Thanksgiving  has long been my favorite holiday, at least since I stopped getting enormous boxes of Legos.  Why?  It never fails to exceed my expectations, unlike Christmas or other holidays.   And because of the 4 F’s:  Family.  Food.  Football.  Four days off.  In that order too, unless Uncle Arnie consumes one too many vodka tonics.  Thank goodness for tryptophan.

I can trace back the roots of my love for Thanksgiving to my freshman year in college.  Away from home for the first time, studying so hard, deciding which parties to attend – tough work for an 18 year old.  Despite the pictures in the college brochure, apparently not every student receives a private tutor, unlimited sushi and a new computer.  To this day, I’m still trying to figure out where the photo of that cool professor teaching really attractive, smiling students was taken.  You know the one: outside on a blanket with flowers in full bloom.  

Thanksgiving offers less stress and more relaxation than other holidays.  No shopping for gifts.  No complaints about gifts.  No tangled lights.  It’s great because it gives you time to reflect on what truly is important in life:  High yield rates, viral direct marketing campaigns, and increased ROI.  And, who doesn’t want that, particularly today? 

The first few times we hosted dinner, it seemed everyone went away fat and happy.  I’ve noticed a trend, however, especially the last three years.  It seems that even a holiday like Thanksgiving has changed – there are much higher expectations now.  Uncles, aunts, alumni relations and enrollment personnel all need more.  More turkey, thicker mashed potatoes and even higher ROI.  And it turns out the data on turkeys has changed too.  It appears that age is a determining factor in taste.  Old, larger males are preferable to young toms as tom meat is stringy and immature (always great to hear as I head into my mid 40s).  The opposite is true for females: old hens are tougher birds.  I offer my mother-in-law as proof.

I’ve noticed some guests have stopped bringing a side dish or drinks – we now supply the turkey, mashed potatoes, broccoli casserole and the wine, too.  It appears that they still expect a meal – actually a better meal – but they can’t often bring what they brought in years past.  They just don’t have the budgets anymore.      

The numbers around Thanksgiving have changed, too.  A third NFL game.  Thousands of turkey recipes via Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.  Black Friday sales now start on Thursday.  In 1970, 105 million birds were raised with an average weight of 17 lbs.  By contrast, in 2011, more than 248 million turkeys were expected to be raised, with an average weight per bird of 28 lbs.  And, the margins for turkeys today are actually lower than in 1970.  Alas, I guess even a great holiday like Thanksgiving has to change with the times.  Bigger turkeys.  More work.  More stress.  Less margins.  Sound familiar?

Despite the changes, we decided we still wanted to make sure everyone had a great time (including us!) Thankfully we have custom designed apps to help us plan every detail of our turkey dinner campaign.  And our creative team of children and parents gets together in advance to map things out.  As it turns out, if we know who’s coming to the party or who we’d like to come to our party, we can plan better.  Working smarter actually saves money.  Go figure.  We work with our guests to discover how to help them get the results they’re after: more joy with less alcohol.  It all comes down to technology, data analytics and predictive modeling.  For example, if we know that the 67 year old, father of four, living in a $315,000 house has a certain affinity for a certain vodka, we can prepare in advance and deliver relative vodka content to him.  It seems to work.  His response rate has increased – he actually makes it through dessert before falling asleep in front of that third NFL game.  And, since he had such a pleasant experience, cross-selling him on leaving with Aunt Valerie is much easier.

In today’s environment, we’ve all had to adapt.  We all have to work smarter and even more collaboratively to achieve better results.  We have to use creativity and technology to provide greater choices for our guests: pumpkin pie and apple pie and pecan pie, not just one or the other. 

In these trying times, we should be thankful for great guests who like to spend time with us. 

Thanksgiving’s all about family.  And a bigger turkey.

Happy Thanksgiving from your SourceLink family.