It’s Never Too Soon to Start Holiday Planning

Marketers are a proactive bunch. It may be sunny and warm outside, but we’re already looking ahead to the holidays. Why? Because summer is the ideal time to begin planning for an awesome holiday marketing campaign in the fall. And it sometimes just takes that long to settle on the best method to reach your target holiday consumers.

We all know that tracking consumer behavior can be a challenge. Where at one time you might’ve found your holiday audience roasting chestnuts on an open fire, today you’re more likely to find them embracing the holiday spirit on-the-go with a smartphone. Yet with all this change, one truth we know beyond a doubt is that music is still core to the holiday experience.

When we asked our listeners to rank what makes for a good holiday season, 7 in 10 said music is one of the most important holiday ingredients--more so than food, gifts and religious traditions.

This deep connection between the holidays and music goes way back. In fact, many of the songs that characterize the holiday tradition today have origins in the Middle Ages--and while each century has added new ones, most have simply been revised, rewritten and remixed over the years. Today, we still see a sizable audience come to Pandora to celebrate with their favorite tunes. Last December alone, we experienced a record 88 million listeners on the platform.

As marketers, we know that getting your message heard during the busiest time of year is hard...ok really hard...which is why every year we ask our listeners to tell us how they plan to spend the season: what activities they’ll do, how they’ll shop and what items will make it onto their shopping list.

In our new white paper, “Music to our Ears: 2017 Holiday Shopping Trends Revealed” we uncover the stand-out shopping trends that marketers need to know going into the 2017 holiday season.

You’ll learn about where consumers stand in the ongoing battle between ecommerce, mcommerce and in-store shopping, what gifting trends are gaining traction, when shoppers plan to buy their holiday gifts, and more. Download your free copy to get a headstart on your holiday marketing strategy.