Mother's Day is On May 14th this year. According to per capita data from The National Retail Federation, 384,300 adult consumers in the Augusta, Georgia, area plan to celebrate the occasion.
Between now and that special Sunday in May, the NRF expects a record $79.1 million to be spent in Augusta to honor all the different moms in consumers' lives. Of those celebrating Mother’s Day, most (57%) are purchasing gifts for a mother or stepmother, followed by a wife (23%) or daughter (12%).
Comparatively speaking, Augusta area consumers will spend 12.6% more to celebrate Monther's Day this year than they did in 2022, which was also a record year.
“Mother’s Day provides Americans with an opportunity to honor important women in their lives,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said. “As people make plans to celebrate this year, retailers are prepared to help shoppers find gifts of appreciation and admiration for those they want to recognize on this special day.”
Almost half of all Mother's Day spending in the Augusta area will fall into three categories:
- Jewelry: $17,287,880
- Special Outing: $12,411,812
- Electronics: $8,865,580
The other half of Mother's Day spending includes purchases of gift cards, clothing, flowers, personal services, housewares, books, and greeting cards.
The challenge for Augusta area retailers, however, is keeping a significant share of these Mother's Day dollars in local cash registers and out of the coffers of online sellers and department stores. Right now, according to the NRF, those two retail channels will gobble up almost 68% of all spending.
To earn a larger share of Mother's Day spending, local small business owners will need to advertise to convince Augusta consumers of the benefits of buying from local companies. By almost every marketing metric, the best way to advertise is on Augusta radio.
According to Nielsen, after the message itself, the advertising metric most responsible for driving sales is the number of different consumers reached by a campaign.
Every week, according to Nielsen, Augusta radio reaches 367,477 adults. This is more consumers than use any other medium, including local TV, local cable, streaming video, social media, online audio, and newspapers.'
Radio's unrivaled reach among adult consumers contributes to the medium's ability to deliver an extraordinary return on investment (ROI) for advertisers.
From April through July of 2021, Neilsen measured the sales results of a radio advertising campaign conducted by a major retailer. The study utilized portable people meter technology to segment consumers into two discrete categories: those who were exposed to the retailer's advertising campaign and those who were not.
Nielsen was then able to match the consumers in each segment to their credit/debit or shopper card purchase behavior. Consequently, the study decisively measured how sales were affected by the retailer's advertising campaign.
Here are the key takeaways from the Neilsen study:
- One or two exposures to the radio campaign resulted in a 22.4% increase in the number of shoppers
- Three to six exposures to the radio campaign resulted in a 7.6% increase in the number of shoppers
- Exposure to the radio campaign increased the number of transactions among the retailer's existing customers by 11%
- Exposure to the radio campaign increased the number of transactions by the etailer's most active customers by 31.2%
- Exposure to the retailer's radio campaign generated a sales increase of 9.7%
Most importantly, the Nielsen study revealed that every $1000 that the retailer invested in the radio advertising campaign returned $13,000 in sales. A 13-time ROI.
Augusta business owners should know that these findings support 23 other Nielsen studies that indicate, on average, that advertising on local radio delivers a 10-time return on investment.
AdAge, a trade magazine for advertising professionals, calls these types of returns "eye-popping." The magazine goes on to say radio's ROI is superior to commercials on TV, online, and social media.
To learn more about Nielsen's latest ROI study, click here.
Both reach and ROI are the critical metrics for determining the best way to advertise in Augusta. By either measurement, local radio is the logical choice for reaching Mother's Day shoppers.
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