With just under 100 days to go until Christmas, novelty advent calendars are one of the biggest seasonal talking points. Waiting lists for in-demand calendars are open and sales of some started as early as August!
And much of the conversation is happening online. With that in mind, social-first agency, SAMY Alliance has crunched social media data and found a staggering 368% YoY* rise in engagement (likes, reposts, comments, shares etc) with advent calendar themed posts.
Meanwhile, recent stats from Clearpay research reinforce the growing appetite for these calendars with those “aimed at women” in particular seeing an increase of 240 percent YoY.
SAMY Alliance also found that the number of advent calendar conversations on social media that were judged as actively positive has risen YoY by almost 10%.
In both 2023 and 2024 for the period in question, when it comes to brand mentions, beauty brands dominate the online conversation, with no appearance yet by brands from other sectors.
The topic has also made headlines more broadly; BBC Breakfast presenter John Kay was left baffled by the concept and prices charged. Viewers echoed his sentiment in response to the question asked recently on X by BBC Breakfast: “Would you spend hundreds of pounds on a luxury advent calendar?” https://x.com/BBCBreakfast/status/1835554648649851333
This year, Jo Malone, Liberty London, SpaceNK, Charlotte Tilbury and Bobbi Brown are selling calendars priced at £360, £260, £250, £170 and £160 respectively.
Drilling down into the most talked about beauty brand advent calendars, SAMY Alliance’s data showed that:
Charlotte Tilbury is the most talked about advent calendar during the period in question for both 2024 and 2023.
In 2024 SpaceNK comes next with 72% of the social chatter generated by CT.
Boots finds itself in third place followed by Cult Beauty and Sephora, with 71%, 57% and 52% of the number of posts racked up by Charlotte Tilbury.
John Lewis, Elemis and The Body Shop had all broken through into the advent calendar social media conversation in 2023 but have not put in an appearance so far this year.
SAMY Alliance’s analysis of social media conversations about advent calendars also revealed:
Social media platform share of voice saw Pinterest take the lead in 2024 – accounting for 22.9% of conversations compared to just 11.8% over the same period in 2023
X comes in next at almost 20.6%, up on the same period in 2023 when it took a 16.6% share
Facebook comes next at 15.6%, down on 2023 when it was the lead platform with 16.8% share of voice. Instagram is up substantially YoY from only 3.1% of mentions in 2023 to 10.4% in 2024.
In the last seven days – 15 to 21 September – there has been a significant spike in interest, with 313 articles about advent calendars published across mainstream media.
According to Saffron Vandenburg, research and insights manager at SAMY Alliance: “We wanted to measure the level and nature of conversation on social channels and whether the discussion around advent calendars has grown in line with the increase in choice and demand. The answer is a resounding yes!
“Beauty advent calendars are a catalyst to ongoing social media chatter. For brands and retailers they are a great way to get talked about as well as to sample products in the hope of bringing in new consumers.
“There is also something incredibly nostalgic about an advent calendar, and let’s face it, everyone finds their inner child at Christmas. Moreover, when it comes to social media, advent calendars make for rich conversations and engagement; speculation over release dates, format, content and whether or not you’ll be one of the lucky individuals to bag one of the more popular calendars before they sell out.”
SAMY Alliance will be tracking advent calendar social conversations monthly in the run up to Christmas. To be kept up to date on new data, please contact them via the details below.
*all YoY data above compares the period 25th August to 22nd September 2024 vs 2023
