4 Mother’s Day Advertising Trends That Will Give Your 2025 Campaign a Boost

As the third-most celebrated holiday in the U.S. (behind only Christmas and Thanksgiving), Mother’s Day has cemented itself as a major seasonal moment. While Mother’s Day presents a lot of opportunities for advertisers, consumer purchasing habits are changing. So, brands looking to connect with audiences during this season need to ensure that: 1. their messaging resonates, and 2. that they’re clearly communicating the value of their offerings. It’s also vital that they engage with their ideal audiences in the right places. Connected TV (CTV) appears to be a good place to start — 65% of mothers with children under two use streaming services, compared to 59% of all women, indicating that CTV is a prime place to engage with moms (and those who shop for them).

To understand what Mother’s Day might look like for advertisers this year, we dug into first and third party data. Here are the top four trends we uncovered.

1. Consumers Are Using New Criteria To Define What Makes a ‘Good Deal’

For the last few years, the economy has been unstable, at best. And while consumers are looking for deals to ensure the best bang for their buck, the way they define “bang” is shifting. To many consumers, a “discount” refers to more than just the price of an item, service, or experience. As NeilsenIQ reported, “Affordability and price are the foundation, but purchase decisions are swayed by other manifestations of value.”

Here’s a breakdown of how consumers have indicated they’d change spending habits on “affordable” products and services:

Consumers noted that these key factors would also push them to spend more — 55% responded that they will pay for convenience, and 56% indicated they’d spend extra on things that would “make one moment or day of the week more special and enjoyable.”

The latter finding is particularly relevant when thinking about Mother’s Day, as people increasingly shop for gifts that are outside the norm — in 2024, 43% of consumers planned to buy a gift that created a special memory.

“Even though consumers continue to gravitate toward classic Mother’s Day gifts like flowers and greeting cards, almost one-third plan to give a gift of experience this year,” Prosper Executive Vice President of Strategy Phil Rist told the National Retail Federation. “Gifts of experience continue to grow in popularity, with nearly one-third of those celebrating Mother’s Day planning to give a gift of experience.”

Our data points towards the growth of experiential gifting, as well. When looking at MNTN advertiser performance, we found that those in the arts and entertainment and travel industries saw significant improvement in average conversion rate and cost per acquisition (CPA) in the weeks leading up to Mother’s Day 2024 — indicating that consumers are shopping for things besides jewelry, cards, flowers, etc. when it comes to gifts for mom.

2. For Mother’s Day-Focused Advertisers, Planning Ahead Pays Off

While it’s not quite as extreme as the “Christmas Creep,” the majority of Mother’s Day gift givers do shop ahead of time. In 2024, 70% of consumers said they’d purchase goodies for mom two weeks to a month before the holiday — up from 56% in 2023.

But did this translate to brands who ran campaigns on CTV? We tracked weekly performance across a subset of Mother’s Day advertisers on MNTN, and saw that yes, those who launched their campaigns a month out did reap the rewards, with conversions increasing steadily through the week of the holiday.

These advertisers experienced a downward trend in CPA during this timeframe, too, despite the competitiveness of the season.

If it’s not abundantly clear already, we’ll give it to you straight — brands who want to make the most of this season should get a headstart and launch their Mother’s Day advertising efforts a month to two weeks out.

3. Brands Are Honoring Moms in a Variety of Ways

Mother’s Day may be beloved by many, but for some, the holiday can be tough.

“Over the past few years, I’ve seen more and more people comment on Mother’s Day campaigns about how it is triggering for them, reminding them how they’ve lost their mother or mother figure,” said Shianne Smalling, Senior Manager of Growth Marketing at Levain Bakery.

Because of this, Levain and other brands are giving their customers the option to opt out of Mother’s Day promotions.

This isn’t the only shift around the holiday — many Mother’s Day advertisers are experimenting with different ways of messaging and “honoring moms” in a variety of ways in their campaigns.

Take crafting brand Cricut, for example — for Mother’s Day 2024, they partnered with four women artists to make murals using their Cricut cutting machines. Delivery service DoorDash, on the other hand, facilitated emotional reunions between children and their moms who hadn’t seen each other in a while. And footwear company Shoe Show focused on grandmothers in their ads, highlighting how shoes can be passed down through generations.

MNTN advertisers also experimented with their approaches to the holiday. Here’s what worked for some of our top performing Mother’s Day advertisers:

• Running multiple versions of their ads tailored to address different types of mothers and their day-to-day experiences
• Highlighting the uniqueness of their offerings, with emotionally-led messaging speaking to how they add value, comfort, joy, etc. to moms’ lives
• Leveraging a mix of user generated content (UGC), celebrity spokespeople, and brand-created content

4. Small Businesses Experience Notable Growth Around Mother’s Day

Well-known jewelry and apparel brands might be the first that come to mind in regards to Mother’s Day gifting, but consumer habits have shifted on this front, as well. Opting to shop on a more local level, 25% of consumers planned to purchase Mother’s Day gifts from small businesses in 2024.

We found this to be true for our advertisers, too. MNTN small business customers saw significant spikes in revenue and return on ad spend (ROAS) in the fruitful two weeks before Mother’s Day. This tracks with our discovery that major seasonal moments are vital for small business growth. In this article, we highlighted the importance of Q4 and the winter holidays, but Mother’s Day deserves a spot on the list of key holidays for small businesses, as well.

Advertisers Should Think Outside the (Jewelry) Box This Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day offers big opportunities for brands of all shapes and sizes, but as consumer purchasing considerations and habits shift, so should advertising strategies. “Value” is no longer solely tied to a product’s price tag, and shoppers are looking for new ways to celebrate mom. With this in mind, advertisers are wise to take an audience-first approach, developing different types of messaging that celebrate different types of moms, no matter how that title expresses itself.

For brands looking to take their Mother’s Day efforts to the next level, it’s vital to start campaigns two weeks to a month in advance. Additionally, they should focus on reaching Mother’s Day audiences where they’re consuming content. CTV is not only used heavily by moms and those who celebrate them, it’s proven itself a powerful performance marketing channel for brands from across the board. In other words, advertisers who want to engage with high-intent Mother’s Day audiences need CTV in their marketing mix.