2022's Top 5 Gifting Days
2022: The Year of National Days
This year is what you make it. You have 365 days ahead of you to run into the unknown and make some noise. The same way that there's 365 of pure, reckless freedom - there is also rigid plans, adultured guidelines and time constraints (in other words, a calendar).
On this calendar, almost every day is a national day. Every day is a day to celebrate. We won't get into the importance of national days too much (we just launched a blog all about that, that you can read here). BUT, we want to narrow it down a little more…
We want to talk you through the 5 BIGGEST gifting events of 2022. These days have, since our conception in 2018, been monumental for Togglers - proving a MUST for anyone in the gifting game.
P.S. Although everything about this blog has been advertised as us talking about the ‘5’ gifting days, we’ve actually spoken about 7. Shoot us.
Let’s begin.
Valentine’s Day
Only a month away, Valentine’s is the first big ole gifting day of 2022. (Or is it? Read to the end to see why.)
Last year, we reported that 1-in-5 consumers were intending to make a bigger effort than normal this Valentine’s Day. For example, Valentine's Day has now become one of the biggest days for Gen Z and younger Millennials, according to a 2021 consumer poll.
Last year, we saw brands diversifying from traditional gift cards, and seeing huge success with at-home kits and other retail products. Due to the lockdown, couples were purchasing products sold by their favourite brands, in order to
- Support businesses during lockdown
- Have the closest experience and taste of a restaurant that they could.
Although this year we won't (touch wood) be in lockdown - we expect this trend to continue, off the back of seeing the popularity of retail products over the festive season.
Remember: Valentine’s isn't JUST for couples anymore. Galentines and Palatines are now more popular than ever… why not tailor a deal to celebrate galpals? *self loathes*. We are so proud of all our Toggler, but a special shout out to Cosy Club, who have built a Valentines empire on their Toggle store, selling gift cards titled: ‘Dessert is better than any man’, “sorry you're single’ and ‘Let’s celebrate us’
https://vouchers.cosyclub.co.uk/collection/valentine-s
Mother’s Day
We see huge numbers on Toggle as people always turn to hospitality businesses for Mother’s Day gifts. In our experience, different types of operators tend to sell and market products in different ways, depending on who THEY are and what THEIR audience wants.
For pubs and bars: we love the idea of offering ‘G&T tokens’ on a Toggle webshop.
All mothers are gin-lovers, right? Simply create an online voucher, it’s just a gift card, but wrapped up in an advice on what to spend it on!
For restaurants: Cook-at-home kits. Some mothers could still be omi-chronically cautious when it comes to the pandemic. Why not create at-home-kits for these customers! You can get your brand into their home, create an additional revenue stream and also build brand recognition.
For cafes: Afternoon tea
Online searches for cream and afternoon teas soared way back when, in the first lockdown, and Mother’s Day seems like another occasion that might drive those searches up again. Make sure you’re ahead of the curve by getting your offer promoted online and across social channels sooner rather than later.
Partnerships
Consider if there are any partnerships you can create to ensure your package reaches an even wider audience. Do you have a great wine supplier who would love to be included in a hamper? A florist to add blooms to any packages? A beauty salon to pair with for treatments or nice toiletries? Or a local bakery for sweet treats? It's a great way to expand out of your universe.
Graduation
The last couple of years, we couldn't talk about this. Graduations only really started getting up and running in the late Summer of 2021. Hey, but with 4 of our team having finally graduated in the last couple of months (and us not hearing the end of it), we are more than valid to speak on this.
Think of graduation as a coin.
Heads
For graduation, you have thousands of young people and their families travelling to a city centre (that is full of your competitors). How do YOU make sure consumers are visiting YOU and not THEM? This is the perfect occasion to upload extra value gift cards to your Toggle shop and market this product on your CRM and socials. Let Henry with a 2:1 in Zoology from Birmingham get a free bottle of champagne, thanks to the promotion on your Toggle webshop.
Tails
Your niece or nephew, a family friend, a younger cousin, son, daughter, the local youths that terrorise the community. Someone in your life is probably going to be graduating. A gift card is the perfect gift to give them! This can be as simple as a slight redesign of your original gift card, or we can even add a ‘congrats’ insert into your physical cards!
Father’s Day
Dads are notoriously easy to buy for. A mug. Or golf balls. A god-awful gift made in arts & crafts at school. But the reality is, dads love eating until we feel that we may burst at any moment, just like the rest of us.
Toggle can help businesses set up ready made hampers. We fulfil a range of packages that are perfect to pop onto a Toggle store. They order, we add on your logo, and it gets delivered to their door (meaning you never have to see the thing!)
Check out our hampers here
P.S. We recommend considering ‘Pub in a Box’ or ‘the Craft Beer hamper’ for this particular occasion.
Black Friday
If you were knocking around in November or December 2021, you probably saw something about Toggle Time. If you weren’t, we are sorry. Because that means you missed out on the 60 biggest days of gifting to EVER happen on Toggle.
November and December bring in a ton of sales for Togglers - with Black Friday really kicking off the season of gi(v/ft)ing. On Black Friday, we see sales go up by 900% against your average day. Hence it's important you bring out all the stops.
The one golden nugget we can give you now; start early. Beat your competitors and get your promotions in front of your nearest and dearest guests before they do. But hey - we won’t start badgering you about this yet… because… well… you’ll forget.
IF you are interested though - watch last years video on smashing Black Friday, here
Christmas Eve
If you think the 900% stat was impressive, you should read more about our Christmas Eve sales. It’ll blow your socks off.
Christmas Eve, every single year, since the birth of Toggle, has been the biggest day for our Togglers. People really are THAT last minute when it gets to buying Christmas gifts. So, what's our advice for you to maximise the biggest gifting day’s potential? Well, surprisingly, we can't encourage you to do much. Of course, it’s too late to get physical cards in time for Christmas, BUT, it’s a good job that Toggle’s built to rapidly serve up digital cards.You can use us, the experts, to help you win Christmas Eve and get those last minute digital gif cards to your most forgetful guests.
January Campaigns
Just like Push and Pull, Toggle is a force. It gets people to the doors, brings them inside, sits them down and gets them to order something from your menu. The good thing about gift cards is that people tend to spend money on top of that: hence they’re a real revenue driver.
In the quietest time of the year, using gifting campaigns will drive people in and result in full venues during the quietest times of the month. This can be done by setting validity dates on Christmas or Black Friday gift cards, or adding a free bottle of bubbles as extra value on gift cards redeemed in Jan.
Take Lose Hill House as an example. They are discounting all stays for January mid-week guest visits, in order to drive people into their venues during the quietest time of the week in the quietest month of the year. A great example of using Toggle to boost your footfall.
There's a whole bunch of gifting days that you can utilise. Every month we share them on our socials so make sure you’re following us on Linkedin and Instagram (@usetoggle) to keep up to speed with what you can be utilising this year.
