In an age of high-turnover developments, ubiquitous screens, and fractured consideration spans, a prolonged televised parade organized by a venerable division retailer appears like a relic of a bygone period.
However in some way, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has in recent times proved itself to be startlingly common and related. In 2024, the parade drew an estimated 31.7 million viewers on NBC’s broadcast and Peacock stream—an all-time file, and a much bigger viewers than the Oscars or any leisure broadcast. This 12 months’s parade will embrace, together with balloons that includes legacy characters like Snoopy and Minnie Mouse, a Pop Mart float with an oversized Labubu, a Stranger Issues float that includes a Demogorgon, and performances by a singing trio from KPop Demon Hunters and Depraved: For Good star Cynthia Erivo.
Macy’s is stubbornly unforthcoming on the economics of its parade, and a spokesperson informed Quick Firm that it was “unable to debate and disclose financials” of the occasion. Nevertheless it definitely seems to be a vivid spot for the retailer, which over the previous decade has closed scores of areas and laid off 1000’s of staff.
Numerous experiences counsel the 2024 model price an estimated $13 million to supply, with longtime accomplice NBC paying $20 million for broadcast rights. Macy’s and NBC announced a brand new 10-year deal earlier this 12 months, and whereas phrases weren’t disclosed, The Wall Road Journal reported the brand new proposal was on the order of $60 million for annual rights to the Thanksgiving parade, a July 4 particular, and a brand new occasion that’s to be decided. This displays how useful the parade, specifically, appears to have change into for its skill to attract a mass viewers, with NBC reportedly promoting 30-second advert spots for $900,000.
A profitable, unchanged components
The parade dates again to 1924 and has been televised nationally on NBC since 1954. Whereas Macy’s describes it as a “present” to the nation, it’s one which has lengthy since change into a enterprise in its personal proper. In keeping with a report from 2019, a model sponsoring a brand new balloon may anticipate to pay round $200,000 in building and parade charges. However this, in fact, yields a couple of minutes of on-air discussion of the model or leisure property’s balloon (or float or efficiency) from the printed hosts.
That is how the parade has labored for many years—and possibly that basically unchanged components helps clarify its success. By now it’s an iconic occasion, deeply embedded in pop culture through quite a few appearances in films and TV exhibits, and numerous recollections. Even when you haven’t watched the parade in years, you understand the gist.
So one concept of the occasion’s resilient recognition is that it’s, like turkey and stuffing, an elevated variation on consolation meals. A decade-plus in the past, as many mainstream broadcast occasions started to see their audiences shrink, the parade held regular, in impact rising its affect just by standing nonetheless.
However in the previous few years, that viewers hasn’t simply stood nonetheless however really begun to develop, topping earlier viewer data. The Macy’s spokesperson credit “the gifted Macy’s Studio group” of artisans and different consultants who craft the occasion, and positively the proceedings are as lavish as ever.
A more interesting theory, although, is {that a} broadcast parade is right for a fractional-attention world. There’s one thing new each couple of minutes and none of it requires deep focus. This 12 months’s occasion includes 34 balloons, 28 floats, 28 performers, 11 marching bands, and 33 clown crews, which means the parade is nonstop novelty. It’s basically an analog, marching scroll.
In a type of virtuous circle, the viewers attracts popular culture manufacturers, which attracts a much bigger viewers. A Macy’s govt concerned in producing the parade informed the Freakonomics podcast last year that the aim is to steadiness “legacy characters” in opposition to “new characters,” in impact addressing an all-ages viewers. Even higher: All the content material is mainly escapist and positively apolitical, offering an countless stream of excuses to vary the topic to one thing benign when that cranky uncle begins in search of a squabble.
And whereas Macy’s could also be opaque concerning the enterprise particulars that assist form the particular contents of any given 12 months’s parade, attaining that steadiness between modern relevance and timeless custom is probably going a key to attracting its viewers. And positive, the entire thing is actually an intertwined marketing occasion—a collection of popular culture and model promotions, below the auspices of Macy’s personal model. However no person actually appears to thoughts. Maybe on the eve of Black Friday that is precisely what many are in search of. A Macy’s spokesperson calls the parade “the official kickoff to the vacation season.” That appears to be more true than ever.
