Perspectives
Executive summary: The holiday season is crowded with promotions and competing messages, but brands that focus only on driving sales risk missing opportunities to build lasting preference. This article explores eight principles across SEE, FEEL, THINK, and DO to help brands stand out through distinctive brand assets, emotional connections, credible points of difference, and meaningful experiences. Because while promotions can prompt a purchase, a strong brand strategy can build relationships that last beyond the season. Brand positioning in 2027: Staying relevant without losing your identity.
Why holiday brand strategy needs to go beyond promotions
Every year, the same thing happens. From the day after Halloween, inboxes fill up, social feeds become a blur of sale banners, and every brand seems to have a doorbuster. Consumers aren't short on options. They're short on attention and trust — and have plenty of reasons to tune out the noise.
Many holiday marketing plans focus heavily on the final step: driving a purchase through promotions, urgency, and countdown timers. But people don't go straight to "buy." They experience brands more holistically — what they see, what they feel, what they think and what they do. Brands that focus only on the final transaction risk missing opportunities to build recognition, emotional connection and preference along the way.
Our point of view: the holiday season doesn't reward the brand with the biggest discount or the biggest media budget. It rewards the brand that is most memorable, most emotionally connected, and easiest to choose. Promotions get you a transaction. A holistic brand strategy gets you a relationship — and that relationship is what breaks through the clutter and carries you into the next year.
The goal isn’t simply to be noticed during the holidays. It’s to give people a reason to remember and choose your brand long after the season ends.
Senior Vice President, Hall & Partners
Eight principles for a stronger holiday brand strategy
So, how can brands turn this thinking into action? These eight principles explore how to build recognition, create meaningful connections, give people reasons to choose you and make your brand easier to return to — throughout the holiday season and beyond.
SEE: Be Memorable
People notice and remember what is distinctive.
Distinctive brand assets help people recognize a brand and bring it to mind in buying situations — a concept known as mental availability.
1. Be consistent enough to be recognized
Novelty is overrated in a cluttered season. Familiarity is how a brand builds memory.
Coca-Cola has used Santa Claus imagery in its advertising since the 1930s, and its Holidays Are Coming truck campaign, first aired in the 1990s, has become a familiar seasonal cue. Rather than reinventing its identity each year, the brand draws on recognizable assets — from its signature red to the illuminated trucks and familiar soundtrack — while refreshing the execution. These recurring cues help connect the brand with the arrival of the holiday season.
L.L.Bean offers another example of how brands can build recognition through consistent visual cues, bridging the season with the rest of the year. Its outdoor heritage, signature flannel and cozy New England settings provide a distinctive visual language that can carry through seasonal marketing while remaining true to the brand.
The lesson: Identify the assets people already associate with your brand and use them consistently across seasonal campaigns. Fresh executions can capture attention, but recognizable cues help build memory over time.
2. Zig when everyone else zags
When brands follow the same seasonal playbook, a distinctive point of view can help one stand apart.
Aldi UK introduced Kevin the Carrot in its 2016 Christmas advertising, and the character has since become a recurring part of its seasonal campaigns. His lighthearted, often absurd adventures give Aldi a recognizable personality and a distinctive way to participate in the Christmas conversation without relying solely on sentimental storytelling.
The lesson: Understand the conventions of your category during the holiday season, then choose a distinctive tone or approach your brand can credibly own. Being different gets attention; being distinctively you makes that attention more valuable.
FEEL: Connect Emotionally
Emotional relevance, trust and social influence all shape how people experience brands and make choices.
The holiday season gives brands opportunities to connect through shared rituals, nostalgia, generosity, and anticipation. But seasonal emotion only matters when it feels relevant and credible to the people a brand wants to reach. The goal isn't simply to make people feel something in the moment; it's to create a connection that gives them a reason to remember and choose the brand.
3. Tell one emotional story, and make it an event
Much holiday advertising relies on familiar cues: snow, smiling families and soft piano music. But emotional connection comes from more than seasonal imagery. It starts with a human insight and a story that gives people a reason to care.
John Lewis in the UK has turned its Christmas ad into a much-anticipated cultural moment. People anticipate its release, discuss the stories and sometimes parody them. Rather than leading with products, its campaigns often explore themes such as loneliness, anticipation and the pleasure of giving — emotions that connect with the role a department store can play in the holiday season.
McDonald's took a different approach in 2021 with its Mariah Menu, built around Mariah Carey's place in Christmas pop culture. The 12-day promotion gave fans a reason to engage with the brand throughout the countdown to Christmas, connecting a familiar seasonal ritual with a recognizable cultural figure.
The lesson: Start with a real human insight and build a clear emotional thread around it. A focused, well-executed story is more likely to resonate than a collection of disconnected seasonal messages.
4. Make your customer the star
People are often more interested in content that reflects something about themselves than in messages that simply tell them why a brand is great.
Spotify Wrapped takes data the brand already has and turns it into a personal, visual story people are proud to share. Released in early December, it arrives as people reflect on the year and share their highlights. It works because it's about the listener, not the platform. Spotify doesn't have to rely solely on paid attention at the busiest time of year: its customers help distribute the message, and every share can reinforce trust in the brand.
The lesson: Use what you know about your customers to create something that feels personal and worth sharing. The strongest brand experiences don't simply ask people to spread a message; they give people a reason to make that message their own.
Emotional connection is built when a brand understands what matters to people and finds a meaningful way to show up in their lives.
Insights Director, Hall & Partners
THINK: Demonstrate Superiority
Emotional connection matters, but people also look for reasons to justify and feel confident in their choices.
People weigh both emotional and rational cues when choosing a brand. They want to feel good about their decisions and understand why one option is right for them. Brands need to make their advantages clear, credible, and easy to articulate. During the holiday season, price can be a powerful incentive, but it rarely tells the whole story of why a brand is worth choosing.
5. Take a stand, not just a sale
When competitors are competing on discounts, a clear point of view can give people another reason to choose you.
On Black Friday in 2011, Patagonia ran a full-page ad in The New York Times with the headline “Don't Buy This Jacket,” urging people to consume less. It was the opposite of what many brands were doing, yet it was true to who Patagonia was. The ad gave customers something a coupon couldn't: a reason to choose a brand whose values were reflected in its message. The stand worked because it was credible and came with a real tension between encouraging consumption and asking people to buy less.
The strength of the example lies in the alignment between the message and the brand. A provocative headline alone isn't enough; a point of view is more credible when it reflects what a brand consistently stands for.
The lesson: Give people a clear reason to choose you beyond price. Your holiday message should reflect an advantage or belief your brand can credibly own. If a competitor could use the same message simply by swapping in its logo, it may not be distinctive enough.
6. Celebrate the moments that matter to your audience
The period between Halloween and the new year includes many different occasions, from Diwali and Thanksgiving to Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa and Singles' Day. But relevance isn't about showing up for every celebration. It's about understanding which moments matter to your audience and knowing when your brand has a meaningful role to play.
Alibaba helped turn November 11, originally associated with celebrating single people, into a major annual shopping event. Rather than competing only within the traditional holiday shopping calendar, it built a distinctive retail moment around its own strengths. Brands like Hallmark have broadened their card and gift lines to reflect the range of celebrations their customers observe.
Both examples point to the value of understanding when people are looking to connect, celebrate or give — and how a brand can help them do that.
The lesson: Understand which occasions matter to your audience, why they matter, and how your brand can participate authentically. The opportunity isn't to be everywhere; it's to be relevant where it counts.
DO: Make It Easy
People form habits that are hard to break.
Motivation isn't the problem in December. Everyone is motivated. The opportunity for brands is to go beyond motivation and identify the cues and rituals that make choosing them feel natural — and, over time, become a default.
7. Build a ritual, not a campaign
Campaigns end. Rituals become part of the calendar.
In 2015, REI closed its stores on Black Friday, paid employees to take the day off, and invited people to spend the day outdoors through its #OptOutside initiative. Returning to the idea year after year, REI made it more than a one-off statement about Black Friday. It created a recurring invitation that customers and employees could recognize and participate in — reinforcing the brand's connection to the outdoors.
Amazon's physical Holiday Kids Gift Book draws on the appeal of traditional holiday toy catalogs, giving children and families a tangible way to browse gifts and build wish lists. By combining a physical browsing experience with digital features, it brings a familiar seasonal activity together with the convenience of online shopping.
The lesson: Look for an experience your brand can credibly bring back each year — one that gives customers a reason to anticipate, participate in or repeat it. Then commit long enough for it to become theirs.
8. Pick your moment, then pace your story
The window between Halloween and the holidays is long, and most brands misspend it. Launch too early without a reason to return, and your message may lose momentum. Wait until Black Friday, and you risk entering the busiest promotional period alongside countless competitors.
Starbucks uses the return of its seasonal red cups as a recognizable cue that the holiday season has begun. Other seasonal moments, including Red Cup Day, give customers additional reasons to engage with the brand as the season unfolds. Rather than relying on one announcement to carry the entire campaign, brands can build anticipation through a sequence of recognizable moments.
The lesson: Don't treat the season as a long sprint. Decide where your story starts, where it peaks, and how it evolves, and build the cues that bring people back to you.
The strongest holiday strategies make people notice, make them feel, help them believe, and urge them to do something. That’s how a seasonal campaign can contribute to lasting brand strength.
Senior Vice President, Hall & Partners
The bottom line
Across these principles, the brands that break through do the same thing: they act like themselves, consistently and distinctively, while everyone else risks acting like everyone else. Patagonia didn't win by out-discounting competitors. Starbucks doesn't rely on a single announcement to carry the season. Both show how brands can become memorable, emotionally relevant, clearly differentiated and easier to choose.
The strongest holiday strategies don't just make noise. They give people a reason to notice, connect with and choose the brand — and to keep choosing it beyond the season.
Before you finalize your holiday plan, ask:
- SEE: What will people recognize as unmistakably ours? If our logo disappeared, would they still know it was us?
- FEEL: What human need or emotion are we connecting with? Are we creating something people genuinely value and want to share?
- THINK: Why should people choose us over the alternatives, and is that advantage clear and credible?
- DO: How will we make choosing us easier, and how will our story evolve throughout the season?
If your plan focuses heavily on driving the final transaction, step back and look at the bigger picture. Promotions can prompt a purchase, but recognition, emotional connection and a compelling reason to choose your brand can help make that choice last beyond the holidays.
Meet our authors
Kelly Mitchell, Senior Vice President, Hall & Partners
Mercedes Early, Insights Director, Hall & Partners
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Key Questions
Holiday brand strategy is how a brand uses the seasonal period to build recognition, emotional connection and preference, alongside driving sales. It brings together distinctive brand assets, relevant storytelling, credible reasons to choose the brand and experiences that encourage people to return beyond the holiday season.
Brands can stand out by being distinctive rather than simply increasing promotional activity. Consistent brand assets help people recognize them, emotionally relevant stories create connection, clear points of difference give people reasons to choose them, and memorable experiences encourage repeat engagement.
Promotions can encourage immediate purchases, but they work best as part of a broader brand strategy. Brands should ensure that seasonal offers reinforce their positioning, communicate a credible reason to choose them and create experiences that strengthen recognition and preference beyond the campaign.
Brands can assess holiday brand strategy through a combination of short- and long-term measures. These may include campaign awareness, brand recognition, emotional connection, consideration, purchase intent and sales, alongside longer-term indicators such as brand preference, repeat purchase and mental availability. The right measures depend on the campaign's objectives and the role it is intended to play in brand growth.
