Celebrating Moms: The Top 6 Mother’s Day Campaigns of 2022 and 2023

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Did you know a recent study launched by National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics found that US customers plan to spend a total of $35.7 billion for Mother’s Day this year? 

The same study found that customers are planning to spend $274.02 per person — the highest in the survey’s history. 

With such a great opportunity that allows you to tug at your customers’ heartstrings, it’s time you come up with your own creative campaign for Mother’s Day, if you haven’t already. And what better starting point than looking at some of the best examples in the market? 

That said, we’ve taken a microscopic lens to review the top 6 Mother’s Day campaigns of 2022 and 2023, to see what makes them work and resonate with customers:

1. Apple: Celebrate Whoever You Call Mom

Every year for Mother’s Day, Apple reminds customers to order gifts for their mothers and make them feel special. This year Apple made its messaging more inclusive, asking customers to thank whoever they call Mom. This messaging runs across Apple’s website, email, and SMS channels.

Here are some of the things Apple did for their Mother’s Day campaign:

• Added a call out on their main website landing page asking customers to shop for Mother’s Day. 
• Launched a gift guide page with a message to celebrate whoever they call mom by gifting them Apple’s latest launches, i.e. iPhone 14, AirPods Pro, Apple Watch, and more.
• Provided them the option to personalize their gifts and “make it mom’s” through a free engraving and product and gift card customizations.
• Promoted the facility to “Shop with a Specialist” who can help customers pick the perfect gift for their mothers.
• Offered free packaging and convenient delivery and pickup methods, just in time for Mother’s Day. These include customer-friendly options such as free next-day delivery, chargeable two-hour delivery, in-store pickup, and curbside pickup options. 
• Sent a series of emails leading up to Mother’s Day, which promote the gift guide, highlight the benefits of shopping with Apple, and create an urgency to buy gifts in time. 

2. Showcase: Wow Mom With More on Mother’s Day  

Showcase, the popular North American retail brand, leveraged the power of ChatGPT to curate a gift list for different types of social media moms this year, such as the always-updated ‘TikTok Mom’, the fashionista ‘Instagram Mom’, the creative ‘Pinterest Mom’, and the wellness-seeking ‘Digital Detox Mom’.

Along with this, here are some of the things Showcase did for the campaign:

• Launched a limited-time “Buy 3, Get 1 Free on the entire site” offer to “Wow Mom With More”

• Offered free FedEx shipping and same-day delivery options. 
• Conducted interactive live streams to promote giftable products for Mother’s Day. 
• Shared ideas of products customers can gift their mom and Mother’s Day limited edition offers on their social handles. These posts featured their all-time hashtag, #ShowcaseMadeMeBuyIt.
• In sync with the online promotions, promoted the Mother’s Day campaign offline through their weekly flyers. These include a reminder to the customers about Mother’s Day being on 14th May, promotion of various limited-time offers valid till Mother’s day, and a weekly curated list of products customers can gift their mothers. 

3. Upwork: Motherhood Works

The leading freelancing platform, Upwork’s 2022 Mother’s Day campaign with the tagline “What makes them a great mom also makes them a great hire” is one of a kind. It called out to businesses to hire the 1.6 million working mothers who lost their jobs in the pandemic and help them re-enter the workforce.

Here’s what Upwork did for the campaign:

• Released a promotional video featuring real moms for the “Motherhood Works” campaign. 

• Launched a webpage where companies can register to find and hire working mothers directly for skilled freelance projects.  
• Created a community for moms to participate in events, get early access to content, earn skill certifications, get Upwork coaching, and partner offers.
• Leveraged user-generated content by running social media campaign under the hashtag #motherhoodworks. In this campaign, mothers were asked to share their experiences as working moms and the skills they have gained through motherhood that helped them in the workplace. All the stories shared were reposted on Upwork’s social handles in the form of posts and videos.

4. Coach: What We Carry Makes us Stronger

Coach, the American luxury fashion house brand, launched a huge Mother’s Day campaign this year. The campaign smartly ties into Coach’s existing “What we carry makes us stronger” campaign which features its signature handbags in pastel colors and floral embellishments just in time for the spring season. The face of the campaign is Jennifer Lopez, who is COACH’s longtime brand ambassador and a mother to twins.

Here are some of the highlights of Coach’s campaign:

• The campaign is well-integrated across all of Coach’s channels and promotes the benefits of shopping with Coach, for example, free gift wrapping, shipping, and returns on all orders, the option to customize bags for free, and for recipients to “open” and check their gifts virtually through Coach’s GiftNow feature. 

• Coach has a dedicated gift guide that can be sorted by multiple filters for easy shopping. 
• Coach’s website has a moving CTA bar asking customers to order by 5/10 to get their gifts in time for Mother’s Day i.e. 5/14.
• Coach has regular interactive live streams curated around shopping for Mother’s Day, which showcase relevant products. 
• Coach’s social media has a series of posts around the campaign, featuring snippets of Jennifer Lopez and Coach’s flagship bags.
• Coach sent a series of emails themed around Mother’s Day, from hand-picked gifts and quotes by Coach employees to coupon codes for loyalty members to win Mother’s Day freebies and more.
• They also have an interactive SMS campaign to facilitate customers shopping for Mother’s Day.

5. AvantStay: Nominate Mom for a $10,000 Dream Vacation

AvantStay, the California-based hospitality brand, hosted a massive giveaway for their 2022 Mother’s Day campaign. 

Under the contest, customers were asked to make a post featuring themselves and their mother (figure) on social media, using the hashtag #MomsDayByAvantStay and explaining why she deserves a dream getaway. One lucky mother and her loved ones got a vacation at a home in Sunridge along with other exciting prizes.

For this campaign, AvantStay released a commercial along with a dedicated webpage, featuring the giveaway details.

Furthermore, they promoted the contest across their Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube accounts. The contest got a great reception from the customers and helped increase brand awareness for AvantStay. 

   6. Pandora: For Everyone Who Loves Like a Mom

Pandora, the famous jewelry brand, launched a full-fledged and inclusive Mother’s Day campaign this year. 

Here are the highlights of their campaign:

• Call out on the main landing page to shop “for the one who’s always there”.
• A Mother’s Day-themed gift guide with gifts for different types of moms such as ‘Disney Moms’, ‘Cool Moms’, ‘Pet Moms’, Grandmas, and Partners. This page also features a countdown to Mother’s Day to create an urgency to shop in time.
• A moving banner on the website reminding customers to order their gifts by 5/9 for delivery by Mother’s Day, limited-time free shipping, and discounts. 
• An option to customize jewelry sets and charm bracelets. 
• Mom’s stories are featured on their website and social handles.
• Pandora’s social media posts and stories have Mother’s Day-themed content using the hashtag, #PandoraMothersDay. They have also collaborated with various social media influencers for increasing brand awareness and driving conversions. 
• An option for customers to opt out of Mother’s Day messages on direct channels such as email and SMS. 

Recommended Strategies to Nail Your Mother’s Day Campaign

The above Mother’s Day campaigns are excellent examples of how creating authentic, unique, and personalized marketing campaigns can help you build a deeper connection with your customers. 

Here are some strategies to keep in mind when planning your Mother’s Day campaign this year: 

1. Have a solid omnichannel strategy in place to make your communication consistent and memorable. Make sure you integrate communication across all online and offline channels.
2. Use the Mother’s Day campaign to tie into an existing campaign or product launch to make it more impactful.
3. Create an urgency to motivate customers to shop in time for the big day and increase your conversions. Run countdown timers, have limited-time discounts and perks, etc. 
4. Mother’s Day can be a difficult time for some customers. Give them the option to opt out of all Mother’s Day messaging to show that you care and reduce your unsubscribe numbers. 
5. Show real people with real stories in your campaigns. Leverage the power of user-generated content and trendy hashtags to increase customer engagement.  
6. Make your communication interactive so that it’s a two-way street. Leverage interactive live streams, SMS, social media posts, etc. for this. 
7. Host giveaways and contests to add excitement around Mother’s Day and increase brand awareness. 
8. Segment customers based on their shopping behavior and provide limited-time Mother’s Day offers, discounts, BOGO offers, bundle discounts, and freebies to entice “Price-sensitive” customers. 
9. Use the occasion to show what you can offer to enhance the customer’s shopping experience to customers to “Need Attention” customers. This can include free shipping and returns, discounts, customized packaging, etc.
10. Promote member-exclusive offers to convert “Potential Loyalists” into loyal customers. 
11. Give the gift of choice to your customers and make the day even more special for them by providing them with options to customize their gifts/experiences, gift cards, and messages. 
12. Use artificial intelligence to experiment with multiple customer journeys in real time and identify the ideal path for each customer in terms of the best-performing channels, messaging frequency, and messaging sequence. Based on these insights personalize your Mother’s Day brand communication to each individual customer.

Remember, at the end of the day, regardless of what holiday campaign you’re running or how creative it is, the secret to making it a success is that it shouldn’t be about you but your customers. 

If you want to understand customer sentiment around personalization and discover strategies to increase customer lifetime value, download our Personalization Pulse Check 2023: North America report.