While it’s technically our last winter holiday, St. Patrick’s Day is considered the first holiday of spring for many of us. For marketers, St. Patrick’s Day spending presents an interesting opportunity to get in front of consumers during a month when CPG spending spikes. After all, St. Patrick’s Day is preceded by Shrove Tuesday (paczkis!!!) and followed by March Madness. 🏀
Back before “the big flash” (Book of Eli reference, but really, I’m just talking about the pandemic), St. Patrick’s Day celebrants (hereinafter referred to as partiers) were keen on heading outdoors in the nippy March air for parades, bar crawls, parties, and overall mild-to-severe debauchery (depending on the day of the week on which St. Patty’s Day fell).
This year, 54 percent of Americans are planning to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. And we’re pleased to announce that the Chicago St. Patrick’s Day parade is back on for the first time since 2019. 🍺🍻🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺
St. Patrick’s Day Spending: A Shift Away from Green Decor and Back to Bar Tabs
Traditionally, St. Patrick’s Day has been a time to gather indoors for food and drinks – whether at your house, a friend’s house, or the local bar. Over the last two years, more people have spent more money on themed decor in lieu of heading out during a pandemic. This year, parties, bars, and restaurant outings have made a comeback. One in five St. Patty’s Day partiers plans to hit up parties.
Per-person spending for St. Patty’s Day is expected to be the second-highest in recorded history at $42.33 per person (2020 was the highest at $42.96). And total spending on St. Patrick’s Day will top $5.87B this year. Cha-ching!
By far, 35 to 44-year-olds party hardest… or at least they spend the most, shelling out $49.27 on average for the holiday, followed by 25 to 34-year-olds whose average spend will be $47.34 this year.
We put together an infographic on St. Patrick’s Day spending and trends that’ll provide some interesting insights on how people are marking the occasion. As always, you can copy and paste the embed code at the bottom to embed this infographic on your site.
