There’s no time like the holiday season, with friends and family coming together for cheer and merriment. For some, this means curling up in front of the TV for holiday movies, while for others this means hunting down the perfect gifts for loved ones. Regardless of individual traditions, it’s an important time of year for advertisers and content creators alike. We dug into the data over the holiday season to shed some light on this year’s viewership and advertising trends. Read on for some holiday highlights, including key takeaways for global advertisers. 

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Classic holiday movies are still winning the holiday season‍

For many, nothing screams “holiday season” louder than classic movies they’ve been watching for decades. And while streamers like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are seeing success with new originals, it’s tough to beat old favorites.

As seen in USA Today, between November 10 and December 10 a whopping 9.0M U.S. households watched Elf, 7.9M watched National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, and 7.1M watched Home Alone. By comparison, only one new streaming holiday movie (Best. Christmas. Ever!) surpassed 2.3M households within the same time period. Many of the holiday classics aired on a mix of linear TV networks and streaming platforms, which bolstered their popularity. 

Elf saw a 14% spike in viewership between November 10 and December 10 in 2023 as compared with 2022, bringing it to the top spot on the list. By comparison, last year it was ranked third, trailing National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and Home Alone. 

• Pro Tip: When planning campaigns, advertisers should prioritize blocks where classic holiday movies are airing given their ability to draw huge audiences. 
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It’s the biggest shopping season of the year, so of course retail brands are serving up massive ad impressions globally

‍As seen in our 2023 U.S. Holiday Report, the majority of shoppers are planning to buy clothes this holiday season. In turn, U.S. retailers are leaning in hard: top brands like Walmart, Macy’s, and Kohl’s drove triple-digit increases in ad impressions served during the holiday timeframe (November / December) compared with earlier in the fall (September / October). 

Kohl’s did a particularly good job of driving high reach by balancing frequency and targeting Spanish speakers this holiday season. Although Macy’s served 10% more ad impressions than Kohl’s, Kohl’s actually achieved higher reach due to a lower average frequency (19.8 average impressions for Kohl’s ads versus 22.2 for Macy’s).

Similarly, retail brands comprised half of the top brands in the U.K. and Australia leading up to the holiday season, with stores like Tesco, ASDA, and Argos driving high reach in the U.K., and Woolworths, Chemist Warehouse, and Harvey Norman in Australia. Interestingly, ALDI ranked high in both the U.K. and Australia for reach.

• Pro-Tip: Retailers that are already spending budget to cut through the noise and reach shoppers should ensure they are measuring the true reach and frequency of their campaigns so that impressions are spread across potential customers, as opposed to inundating the same few with ads over and over again.

Households with kids over-index across new streaming holiday movies ‍

Looking to reach parents this holiday season? Not a bad idea, as the majority of shopper dollars are going to gifts for children this year. Data shows that households with children are more likely to watch new streaming movies, as households with kids below the age of 19 over-indexed on all six of the new streaming movies that ranked within the top 20 holiday movies overall. The highest over-index (+22%) among households with children aged 10-19 was EXmas on freevee, at +15%.

• Pro-Tip: Reach parents by advertising on platforms streaming new holiday movies, like Peacock and freevee. With more OTT platforms embracing ad-models and FAST channels like freevee airing originals like EXmas, this has never been more accessible.
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The vast majority of ad impressions across top holiday advertisers reached heavy and medium linear TV viewers‍

Light TV viewers remain difficult to reach with ads, as none of the top advertisers in the U.S., U.K., or Australia served more than 10% of their ad impressions to this group. Of the top brands in the U.S., Walmart and Amazon Prime did best at reaching light TV viewers on TV, with about 8% of impressions reaching this group that makes up 45% of U.S. households. In Australia, Google reached light TV viewers at the highest rate, with about 12% of impressions reaching this group.

• Pro-Tip: Use advanced targeting to reach light TV viewers and other elusive audiences where they are spending their time across digital and CTV.
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