The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, 1951
Hopefully you’re recovering from your turkey hangover by the time you read this. (Benjamin Franklin thought the turkey should be our national bird but becoming a holiday dining tradition is not a bad second place.) Just as the turkey is the bird most associated with Thanksgiving, the ONLY parade associated with the holiday must be the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Now in its hundredth year, the first parade drew 10,000 spectators and featured only one balloon, a giant “Felix the Cat”. Today the estimated audience for the parade is 28 million. “Macy’s marketing established the parade as a clever, homespun tradition to remind people to start buying Christmas gifts. Two factors came to cement its status as communal annual ritual for the nation” according to short article in Smithsonian Magazine tracing the parade’s singular history. Can you guess what they are?
Like many retailers, Macy’s is struggling to compete in an online world and the parade may no longer drive sales as in years past. “But creating a shared sense of national belonging—a piercing pride in being an American, in an era marked by tragic division—is a feat for the ages. “
Events can drive a brand and revenue. Maybe you learn from the history of the Macy’s Day Parade?
