The Mother’s Day Push: Inside the Ad Tactics of Gifting Brands

If money talks, it appears to be saying that Americans really do love their moms: U.S. consumers consistently spend billions of dollars each year shopping for Mother’s Day. 

It makes sense, then, that the holiday is one of the biggest moments of the year for gifting brands—especially those in the floral and specialty food sectors. To understand how top players compete for shopper attention, we analyzed the digital ad campaigns of four major brands during last year’s Mother’s Day period, focusing on spend patterns, platform strategies, and creative themes.

For this analysis, we selected four brands that represent the epitome of Mother’s Day gifting: two flower purveyors, and two brands known for their iconic fruit baskets and desserts. This category includes brands of varying sizes, showcasing the unique strategies companies can use to broaden their reach — whether they’re well-established, or small and scrappy. 

Brand Lineup (Listed in descending order by U.S. Digital Ad Spend):

• 1-800-Flowers: One of the largest and best-known floral delivery services in the U.S., with a national footprint and broad digital presence. 

• Edible Arrangements: Cleverly combines fruit and dessert gifting, and is known for its same-day delivery of fresh fruit bouquets. 

• Shari’s Berries: A sub-brand of FTD Companies (a leader in the floral industry) that specializes in chocolate-covered strawberries and gift baskets. 

• The Bouqs Company: A modern, direct-to-consumer flower company emphasizing sustainability and farm-to-door freshness. 

Ad Spend Trends: Big Surges and Strategic Timing

All four brands ramped up their ad spend in the three week period preceding Mother’s Day (05/12/2024), but the scale of those surges varied widely. Edible Arrangements saw a 133% jump compared to the prior three weeks, while Shari’s Berries—despite having overall similar levels of spend—boosted spend by a staggering 5,700%. The small but mighty brand went all-out for the holiday, and this aggressive seasonal strategy is reflected in their annual spend trends, which show large spikes during holidays such as Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, with relatively stable investment throughout the rest of the year. 

Across the board, the gifting brands showed a predictable—but telling—pattern of late-stage ad ramp-ups, with peak investment clustering between May 6 and 11 (just before the holiday). The campaigns all displayed at least one notable spending peak within this window, likely tied to last-minute shoppers and delivery cut-offs. Accordingly, each player saw spend taper off sharply by the 12th. While the overall strategy centered on converting last-minute shoppers and hitting delivery deadlines, each brand’s timing and spend intensity offered clues to its unique positioning and tactical approach.

Edible Arrangements, whose fruit baskets have a shorter shelf life than the bouquets offered by other purveyors, stood out for its sharp surge on the Saturday before Mother’s Day. It’s possible this reflected a final push to target ultra-last-minute buyers before their same-day or next-day delivery windows closed — underscoring their unique positioning as a last-minute gifting solution. Both 1-800-Flowers and Edible Arrangements showed dual-phase spend patterns: one earlier push (aiming to capture consumers that planned ahead) followed by a stronger investment peak closer to the holiday. The Bouqs Company, in contrast, leaned into a single main ad blitz. While all brands dialed up their efforts in the final days, Edible Arrangements’ late-stage focus was the most concentrated, whereas 1-800-Flowers maintained a steadier, more distributed investment.

Where they Spent: Channel Priorities and Platform Focus 

But the timing of spend doesn’t tell the full story: the channel mix of each brand unveils a more detailed narrative around their specific goals and resulting strategies — including, notably, a broad preference for Facebook and Instagram. 

But first, the outlier: 1-800-Flowers prioritized video-first platforms, allocating 40% of its budget to YouTube and 29% to OTT, with Facebook trailing at 15%. This heavy focus on long-form video suggests a strategy centered on emotional resonance and broad awareness. In contrast, Shari’s Berries, while also video-heavy (95% of creatives), skipped traditional streaming in favor of Meta platforms, dedicating 96%(!) of its spend to Facebook and Instagram. 

Edible Arrangements followed a similar path, with 84% of its ad spend focused on Meta, distributed across video (42%), text (32%), and image (18%) ads. These creatives leaned into clear value propositions highlighting free delivery and product uniqueness. The social-heavy focus of most brands reflects a tactical emphasis on direct offers and immediate conversion, while 1-800-Flowers’ prioritization of long-form video suggests a broader, brand-building strategy, aimed at reinforcing emotional connection and top-of-funnel awareness.

Creative Highlights: Messaging, Hooks, and Top-Performing Ads

The 2024 campaigns showed a mix of polished video montages, straightforward text-heavy promotions, and flashy, in-feed creatives. To keep things fresh, we also took a look at standout Mother’s Day creatives from this year. 

1-800-Flowers:

• Top creatives:

  • An Instagram ad (11% of spend) with a callout for “dads” to “blow her away this Mother’s Day.”

  • A polished OTT spot (3.1% of spend) showing a man prepping a bouquet for his wife.

• Theme: Clear pivot toward speaking directly to men as primary gift buyers, a distinct angle compared to its competitors’ broader, family-focused approach.

  

  Shari’s Berries:

• Top creative: A heartwarming video showing a family surprising their mom with a bouquet and chocolate-dipped strawberries.

• Platform focus: Facebook (35% of budget)

• Theme: Classic emotional storytelling, aimed at building sentimental appeal with playful, family-centered visuals.

Edible Arrangements:

• Theme: Strong call to action, emphasizing speed and convenience—consistent with their positioning as a last-minute gifting solution.

• Top creative: A vibrant video pushing free delivery, showing elaborate fruit bouquets and emphasizing fast service.

• Platform focus: Instagram (11% of budget)

The Bouqs Company:

• Top creative: A static ad featuring a cheerful model next to a bouquet of flowers, with urgent messaging: “Mother’s Day is This Week!” and “Last Chance.”

• Platform focus: Facebook (9% of budget)

• Theme: Clear emphasis on urgency, promoting last-minute deals and nudging shoppers to act fast.

Mother’s Day continues to be a critical moment for floral and gifting brands, and this year’s campaigns underscored just how competitive the space has become. While approaches varied, one thing was consistent: success came down to sharp timing, platform-savvy ad placement, and creatives that made it as easy as possible for shoppers to hit “buy.”