With 88% of American shoppers scouting cost-saving offers to counter rising inflation (Dentsu, 2022), campaigns/messaging targeting a budget-savvy mindset are more valuable than ever. The best recognise that spending isn’t decreasing, but being scrutinised more closely. The corresponding creative campaigns serve to destigmatise the budget sector, add some light relief, and hype up parental pride.

Economic pressures are causing many consumers to choose cheap over sustainable. But despite tensions between frugality and sustainability, back-to-school spending is bucking that trend, thanks to its ‘next-generation’ focus. Fifty per cent of parents in the US seek sustainable back-to-school products/initiatives (Deloitte, 2022). Campaigns harnessing this priority come from Ikea, M&S, Asda and L.L.Bean, and include scholastic reform, recommerce and durability.

Inclusive messaging is especially key for younger generations, for whom spotlighting different ethnicities, sexual orientations and abilities is an authenticity imperative. With a third of Gen Alpha (born 2010-2022) already paying attention to diversity in media (GWI, 2022), it’s a vital campaign component – see Gap, Irish retailer Dunnes and Burberry, which cast its first ever Sikh child model.

Several teen-targeting brands are courting the buzz of conviviality, plugging into the appetite for entertainment and socialising that continues to govern the post-lockdown consumer landscape. Examples range from New Jersey mall American Dream’s ‘Anti-Bummer End of Summer Bashes’, to Dick’s Sporting Goods and teen fashion brand PacSun’s of-the-moment moves into the metaverse (see our Spotlight The Metaverse 360°).

Echoing discussion around overhauling stereotypical depictions of men (see our Black Consumers Brand Engagement Briefing), hair salon Great Clips and grocery chain Publix (both US) have used back-to-school to disband parental stereotypes – specifically homing in on the changing role of fathers at home.