Maximizing Impact: Strategic Marketing for Mother’s and Father’s Day

This post was originally published in 2025 and has been refreshed with the latest available data and insights on shopper behavior, gift preferences, and holiday discovery trends for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.

As Mother’s Day and Father’s Day approach, brands have a major opportunity to connect with shoppers during two of the biggest gifting moments of the year. Last year, Mother’s Day spending was expected to reach $34.1 billion, while Father’s Day spending was projected to hit a record $24 billion.

But the bigger story is not just how much consumers are spending. It is how they are shopping.

But big spending only tells you the size of the opportunity. What matters more is how shoppers are getting to that purchase. They are moving across channels, picking up inspiration from more places, and putting more pressure on brands to show up with something that feels relevant, timely, and worth the spend. For advertisers, that makes it more important to understand what is shaping those decisions in the first place.

Here are three themes shaping Mother’s Day and Father’s Day shopping today.

1. Shoppers Are Moving Between Online and Offline Channels

Mother’s Day and Father’s Day shopping no longer happens in one place. Consumers are moving between digital and physical environments as they browse, compare options, and narrow in on what to buy.

For Mother’s Day, 68% of shoppers plan to browse in-store, and 58% planned to research online before buying. For Father’s Day, the pattern was similar, with 69% planning to browse in-store and 66% planning to explore shopping websites.

That kind of overlap matters. A shopper might discover a product in-store, research it later online, and ultimately make a purchase after seeing a follow-up message or promotion. The path to purchase is no longer linear, which makes cross-channel visibility more important during both holidays.

2. Inspiration Is Coming From More Sources

It is not just where people shop that is changing. It is also where they get ideas. Social media, creator content, search, and online browsing are all playing a bigger role in shaping what makes it onto the consideration list.

Younger shoppers, particularly, are increasingly turning to social media and influencers across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day inspiration.

That does not mean every purchase starts with an influencer. It does mean discovery is happening earlier and across more touchpoints, often before a shopper is actively ready to buy. For advertisers, that creates more opportunities to shape consideration before the final purchase decision is made.

3. Shoppers Want Gifts That Feel More Personal

These are emotional holidays, and shoppers are not just looking for something to buy. They are looking for something that feels thoughtful.

For Mother’s Day, 48% of consumers said finding a gift that is unique or different mattered most, while 42% said creating a special memory was most important. For Father’s Day, 46% prioritized a gift that feels unique or different, and 37% prioritized creating a special memory.

That preference is also showing up in experience gifting. For Mother’s Day, 36% of men planned to give an experience in 2025, up from 29% in 2019. For Father’s Day, 30% planned to give an experience, up from 23% in 2019.

For advertisers, this changes what kind of messaging is likely to resonate. Stronger campaigns will not just promote an item. They will connect that gift to meaning, memory, or experience.

What Advertisers Should Do With These Trends

These themes point to a different kind of holiday planning playbook. Success is less about showing up with generic seasonal messaging and more about understanding how shoppers move, what shapes their decisions, and what helps a gift feel worth choosing.

1. Stop asking one ad to do the whole job

Mother’s Day and Father’s Day campaigns often fall into the same trap: one message, one offer, one creative concept, expected to carry the full journey. That is a miss. Some shoppers are still looking for ideas. Others are comparing options. Others are ready to buy and just need a reason to act now.

The better approach is to assign different roles to different parts of the campaign. Let one message spark consideration. Let another narrow the choice. Let another close the gap between interest and action. Holiday planning works better when creative is sequenced around decision-making, not just flight dates.

2. Target the decision, not just the shopper

Demographics can only get you so far during gifting moments. What matters more is the type of decision someone is trying to make. Are they looking for something sentimental? Something practical? Something fast? Something that feels more like an experience than a product?

That is where holiday strategy can get sharper. Instead of building one broad audience and one broad message, advertisers can shape campaigns around gifting mindsets and use audience, contextual, and behavioral signals to support them. That leads to more precise messaging and a stronger match between what the shopper is trying to solve and what the brand is actually offering.

3. Make the creative do some actual work

A lot of holiday creative is decorative. It signals the occasion, swaps in a seasonal headline, maybe adds urgency, and stops there. But in a more crowded, more influenced shopping environment, creative has to earn more.

The strongest ads help a shopper move closer to a decision. They frame the product as a good gift, not just a good product. They make the use case obvious. They reduce the mental work. They answer the question behind the click: Why this, for this person, right now?

That could mean organizing creative around recipient type, leaning into experience-led value, or evolving the message as the holiday gets closer. Either way, the bar is higher than “shop now.”

What This Means for Advertisers

The brands that stand out will be the ones that treat these holidays less like broad seasonal moments and more like nuanced decision-making periods. When the right message shows up at the right time, it can have a much bigger impact.

Shoppers are discovering gift ideas across more touchpoints and putting more pressure on brands to feel relevant, thoughtful, and worth the spend. That creates a real opportunity for advertisers willing to plan with more intention.

Ready to build a smarter Mother’s Day and Father’s Day strategy, our team is eager to chat. Reach out to us here.