Families love Christmas time and get very excited about it, especially those with young children. They tend to spend more than singles or couples during the Christmas period. While families aim to stick to budgets for gifts, they often end up spending more than intended. Many families do both in-store and online shopping starting in October. Retailers have an excellent opportunity to target families, who make up over 1 million of the radio station's audience.

1. 1

2. 2
If you’re a retailer targeting mums and dads with young kids,
then we’ve got some great news for you. These people are
really into Christmas – and their wallets get a real workout in
the silly season.
Not only do they spend more at Christmas but they’re
prepared to let their hair down and get into the festive spirit.
It seems that having kids can really get people excited about
Christmas.
Let’s take a look….

3. 33
F A M I L I E S
C O U P L E S
S I N G L E S
Source:SCAResearch,PostXmasStudyJanuary2017,Couldyoupleasetellusifyouagreeordisagreewiththe
followingstatementsaboutChristmas:N=1433FamiliesN=513CouplesN=488SinglesN=304;January2016,
N=2264FamiliesN=797CouplesN=813SinglesN=406&ThinkingaboutChristmasjustgone(2016),overallwhat
sortoffeelingsdoyouhavetowardstheperiod?FamiliesN=513.
While money was
tight in 2016, I
loosened the purse
strings a bit at
Christmas
Decreased from 51%
in 2015
While money was
tight in 2016, I
loosened the purse
strings a bit at
Christmas
Stable since 2015
While money was
tight in 2016, I
loosened the purse
strings a bit at
Christmas
Decreased from 42%
in 2015
I spent more than
I intended to this
past Christmas
Stable since 2015
I spent more than
I intended to this
past Christmas
Increased from
33% in 2015
I spent more than
I intended to this
past Christmas
Increased from
31% in 2015
Families love Christmas time, especially getting to spend quality time
with their kids. They love the joy and fun the Christmas period brings.
With that, many families also dread the stress which comes from
organising the family, food, and gifts for this period.
45%
35%
33%
49%
45%
39%

4. 45
Source: SCA Research Post Xmas Study, January 2017, Before Christmas, many people had an idea in mind of how
much they would spend on presents. However, we know it’s hard to stick to a set amount! So – how much did you
intend to spend on Christmas presents and how much did you actually spend? Families N=493.
Try as they might to stick to a
budget, families spend more than
what they intend to on Christmas
presents each year – and they
spend more than singles and
couples.
So cutting down on spending might
be the intention this Christmas, but
it’s likely they will actually end up
spending more than they planned to.
5%
15%
29%
22%
15%
10%
3%4%
12%
23%
20%
17%
17%
8%
Less than $100 $100-$250 $250-$500 $500-$750 $750-$1,000 $1,000-$2,000 $2,000+
I intend to spend I actually spent

5. 5
Families are big on online shopping – more so than singles
(40%) and couples (43%).
65% of families will use the internet to research products
and services and almost half of them will shop online. But it
looks like it may be even more popular this Christmas with
31% of families saying that they will increase their use of
the internet to make purchases online for the Christmas
coming.
Families are looking to save a bit of money by getting the
best deal online and also see online shopping as a
fantastic convenience.
Source:SCAResearch,PostXmasStudyJanuary2017,Wheredidyouendupdoingyour
Christmasshopping?FamiliesN=493&Basedonyourexperienceswithonline
shopping/researchinthepastyear,doyouthinkyouwillincreaseyourusageoftheinternet
toenableyoutodoanyofthefollowingnextChristmas?FamiliesN=224&Didyouusethe
internettoresearchChristmaspurchasespriortogoingtotheshops?FamiliesN=493.
almost
Decreased from
50% in 2015

6. 6
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
Before July July August September October November 1st week of
December
2nd week of
December
3rd week of
December
KEY
STARTED TO LOOK
AROUND INSTORE
STARTED MAKING
PURCHASES INSTORE
STARTED TO LOOK
AROUND ONLINE
STARTED MAKING
PURCHASES ONLINE
Source: SCA Research Post Xmas Study, January 2017, And again thinking about Christmas gifts, when did you start
LOOKING for Christmas gifts in 2016 and when did you actually start PURCHASING presents? Families N=493.
Over 1 in 5 families will
have started making in
store purchases by October

7. 77

8. 8
SourceSCAResearch,PostXmasStudyJanuary2017,WhattypesofgiftsdidyoupurchaseforpeopleatChristmas?FamiliesN=493.
74%
71%
58%
44% 43% 41%
37%
33%
27%
21%
16% 14% 14%
7% 5%

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Families are a retailer’s dream at Christmas time. They are the group
more likely to get caught up in the Christmas spirit and spend more; they
start their Christmas shopping earlier and they purchase more gifts than
singles or couples.
They love to shop both in store and online – and will likely increase their
online shopping this Christmas. This presents an outstanding opportunity
for both online and bricks and mortar retailers.
SCA can help any retailer targeting families to reach their audience. In
fact, we can reach more than 1.1million of them!
Not only can we deliver powerful sales messages but can encourage call
to action, driving people in store or online this Christmas.
Source:GFKRadioRatings(eram).Survey#42017.Metro.Families.ROS.SCA.

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The results of this survey are “INDICATIVE” ONLY.
The survey was conducted by Southern Cross Austereo using its
online panel nationally.
The SCA panel is obtained from our radio networks database under
the labels of ‘VIP’ on the Hit Network and ‘The Club’ on the MMM
Network. All members of these databases would be considered
listeners to these stations.
The database contains about 260,000 members. Of these,
approximately 16,000 are a part of our online insights community.
This is split between the Hit VIP database and the Triple M
database.
Members of both databases were asked to take part in the study
and over 3,360 people did so. Certain questions asked for an
‘essay’ or ‘verbatim’ type of response OR brands/words that first
came to mind.
A keyword search was used to sort and rank the responses to
these questions.
The results are an un-weighted sample, but are reflective of the
Southern Cross Austereo Austereo audience. SCA brands
reach approximately 40% of the 10+ population and
approximately 46% of the 25-54 population in the five
metropolitan markets in Australia, suggesting it would be
reasonable to consider these results to be a fair if not fully
balanced representation of the opinions in these marketplaces.
Furthermore, as it is an online survey, the respondents would
also be skewed towards being ‘early adopters’ for technology,
‘trend setters’ in general and likely to be a good early indication
of brand leaders, trend setters and early adopters in general.
These research surveys conducted by Austereo are done so to
provide a general understanding of the opinions, interests and
attitudes of the metropolitan marketplaces only.
U n s p l a s h
S t o c k s n a p
P i x a b a y