Mother’s Day: Fun Facts for Marketers

In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson issued a presidential proclamation that  established the first national Mother’s Day holiday to celebrate American mothers. In his first Mother’s Day proclamation, Wilson stated that the holiday offered a chance to “publicly express our love and reverence for the mothers of our country.”

More than a hundred years later, $21.17 billion would be spent for mothers on Mother’s Day (2015). That’s approximately $163 per shopper, making Mother’s Day the third largest retail holiday in the United States.

Lucky for mom, that big day isn’t just chocolate and flowers anymore. In 2015, 35 percent of gifts were spent on jewelry, 32 percent on dinner or brunch, 16 percent on clothing, 15 percent on consumer electronics and 12 percent on services such as spa, facial or massage.

And there’s a lot of gift giving going on. Consumers are shopping for their wife (23 percent) daughter (9 percent), sister (8 percent) and grandmother (7 percent) too.

President Wilson certainly would not have guessed what a big day this would become, and he definitely would not have predicted that 28.5 percent of gifts would be bought online (2015). Or that $2.23 billion would be spent on gift certificates and gift cards (2015). Mamma mia!

That consumer behavior certainly makes a case for advertising your company’s gift options online on Mother’s Day and throughout the year. If you’d like to know more about targeting consumer behaviors through digital, you can learn more by visiting our digital page.

Here are a few fun facts about Mother’s Day:

• In Greek mythology spring festivals were held in honor of the maternal goddess Rhea. No, she’s not a Star Wars character. Rhea was the wife of Cronus and was believed to be the mother of many deities.
• In the vast majority of the world’s languages, the word for mother begins with the letter M.
• In the U.S. alone, around 122 million phone calls are made to moms on Mother’s Day.
• If you flip the word “MOM” upside down, the word “WOW” appears.

We hope you take time to wow and recognize your mom this Mother’s Day by sharing some quality time and maybe even some of the facts you discovered here today.

Source: Statista U.S. Mother’s Day expenditure 2015, DIY Father March 17, 2015. Retail Insights Center, April 2014.