Winter Is Coming: Why Marketers Can’t Afford to Wait on Holiday Campaigns

The holiday season creeps earlier every year. Stores like HomeGoods and Costco already have their Christmas items out as early as August. Influencers have also begun sharing holiday decorations and gifts. 

According to Bazaarvoice, 23 percent of consumers begin their holiday shopping as early as August, 37 percent by September and more than half at 55 percent by October. That means marketers have no time to waste on holiday marketing plans.

It’s not just holiday shopping that’s started early. All shopping trends have started earlier year over year, with the Halloween buying season creeping into June this year and one-third of U.S. adults doing back-to-school shopping in early July.

Many consumers plan to purchase whenever they find something they like versus waiting until November or December. As many as 19 percent plan to spread out their purchases rather than concentrate all their shopping on promotional periods such as Black Friday. Marketers can’t wait because shoppers are already looking for deals and gifts.

Now, not all consumers like the earlier holiday shopping and marketing coming from businesses in the U.S. Even as holiday shopping before Halloween goes mainstream, most consumers (62%) think October (or earlier) is too early to showcase holiday items and sales.

That doesn’t mean those consumers aren’t looking for deals, though. For example, in 2023, Target kicked off the holiday season with the October 1 launch of its Target Circle Week sale to give it a head start. Amazon also jumped on that bandwagon by kicking off its Prime Big Deal Days event on October 10.

One piece of your marketing strategy that should start now, if not already in the works, is finalizing your influencer marketing campaigns for the rest of 2024 and into 2025. Q4 tends to be the busiest time for influencers, so getting on their calendar is something you should start ASAP. Plus, some influencers charge more during the holiday season since they’re much busier — becoming more selective about partnerships. 

The average lead time for one of our influencer campaigns is six weeks, from kickoff/briefing to the influencer’s actual publish date.

Including influencers in your holiday campaigns is a no-brainer. Not only do influencers bring a creative strategy that you might not even know of, but they are also trusted by consumers. In fact, 51 percent of respondents in our “Trust in Influencer Marketing 2024” report have made a purchase after seeing a product used by an influencer.

If you’re looking for help with influencer marketing campaigns this year and next, reach out to our team.