“It’s the most wonderful time of the year”… is the most cliché way to begin a blog about the holiday shopping season. So, let’s start again.

Between 30% and 40% of annual retail sales are done between Thanksgiving (or Grey Thursday…yes, it’s a real thing this year) and Christmas. To help our viewers capitalize on this prime shopping period, the Adspace Digital Mall Network produces an annual Holiday Gift Guide highlighting our top picks for gift giving each season. Each gift suggestion receives its own 12 second spot and several run in every six minute loop. Whether they’ve been naughty or nice, we have something for everyone on your list! There are gifts for men, women, teens and children from every retail category. Products range from health and beauty to footwear and accessories, from home and garden to technology and gadgets.

Since its inception in 2010, the Adspace Holiday Gift Guide has continued to gain popularity and see a vast increase in the number of products featured as well as retail participants. Up 57% from last year, 2013 was a record breaker for the Gift Guide, with the total number of offers coming in at 285 from many of retail’s top players. This year’s retailers included LOFT, Target, Polo Ralph Lauren, JCPenney, Sears, Estee Lauder, Elizabeth Arden, Jonathon Adler, Marc Jacobs, American Eagle, American Girl, Barnes & Noble, and Kosta Boda, just to name a few.

Why a 57% jump? We attribute our Gift Guide’s increasing popularity to a few key reasons. First, our footprint has expanded to include 65 premiere Simon shopping centers. That’s a whole lotta gifts right there! In addition, Adspace’s mobile shopping app, Clip’d, features all of the holiday gifts in the guide along with the best sales in the mall.  This mobile component has proved attractive to retailers, providing them with an additional way to reach consumers – right in the palms of their hands. Lastly, 2013 was the first year that the gift guide was released on Grey Thursday (see above: it’s still a real thing). The majority of our malls opened at 8PM and stayed open straight through Black Friday, which provided retailers with even more exposure on the busiest shopping day(s) of the year.

So if you haven’t gotten the point yet or you’re still looking for that perfect gift… you have seven shopping days to run to an Adspace mall and check the 2013 Holiday Gift Guide!

xoxo,

Santa’s Little Helper