Mum appeal to boost sales; retailers set for their best trade period apart from Christmas.(News)

The Brits may claim all the glitz and the headlines, but when it comes to boosting album sales only the Christmas market can put Mother's Day in the shade.

Come this weekend and retailers will be expecting another significant lift to their turnover as a plethora of appropriate artist albums and suitably-themed compilations makes music an obvious gift option.

In the equivalent week last year, Asda saw an 80% week-on-week jump in album sales--a rise on the 60% increase seen in 2003--and the supermarket expects another upsurge this year. The CDs widely tipped to benefit from the Mother's Day effect are a mixture of themed compilations as well as artist albums by the likes of Michael Buble, Il Divo, Robbie Williams, Jennifer Lopez and Lionel Richie.

"Apart from Christmas, it's the biggest event of the year for us," says Asda music buyer Adam Cox. "There are a number of albums already in the market that are perfect for Mother's Day--Michael Buble and Il Divo for example--and we'll be pushing these heavily both in the CD section and in the special Mother's Day shops we're setting up at the front of the store." Cox says Asda increased its market share by two percentage points at the time of the last Mother's Day.

The traditional high street sector is also looking to capitalise on the event this year.

While Christmas used to be the only event for which HMV would devise themed campaigns, its creative department has this year developed a co-ordinated strategy involving Nipper the dog artwork, which is being used in a generic in-store campaign and in press advertising. The albums it promotes in store will be dictated largely by record company support for particular releases.

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