Extended holiday sales, effectively Black November, is ‘confusing’ for customers and dilutes shopping ‘sparkle’ of Black Fridays and Cyber Mondays past

This is no longer the case.

The holiday sales window has crept up earlier and earlier, with major brands like Ulta, Lowe’s, and Best Buy having preview sales as early as late October of this year. Some have leaned squarely on the side of “creep”, releasing ads referencing the phenomenon.

The result is that by the time Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday come around, a nearly month-long sales promotion is in full swing, with shoppers searching for deals and marketers at the ready with ads promoting said deals.

“The fact that we’ve called it Black Friday, Cyber ​​Monday, and now it’s Black November for some brands is a little confusing,” Kevin Simonson, CEO of performance marketing agency adMixt, told Marketing Brew.

The extended sales window has changed the nature of the holiday shopping season, and potentially even diminished its importance, according to ad agency executives, who say the extended sales window combined with other sales events throughout the year dilutes the power of Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday. Without the urgency of a narrow sales window, it also changes how and when brands appear and advertise.

“Instead of focusing spending on that single weekend as we traditionally do, we’re seeing clients extending their investments along and across these longer windows,” said Stacia Fulginetti, director of paid search and YouTube at Rain the Growth Agency.

Whenever and wherever

Some brand marketers see the longer window as an asset. More time gives agency executives the flexibility to launch campaigns early, test what works and what doesn’t, and adjust their efforts to rely on successful advertising tactics by the time Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday happen. And sometimes, starting to get holiday discounts means a cheaper CPM – or at least hoping for a cheaper CPM than a traditional window.

“Cost per thousand impressions [on] “In general, November 1 will not be as loud as Black Friday or Cyber ​​Monday,” Simonson said. Brands may have a mindset: “I don’t want to fight when it’s over [at its] summit. “I prefer to fight early when it’s easier,” he said.

Simonson explained that shifting to earlier in the month doesn’t suit every brand, and marketers face the problem of considering a brand’s commercial goals and, more importantly, profitability or revenue.

“If a brand is more focused on its profitability and/or contribution margin, it may have a shorter selling window, and if a brand is focused on revenue, it may open its sales window earlier, because it will likely generate more revenue from having longer sales with perhaps a smaller margin.”

Regardless of a brand’s commercial goals, marketers recognize that the expanded holiday shopping season presents an opportunity to focus on awareness, prioritizing campaigns that “connect demand generation with brand search,” Fulginetti said, so that their brands are top of mind when sales come in.

Going live with “larger, higher funnel investments” earlier in the fall is something Chris Schumack, vice president of media and digital at Cactus, recommends to clients moving forward in consumer shopping behavior.

“When people start getting into holiday shopping mode in October and November, and everyone’s attacking Black Friday, and shoving Cyber ​​Monday sales down their throats, we’ve put a little bit of mindshare in there, as much as we can,” he said.

Look for me

For brands leaning toward paid and organic advertising during the holiday shopping season, there’s another big consideration for marketers as consumer search habits shift from traditional search to emerging platforms and AI-powered search.

“People are focusing on the rules of AI discovery right now; [which] “It’s very property-oriented,” Shiomaki said. “If we can effectively get people thinking about or talking about our brands, we think there’s an ultimate benefit to discoverability and search overall, whether that’s through AI, AI discoverability, or just classic organic search.”

This season, marketers are looking to understand the impact of AI research efforts and the use of AI agents, and may monitor Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday results to understand early impacts, explained Damian Bianchi, group and media director at VML.

“Next year could be a completely different ball game,” he said. “I would say the long-term effects are definitely something to start thinking about.”

As the holiday shopping season continues to shift, it may mean that its importance in the market will continue to diminish.

“Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday have lost their luster,” Fulginetti said.

This report was originally published by Marketing drink.