Men Plan Aggressive Holiday Spend Despite Economic Meltdown, According to Survey on Break.com

Mass layoffs, the stock market collapse and fears of a long recession haven’t put a dent in men’s shopping plans for the holiday season, according to a new survey released today from Break Media, the Internet’s premier entertainment community for men. The independent survey of Break.com users aged 18-34 finds that men will spend aggressively, skip bargains, and flock to stores for video games, computers and clothing in the next month.

“Young men appear to be more afraid of offending their parents, girlfriends, or spouses than of going into even more debt,” said Keith Richman, CEO of Break Media. “Their love affair with the latest smart phone, video games and other gadgets will continue to drive their spend this holiday season.”

What Economic Trouble? Men Want What they Want – and they Want it Now!

• Nearly 40% of men will be buying themselves a gift this holiday season...guys know themselves best!
• More than 70% indicate they will spend the same or more this holiday season.
• Surprisingly, nearly 90% of men say that it will NOT be difficult for them to foot the bill for their holiday shopping this season. A mere 11.5% say they will not be purchasing gifts this year.
• Nearly 70% of men don’t have a budget for shopping this holiday season; almost 40% say they plan to spend $250 or more, with half of those men planning on spending $500 or more.
• More than 60% are not bargain hunters and will pay full price for holiday gifts, rather than waiting for items to go on sale.

What’s Hot, What’s Not

• What do men aged 18-34 want most this holiday season? Video games come in first at 16.3% with clothing/apparel and computers tying for second at 11.9%. Other top gifts men say they can’t live without this holiday include MP3 players, sporting equipment, gaming consoles and new mobile phones.
• Not surprisingly, home furnishings and grooming gifts came in dead last on men’s holiday wish list.
• Over 1/3 of men surveyed think the Apple iPhone is the coolest phone in stores this holiday season, with the Blackberry second in-line at about 20%.
• According to men aged 18-34, the top three “cool” TVs in stores this holiday season include:
  • Sony Bravia 52” 1080p LCD (31%)
  • Sharp Aquos 52” 1080p (21.6%)
  • LG LG70 Series 52” 1080p (18.1%)

Online Shopping Growing, But Men Still Opt to Shop In-Store

• Most men surveyed plan on hitting the pavement this holiday season with over 70% opting to shop in stores versus on the Internet.
• Deloitte's annual holiday survey found that 21% of consumers plan to shop primarily or entirely online this season, up from 19% last year. Comparatively, for Break’s demographic of males aged 18-34, this figure was even higher at 28%.

Credit Crunch

• Only 25% of men surveyed plan on using credit cards to pay for their holiday gifts this season with the majority relying on cash or debit.

Who Loves You Baby?

• A whopping 88% of respondents plan on buying gifts for their parents this holiday season; siblings are the next in line at 65.9%; girlfriends and friends both come in at about 40%.

Black Friday and Beyond...

• Almost half of men aged 18-34 indicate they like to get their shopping done right after Thanksgiving and in early December. A surprising 20% of men make up the last minute shopping set...better late than never!

The poll results contained in this release are non-scientific and are based on questions posted on Break.com during October 2008. Break.com receives over 18,000,000 unique visitors monthly and is one of the largest online video properties for men aged 18-34.

About Break Media

Break Media is the Internet’s premier entertainment community for men. Its wholly owned branded properties (Break.com, Cage Potato, Chickipedia, Holy Taco, Wall Street Fighter and Screen Junkies) and the over 90 site Break Media Network reach 60 million men worldwide each month. Founded in 1998, Break Media offers advertisers’ unrivaled opportunities to market directly to a young, male demographic using innovative ad formats that introduce relevant brands to the audience either broadly or on a targeted, integrated basis. For more information, please visit http://breakmedia.break.com/.