Holiday traditions around the world – calling for inclusive marketing

Address diverse holidays as respectfully as diverse customers

All too often, holiday marketing still addresses mostly Western holidays such as Christmas. But globalization has long become our reality. If you focus on just one or two dates assuming they're celebrated across different regions you may be missing out on localized marketing opportunities. And it can also reveal a big disconnect with your customers and employee audiences alike.

Let's dive into the holiday season worldwide and pinpoint which key holidays you should include in your international holiday marketing plan – for truly inclusive holiday marketing.

The starting point in October: Diwali

Looking at the holiday prime time of the year, Diwali should be the first date marked in your calendar. The main Diwali holiday is usually celebrated in October in India, but depending on geographies, the five days of the festival can start one to two days before or after.

Diwali, the “festival of lights”, is a 5-day celebration that's as joyful as Christmas. It unites mainly Hindus, but also Sikhs, Jains and even some Buddhists. In any case, the festival celebrates the victory of good over evil and light over dark.

Each of the five days has its own traditions, and knowing more about them allows you to stay credible and authentic in your holiday messages. You can also theme your communications around the individual focus of each day, depending on what resonates best with your business.

In the weeks leading up to the festivities, celebrating families decorate their homes, but also shop for new clothes, accessories and gifts. Internet sales during this period are still a fraction of India’s $1 trillion retail market, but this main holiday season is more important than ever for ecommerce.

November in China: Singles’ day

Be well prepared when November, 11th comes up. 11/11: look at the numbers; don’t they look like “bare branches”? That’s why the date is not only referred to as double 11, but also as singles’ day, an unofficial Chinese holiday and the world’s biggest online shopping event, with approximately $60 billion spent within 24 hours.

It’s a discount feast, but companies also use it to launch innovative cross-media events to demonstrate the integration of social ecommerce and online-to-offline (O2O) business. It’s a showcase of what it takes to go big in China!

And after 11/11, keep your eyes on Asia, as the Lunar New Year is practically already around the corner – with up to 15 festive days celebrated among family and friends. On which day the Lunar New Year exactly starts depends on the geographical region. 

Learn more about how you can succeed in digital marketing in China.

The big Western November highlight: Thanksgiving

Especially in North America, Thanksgiving is one of the most popular holidays, famous for big family gatherings – and thus even more appreciated than Christmas by some. 

This doesn’t mean that Thanksgiving is the main holiday for gift shopping – it’s not. But it’s leisure time, spent with family and friends… and online, where the shopping cart is always just a convenient click away. Brick-and-mortar shops see the biggest spike in demand for food and drinks. And the travel industry starts to sell tickets weeks and even months ahead, especially after the dire pandemic years. 

A side note to remember is that in Canada, you should be prepared one month before: Canada's Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October.

Still, the universal benefit of Thanksgiving is… to take it literally. To say thank you, show gratitude and (re-)connect. With family and friends, when it comes to our personal lives. And with our teams, customers, partners and prospects, when it comes to business.

The aftermath: Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday

The day after Thanksgiving being a holiday is sure to retail’s delight. Black Friday has been successfully established as THE shopping day of the year, with discounts attracting clients around the globe.

While attraction has dropped a bit over recent years, it’s still more than relevant, especially in conjunction with the following Monday (known as Cyber Monday). For 2021, the US National Retail Federation (NRF) revealed that just in the US, 260 million shoppers purchased goods online between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, counting 86.8 million shoppers in-store.

Although this "holiday weekend" started as a US shopping holiday, Black Friday, and over the more recent years even Cyber Monday, have long become a worldwide phenomenon.

The Small Business Saturday, being in the middle of it all, currently still remains more relevant for the US, as a day to celebrate and support small and local businesses. But it’s still a great opportunity to get traction in your local markets through social initiatives or localized SEO! As customers look for more personalized approaches, don’t forget to take a look at your local, smaller competitors to see how they’re succeeding.

The end of this mega sales weekend is marked by Giving Tuesday, a day to give back and get involved in your community. A good way to incorporate it as part of your holiday marketing strategy is to simply ask your customers to support your charitable initiatives, e.g. by making a purchase that day – with a defined percentage to be donated to the charity you support.

The prevailing December theme: Christmas

About 45% of the world's population is said to celebrate Christmas in one way or the other.

The biggest gift exchange and family gathering can happen on Christmas Eve, December, 24th, or on Christmas day itself, celebrated on the 25th in most cultures. Some countries, like Germany and the UK, even extend Christmas celebrations to a second national holiday on December, 26th.

More and more countries even follow the German tradition of an Advent calendar, filled with small gifts for every day from December, 1st to Christmas eve. Especially for luxury brands, this is a great marketing opportunity, for example with collectible or travel-size miniatures that give customers a chance to test products they can buy in full-size later.

Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January, 7th, though – based on the Julian Calendar. Until 2099, at least. From 2100 on, it would be January, 8th … but maybe you don’t want to plan ahead THAT far. 😉 Anyhow, many Orthodox families don’t wait that long to exchange gifts, and already do it on New Year’s day, thus heading off for a great start.

Even in most Western countries, it’s the Christmas tradition to keep up your decorations until the “Twelfth Night”, which is January, 6th, Epiphany. If you remove your décor before that, then bad luck is sure to follow, according to popular belief, especially in Great Britain. In some regions, January, 6th is even a national holiday.

The extended time frame for Christmas celebrations across many cultures alone already underlines the significance of this holiday. This goes to say it deserves a lot of your attention and planning, as you need to cut through all the Christmas holiday clutter to reach your audiences. Not an easy task, but certainly worth it: Statista projects the global email marketing revenue to reach 11 billion USD this year. 

Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January, 7th, though – based on the Julian Calendar. Until 2099, at least. From 2100 on, it would be January, 8th … but maybe you don’t want to plan ahead THAT far. 😉 Anyhow, many Orthodox families don’t wait that long to exchange gifts, and already do it on New Year’s day, thus heading off for a great start.

Even in most Western countries, it’s the Christmas tradition to keep up your decorations until the “Twelfth Night”, which is January, 6th, Epiphany. If you remove your décor before that, then bad luck is sure to follow, according to popular belief, especially in Great Britain. In some regions, January, 6th is even a national holiday.

The extended time frame for Christmas celebrations across many cultures alone already underlines the significance of this holiday. This goes to say it deserves a lot of your attention and planning, as you need to cut through all the Christmas holiday clutter to reach your audiences. Not an easy task, but certainly worth it: Statista projects the global email marketing revenue to reach 11 billion USD this year. 

The biggest December marketing misunderstanding: Hanukkah

You can’t expect Hanukkah to be as much of a present feast as Christmas, with the exception of small gifts for children and a lot of kosher food for family gatherings. It’s a holiday that gives you an extra opportunity to strengthen relationships, rather than another sales peak that would come alongside Christmas.

Other Jewish holidays that are actually more important to their calendar are Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, albeit not associated to gift spending. Smaller peaks in sales can rather be expected for Pesach (especially flowers), Purim or Shavuot – but again, the focus is on a lot of good – kosher – food.

Fast forward to March 2023: Ramadan

For Muslim audiences (altogether, almost 2 billion people around the world), Ramadan is a holiday season as important as Christmas is for many Western societies. As a time of concentration on the good and on the community, rather than a simple “Happy Ramadan”, use instead Ramadan Kareem: “Ramadan is generous” as your main message. 

A study by AdColony reveals that 77% of the survey participants will use their smartphones while shopping for Ramadan, with 54% stating that the ads that they encounter have a huge impact on their purchasing decision compared to TV with only 14%. Numbers worth exploring through targeted online content, digital campaigns and culturally well-adapted video content, for example. 

If you have employees who celebrate Ramadan, they're natural subject matter experts for Ramadan-related content. Humor is an interesting ingredient to explore there, as does Vodafone Egypt's example of Ramadan-themed video content.