Why Holiday Marketing Starts Earlier Every Year

It seems like holiday-themed marketing is starting earlier and earlier every year, and that’s because it is.

“Christmas Creep” is already an established term and it doesn’t just refer to an unsolicited mall Santa. Christmas-themed advertising is airing earlier in the year. Christmas music is topping the charts earlier. It makes a lot of sense because Christmas is a holiday where people tend to spend more.

And it's not just happening with Christmas. Basically every holiday season is starting earlier (as long as you start celebrating whenever the first "[Holiday] sale" hits your local Walmart). But why is this happening? Why are companies trying to turn more of the year into a perpetual holiday season? And is it worth it?

“Everything Creep”

It’s not just Christmas that’s taking up more and more of the calendar. It’s just about every holiday. Just as an example that we found particularly extreme, let’s look at an event that happens at Disney World every year, Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween. Why? Because we’ve been getting countless ads for it. The event is basically select nights where the park becomes more Halloween-y. 

In 2005, the event started on September 30. In 2015, on September 15. This year, it started on August 7. Nothing screams Halloween like a 95-degree day and watching an 8:11 p.m. sunset. There was once a time when Black Friday sales happened on Black Friday and not the week before Black Friday.

The point isn’t to pick on Disney. It’s an especially visible example of what we’re calling “Everything Creep.” It’s not just Christmas that’s creeping into more of the calendar. It’s every holiday. And it’s even holidays that aren’t even real holidays. Black Friday used to mean one thing: the day after Thanksgiving. Now, Black Friday promotions routinely begin a week or more before Black Friday actually arrives.

Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, back-to-school shopping, and other seasonal occasions have all become opportunities to start marketing earlier.

And businesses have even started celebrating holidays before they’re remotely approaching. Disney and Spirit Halloween, among others, have embraced “Halfway to Halloween,” giving Halloween fans—and Halloween retailers—an excuse to start thinking about the holiday in the spring.

At this point, it’s becoming less about a holiday having a season and more about finding ways to make the season longer.

Why Does This Keep Happening?

Businesses aren’t simply responding to consumers who want to celebrate earlier. They’re also giving consumers reasons to start thinking about the holiday earlier.

And there’s a straightforward economic reason for that.

Occasion Spending

People tend to behave differently when they’re buying for a special occasion.

When you’re making a routine purchase, you’re often more price-conscious. You may compare options, search for a deal, or simply choose the familiar, reasonably priced option.

But holidays are different. They create a reason to spend.

A Halloween purchase might start with a costume. Then you need decorations. Then candy. Then food for a party. Maybe there’s a themed outfit for the dog.

The same thing happens around Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and other occasions. The holiday itself creates an excuse to buy things that might otherwise feel unnecessary.

That means more holidays—or longer holidays—create more opportunities for spending.

“Halfway to Halloween” is a perfect example. It doesn’t necessarily create a new consumer need. Instead, it gets people thinking about Halloween months before Halloween would normally enter their minds.

And once people are thinking about Halloween, there are opportunities to sell them Halloween-related things.

That’s the real power of holiday marketing. It’s not just about reaching people who are already shopping. It’s about getting people into a shopping mindset earlier.

There’s a Potential Problem: Holiday Fatigue

So far, extending the holiday season seems like a pretty good deal if you’re the company selling the products. More days of awareness can mean more opportunities to sell.

But there’s a potential downside. What happens when everything is an occasion? Part of what makes a holiday feel special is anticipation. You look forward to it because it doesn’t happen every day. There’s a buildup. There’s a sense that, for a limited period, normal rules are suspended.

Scarcity plays a role, too. If Halloween is everywhere for three months, does Halloween eventually stop feeling like Halloween?

The same question applies to Christmas. If consumers start seeing Christmas advertising in October—or even earlier—does the extended season eventually make the holiday less exciting? Evidence of this is the fact that for the first time in years, Disney did not sell out of all their Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween dates. It looks like that even as Disney tries to push Halloween earlier and earlier into the year, people still prefer celebrating it a little closer to Halloween.

And that may be the most interesting consequence of everything creep. When every holiday becomes a season, every season starts to feel a little less special. For marketers, the challenge may not be figuring out how to start earlier. We’ve already figured that out.

The Lesson for Advertisers 

One of the big takeaways for us is that the power of events for the consumer is an important consideration, and something that we should be trying to tap into. That doesn’t necessarily mean we want to turn the entire calendar into a series of holidays with one spilling over into the next. The idea of making whatever you’re advertising feel like a special occasion is clearly an aspect of consumer psychology that works in our favor. Disney may not have sold out of all their Halloween dates, but they’ve undoubtedly sold more than they would’ve otherwise during what is the slow season for the park. “Everything creep” is a thing because it works…for now.

We suspect there will come a breaking point with a lot of this holiday marketing where it will start to have the opposite of the desired effect. With enough of these big companies doing it, it could eventually just cheapen the holiday season and make it feel less like a special occasion, eventually hurting the “special occasion” spending. When you go to a “Christmas in July” themed day at a baseball game, does it actually feel like Christmas? Probably not. But does the word “Christmas” start to lose meaning when you see it six months early? That sounds a little dramatic but it does, right? 

The point is there can be too much of a good thing. It’s important for the industry to not overextend itself and try to turn everything into a special occasion just because special occasions are important to consumers.

Want to wax poetic about event marketing or consumer psychology? Schedule an appointment below. You’re just in time to watch us put up our Fourth of July decorations.