likeability are Hallmark’s Joy, Lowe’s Holidays: Bringing Hope to Military Members and Veterans, Petsmart’s Holiday Cheer and Walmart’s Who Knew-Top Brand Gifts.

And of course, you can't turn on the set without seeing the return of Amazon’s Joy Ride spot, featuring the three women who order some padding so they can enjoy sledding like they did when they were kids. Wheeee.

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Speaking of holiday shopping, about 57% of U.S. consumers expect to spend the same or more this year during the holiday season, according to TransUnion’s Q4 Consumer Pulse study. Almost 60% also said they plan to spend more than $250, up a tick from last year.

A bigger share of that spending will be done via credit cards, TransUnion said.

“It’s clear that credit cards will be the preferred payment method for many consumers. That’s not surprising, given that nearly 175 million Americans now hold one or more active credit cards and we continue to see steady growth in both cardholders and the number of open credit cards—an indication of strong consumer demand for credit and confidence from issuers in consumers’ ability to manage their payments.”said Charlie Wise, senior VP and head of global research and consulting at TransUnion. 

TransUnion found that inflation is the top financial worry for consumers. But the majority of Americans —55% — are optimistic about their household finance over the next 12 months.