holiday ads

In the past two weeks, no fewer than 13 auto marques (including Honda, above) have launched new TV campaigns designed to move the last of the 2015 inventory off the lot. In fact, the only top spender that has yet to kick off a year-end sales push is Toyota; expect increasingly manic spokeswoman Jan to get into the spirit of Toyotathon by donning the Santa hat in early December.

As a deluge of advertising messages are raining down on consumers, as they always do during the hectic holiday shopping season, advertisers and marketers need to find the methods and media platforms that do not alienate consumers. Here’s what the numbers show on message frequency and the medium.

Now that the flood of political advertising has finally drained from your TV, does it feel like every other ad is for an iPad or new smartphone? It’s not your imagination. Tech products are the biggest TV ad category during the holidays, according to a new study from Nielsen that looked at spending over the past few years during fourth quarter.

TV programmers have a major visibility problem in the advertising marketplace. Executives from Discovery Communications, Walt Disney and Scripps Networks during earnings calls last week described a sense of uncertainty around how marketers will spend through the remainder of the year.

Kohl’s kicked off its holiday campaign on Sunday with an emotionally-charged spot, highlighting the magic of the holidays with a father-son moment. The ad is the centerpiece of Kohl’s holiday marketing. It marks a new approach for the retailer, which usually diversifies its brand push during the season.

Though there’s already been some spending on Black Friday advertising, next week it will spike as retailers promote their holiday hours and holiday sales. The first big burst of advertising comes eight days before Black Friday, according to a new report from Kantar Media, whetting people’s appetites for the big day, which falls on Nov. 29 this year.

With the holiday shopping season now in full swing, and spending over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend totaling $59.1 billion (up 12.8% from 2011, the Syndicated Network Television Association says syndication viewers offer marketers an important target.

The outlook for consumer holiday spending isn’t particularly strong this year, with forecasters predicting growth of 2.5%-3% over 2010, about half last year’s growth rate. But spot television spending should be very healthy despite that lukewarm forecast, ending a string of months of flat or declining spending following a softer-than-expected spring.

A special “flash survey” Strata Systems conducted among its agency clients to gauge how recent economic trends are affecting seasonal media planning and buying finds that spot broadcast and cable TV remains the No. 1 among for holiday-oriented advertisers, Internet/digital ranks No. 2, displacing spot radio, which falls to the No. 3 option.

With shopping season in full swing, advertisers are rolling out their holiday-themed ads, many of which are sure to feature a cartoon reindeer or other festive animated character. While the many benefits of using animation in TV ads are clear, new research from the Nielsen Co. suggests that, although marketers have a lot to gain with animated ads, they may be sacrificing audience engagement with commercials that don’t resonate as well with savvy consumers.