Editor’s note: Ian Cain is the director of business development at Luminoso, a Cambridge, Mass., text analytics firm.
Like most holidays, Father’s Day represents a great opportunity for brands to connect with consumers. However, in order for brands to connect with consumers around a holiday like Father’s Day, they need to first understand the average consumer and their behavior around the holiday. Last year, we took to Twitter to learn more about how people celebrate Father’s Day. We analyzed nearly 100,000 tweets related to Father’s Day across the U.S., U.K. and Canada over the 15 day period leading up to the holiday. We listened for all Father’s Day tweets related to the seed “Father’s Day.” Here are the top three things we learned about Father’s Day from Twitter.
Sports are huge. It’s not surprising that sports were some of the most popular and recurring topics for tweets across the U.S., U.K. and Canada for Father’s Day. Twenty-eight percent of sports-related tweets were about playing or watching a game with dad.
Interestingly, golf is by far the most-mentioned sport in Father’s Day-related tweets, followed by running, football and baseball. Of all of the sports-related tweets for Father’s Day, golf was mentioned 50 percent of the time. Running came in at second place at 21 percent, soccer came in at third place at 12 percent, and surprisingly, baseball, America’s favorite pastime, came in last place at 9 percent. Of the 21 percent who discussed running or racing, most were participating in Father’s Day 5Ks and run/walks. Other sports that made up less than 3 percent of the conversation included hiking, football, hockey, basketball and tennis.
Discussing the perfect gift. We found that individuals talk about the experience of spending time with Dad rather than what they plan to purchase. This contrasts sharply with companies’ overt gift suggestions. However, the gifts that were mentioned in Father’s Day related tweets varied widely, with special meals and alcohol at the top of the list. Grilling, apparel and barbecuing were also popular.
Of the tweets related to Father’s Day gifts, special meals were mentioned the most at 31 percent, and amusingly, bacon was the top descriptor used in these tweets. Alcohol came in at second place and was mentioned 26 percent of the time for tweets related to gifts, with beer, wine and whiskey as the top descriptors. Grilling came in at third place and was mentioned 16 percent of the time for tweets related to gifts.
The majority of individuals tweeting Father’s Day messages are women. We found that daughters’ personal messages outnumber those from sons. The top relationship term associated with Father’s Day tweets was in fact “Daddysgirl.” We also found that in advance of Father’s Day, people generally use #ThrowbackThursday and #FlashbackFriday to express Father’s Day greetings. And lastly, emojis are frequently used in Father’s Day messages, especially those from daughters.
One of the most important insights that we gleaned from this study was that instead of focusing on material gifts when it comes to Father’s Day, brands should focus on marketing around sharing a quality experience with dad. In fact, a recent study from Retailmenot found that about 46 percent of dads say that time with their family is one of the things they’d want most for Father’s Day. Our study confirms the same – watching or playing a game or sharing a special meal with dad were the top trends on Twitter around Father’s Day.
With the adoption of social media platforms like Twitter, we now have the ability to understand our customers and their behaviors unlike ever before. There many ways that marketers can take advantage of the holidays to connect with consumers on a personal level.
Check out this Father’s Day infographic for a visual breakdown of the study.