Back to School: Media Insight Style

One of my favorite reasons for starting Yaybia was the idea that I would get to share insightful experiences that I have with people who actually understand them. It's just not the same coming home to roommates (nursing and global studies majors) and trying to explain to them that your day consisted of battling a leanover (y'know, mini hangover) from the beers you had with clients last night while trying to avoid getting called out by Earl as you struggle with MRI data in your 8am class and then getting thrown into several new business pitches with 50 page RFPs and then trying to tell a client that a 6% CTR is actually really good even when "it's only 6%."

While I was battling a fuzzy brain and trying to sneakily eat a bagel in class this morning, we were discussing the importance that timing plays in a media plan. Earl asked us what time of the year is most popular for Target and several people in class said "back to school", including Danielle and me. Clearly, back to school isn't the biggest time for sales or promotions, it's holiday. While back to school is now a close second (that dorm gear is killer this year!), the holiday season trumps all for cash outflow and inflow. So why did so many of us immediately think "back to school"? I have a few ideas and some of these became more obvious as I thought about them throughout the day, but I think it's important to think about. I welcome your thoughts as well.

1. The age of people and their perception of the economy/related media - for many college students, back to school is the time of year that we spend the most money. Textbooks, security deposits AND rent in the same month, numerous trips to Target and Ikea, ordering pizza 4 times a week and Jimmy John's the other 3. For people this age, the holiday season isn't the most important and will not likely be for at least 5-10 more years. How does this impact retailers, advertisers, and those secret Santa drawings the day after Thanksgiving?

2. Relevance > Reality. It's back to school season. Even though holiday gear may be peeking around the corner, these people won't even notice because it's not relevant. Unless maybe the red and green M&Ms are on sale at the register, because hunger + shopping -- now that's relevant.

3. Target may not be a "typical" holiday store - For 20-somethings, Target is their go-to store. It's fun, we secretly don't mind spending $50 everytime we're there, and who doesn't love the dollar spot? We don't think of Target as a place that our moms went everyday for a week before family Christmas. They went to Kohl's and JC Penny and Best Buy, right? To these younger people, Target isn't like the Sears Santa line or Fleet Farm toy land (yes, I worked there). How will that change as 20-somethings become 29 1/2-somethings?