Beyond Discounts: Using Social Listening to Navigate the Value Shift From Thanksgiving to Black Friday
Black Friday isn’t driven by discounts, it’s driven by real-time emotional and cultural signals that multimodal social listening can finally decode.
For most retailers, Thanksgiving is the emotional warm-up before the most competitive 48 hours in commerce. While brands obsess over discount percentages and campaign timing, the real battlefield is on TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts - where consumers reveal what value actually means to them.
This year, the shift from gratitude-driven kontent to urgency-driven deal-hunting is faster and sharper than ever. Brands need multimodal social listening to capture real-time changes in visuals, emotions, behaviors, and cultural signals.
1. The Emotional Swing: From Warmth to Urgency
Thanksgiving content centers on family, comfort, and tradition. But within hours, audiences shift into:
"Is this deal real?"
"Is it worth buying?"
"What's the best value this year?"
This is a cultural shift, not just a retail one.
Multimodal Al detects how colors, pacing, tone, captions, and sound trends switch from
emotional warmth to urgency and rational decision-making.
2. Spotting Early Demand Signals Across TikTok & Shorts
Creators begin broadcasting Black Friday interest days before the event:
Pre-haul videos
"What I'm eyeing this year"
Early unboxing teasers
Price-tracking walkthrough
These early signals reveal:
Rising categories
Momentum-shifting brands
Which products audiences perceive as "worth it"
Brands using Tars Tech can see demand before it peaks.
3. Understanding How Consumers Define "Value" in 2025
Value is no longer synonymous with "the biggest discount."
Audiences signal priorities like:
Durability
Authenticity
"Real-life" creator reviews
Sustainability
Functionality over hype
Multimodal Al analyzes emotional tone, visual focus, keyword clusters, and audience reactions to reveal the true drivers of perceived value.
4. Connecting Emotion to Conversion
The most valuable social signals are not always explicit.
A Thanksgiving cooking video might trigger interest in kitchen gear. A family décor video might spark a desire for storage or turniture.
With multimodal social listening, brands detect the link between:
Emotion → Attention → Purchase Intent
This is how retailers get ahead of demand instead of reacting to it.
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