Q4 – the golden quarter – is the busiest and most wondrous time of the year. With the year’s fourth quarter already flying along, we gift you our five gold rings – our golden quarter insights from Ozone
Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year
We love Christmas at Ozone. With excitement growing in Q4 as the big day nears, we see millions of online readers across our premium publisher platform engage with trusted festive editorial as they plan the perfect celebration.
There’s nothing like a dash of tinsel, a mince pie or two and a wee sing-song to get us feeling festive. As one of our favourite carols is the 12 days of Christmas – and we’re celebrating Ozone at five in 2023 – this year we present to you our Five Gold Ring of Q4 insight to get you in the holiday mood.
Q4 is when shoppers are most engaged
Our first gold ring is all about Shopping – after all Q4 is the category’s biggest quarter for the engagement we see across the Ozone platform.
More than a third of last year’s Shopping engagement took place in Q4, making it the category’s biggest quarter in 2023. 135m+ Shopping page views were +35% higher quarter on quarter.
Fuelling Shopping category growth in Q4 are the Christmas Shopping and Gifting topics. Last year, the quarter represented 62% of total Gifting page views, while monthly growth more than doubled on average across the quarter.
Savvy shoppers love a mega-sales bargain
Q4’s mid-point and savvy shoppers bagging mega-sales bargains is our second gold ring.
Q4 mega sales remain crucial for savvy shoppers looking to bag a Singles’ Day, Black Friday or Cyber Monday bargain. Last November, Sales & Promotions page views were 7x higher month on month.
Mid-week is peak for last minute research
Our shiny third gold ring is a December discovery from last year when we saw shopping’s late leavers show a lot of love for weekday research.
December sees our Christmas audience show a strong preference for Monday to Friday reading. Weekday engagement last year was +30% higher when compared to weekends, with research starting online with our publishers to inspire weekend shopping sprees.
‘Tis the season for planning celebrations
Our fourth gold ring focuses on how festive celebrations FIRE UP engagement with our events content.
Seeking out Christmas celebrations and festive things to do grows Q4 engagement with our Events & Attractions content. More than 33% of annual page views took place in Q4 last year, with 203m+ in December two-thirds higher than the 2023 monthly average.
Winter warmers get telly going
Let’s tune in to our fifth and final gold ring. You can never have too much of a good thing at Christmas and with that in mind here’s a little extra Ozone insight to sprinkle onto your Q4 plans.
Nothing keeps Brits happier during the cold, winter months than the warm embrace of an entertaining television schedule. Last year, Q4 was our Television category’s biggest quarter for engagement, with November the biggest month. That month, page views were more than +40% higher than the 2022 average as interest in the release of that year’s Christmas TV ads, plus the Bake Off and I’m a Celeb finals rocketed.
Want more Q4 insights from Ozone?
We’ve summarised the Five gold rings: Golden quarter insights from Ozone into a handy slide pack, which you can download and view here.
We’ve also gathered together a selection of relevant campaign case studies – from things to do and buy to festive feasting and the gift of tech – in a Christmas Case Studies Collection. Download the collection here.
