Dive Brief:

• Ahead of the upcoming holiday shopping season, most consumers think the economy is doing better today than a year ago, and 75% say it will improve over the next year. As a result, more than 80% of consumers are planning to spend the same amount or more on gifts in 2018 compared to last year, according to findings of a new OpenX survey conducted with The Harris Poll.
• Fifty-five percent of consumers are on their smartphones at least three hours per day, with one-third of millennials and one out of four parents spending six or more hours a day on the devices. Millennials spend five-times more time on mobile devices than watching TV, and 25% of all consumers watch no live TV. 
• Millennials watch less than half as much linear TV compared to average consumers, but 55% of millennials use subscription video streaming services, compared to 31% of the average consumers, according to a MediaPost report citing the survey results. Seventy-three percent of millennials don’t watch any videos on traditional platforms. 

Dive Insight:

Marketers should welcome the news that most consumers are planning to shop at least as much, if not more, this holiday season. However, as marketers are gearing up for their holiday campaigns, taking a multichannel approach may be the best strategy for engaging consumers. The OpenX-Harris Poll survey underscores how consumer-shopping habits are shifting, as they are spending time on a variety of different devices and engaging with different kinds of content.

Last year, 71.6% of consumers did their holiday shopping on mobile devices while at home or traveling, and 60.1% used smartphones while in-store, according to iVend Retail’s 2018 Global Path to Purchase survey. Mobile shopping could be an even bigger market this holiday season, as most consumers are spending more time on smartphones and less watching traditional TV.

Another key finding is the timing of consumers' holiday shopping, as the survey found that less than half of consumers think Black Friday is the best day to get deals. Many consumers also have a negative association with Black Friday, and 60% say it's overwhelming. This year, most consumers say they plan to skip shopping on Black Friday, historically the biggest shopping day of the year. 

This is the latest research to make a strong case for marketers to kick off their holiday campaigns well before Black Friday and run them until after the holidays. AdRoll released a study in August showing that holiday ad campaigns that begin in October have a 7% increase in ad impressions, 12% drop in cost-per-click and a 20% decrease in cost per thousand impressions. In November, brands saw a 9% lift in click-through rates and a 15% boost in December.