The spring season presents new and exciting opportunities for marketers and consumers. The end of winter and beginning of spring is often marked with a big focus on spring cleaning, followed by daylight-saving time, spring break, and, before you know it, summer is on the brain. Each of these presents spending opportunities for consumers, which is often a product of predictive strategies and marketing messaging. This PitchBox Media blog post will take a look at five spring spending trends that should not be ignored or skipped within your strategy.

Daylight Saving

With the exception of individuals in Hawaii and Arizona, it often feels that the rest of America is rooting for daylight saving during the last few weeks of winter. And we can’t blame them, daylight saving represents sunshine, warmer weather, late night activities, and that summer is soon to come. With daylight saving becoming a permanent indulgence, thanks to The Sunshine Protection Act, the year-round benefits to the economy are minimal. However, there is evidence that in the spring, the extra hour of sunlight at the end of the workday will boost consumer spending and shift energy consumption, according to CBS News.

The Season of Budgeteers

With hopes of sunny weather and a heightened travel season ahead, spring is when consumers look to their calendars and research for plans and budgets of all kinds. With an increased focus on savings, INMAR Intelligence predicts that 60% of consumers will budget and plan additional activities this spring. This includes travel, shopping, excursions and celebrations, etc. INMAR predicts that companies that offer options to pay with points or share exclusive discounts with users will have the greatest success this spring. Not only will companies with these offerings reap the benefits financially, but they will see an increase in community engagement and loyalty that will benefit in the long run.

Spring and Summer Travel Plans

A category often included during annual planning and budgeting is travel. For the first time since COVID-19, Expedia found that flight searches for March and April are up 40%, compared to 2022. International travel is also making a comeback with top search destinations like Punta Cana, Paris, Tokyo, and Mexico and the Caribbean, specifically, for spring break travels. A survey by Booking.com found that 49% of individuals are likely to splurge on travel destinations and stays; particularly younger travelers. While luxury travel continues to climb, currency exchanges are doing quite the opposite. The current change in exchange rates is allowing individuals to visit countries that normally would not be accessible; honorable mentions to Europe and Japan. Both the return of travel and currency rate changes also allow for tourism to return to popular “comfort” destinations, that are familiar to travelers and allow for new luxurious discoveries in less visited destinations.

Spring Cleaning and Organization

Like clockwork, the first signs of spring initiate cleaning mode for many Americans. As winter clutter and puffer jackets return to storage, individuals flee to their cleaning cabinets and stores to splurge on steam mops, vacuums, or that new environmentally friendly line of cleaning supplies they’ve had their eye on. According to MarketingProf, the warm weather and sunshine allows individuals to focus on accomplishing milestones and pushing ourselves to grow. In addition, many individuals begin to host more events and holiday functions, which launches all forms of scrubbing, sanitizing and reorganizing. Having a clean and tidy space allows many individuals the calm or peace of mind and clarity to accomplish achievements. If you’re trying to connect with your key demographic this spring cleaning season, find a way to resonate with your audience’s goals and figure out how your product best supports them!

Hypnotic Comfort Creators and UGC

It’s no doubt that social media, especially TikTok and Instagram Reels, has affected the way marketers showcase their products and the way that consumers shop. With the rise of UGC and comfort creators, marketers will and should be using this almost hypnotic form of content to sell their product. According to the New York Times, a comfort creator is an individual who produces familiar and soothing content, that is often sought out in moments of stress or even watched after a long day to help individuals relax. Comfort content can include ASMR, mukbangs, get ready with me videos, cleaning videos, etc. but an individual deemed as a “comfort creator” is opinion-based and will showcase different creators based on consumer interest. Companies who are looking to connect to their demographic personally and naturally should seek out creators who may fall into the “comfort creator” demographic of their industry niche.

PitchBox Media specializes in identifying trends and staying ahead of the editorial calendar to support both journalists and marketers. Using trends and insights, PitchBox Media curates themed media shipments to streamline the editorial process for commerce journalists on the hunt for news-worthy products. If your pitches are getting ignored, schedule a demo today to discover how PitchBox Media themed media shipments can put your brand in the hands of relevant journalists.