4 holiday marketing strategies featuring creator partnerships

The holiday season is the most competitive time in marketing. Attention spikes, timelines compress, and consumer behavior becomes harder to predict. Yet one thing remains constant year after year: People trust people more than they trust brands.

That’s why creator partnerships have become the backbone of successful holiday campaigns. They make product stories seem more human, especially during peak moments when authenticity drives more influence than any discount code. Most importantly, they help brands meet audiences where they already are: scrolling, searching, shopping. 

As holiday campaigns become more sophisticated, the brands outperforming the rest are those that integrate creators into their strategy from the outset. To that end, here are 4 holiday marketing strategies defining this year’s peak season.

Understanding holiday audience mindsets

Holiday shopping is often psychological. People tend to make purchases faster, more emotionally, and with a heavier reliance on shortcuts. That shift is exactly why holiday influencer marketing has become indispensable.

• Creators offer a decision shortcut – When people face too many choices, they default to trusted heuristics to simplify decisions. In practice, creators are that heuristic: a familiar, low-friction path toward a confident purchase.
  
  
• Social proof overpowers generic ads – Individuals trust “people like me” more than traditional advertising, especially when decisions feel high-stakes or time-sensitive. During holiday surges, when ads become repetitive and transactional, creators cut through with contextual relevance.
  
  
• Creator storytelling aligns with emotion-driven decisions – Researchers have noted that festive periods heighten affective processing, as people tend to rely more on emotions than logic when making decisions. Creators tap into that emotional brain-space through rituals, traditions, routines, and storytelling that make products feel embedded in real life.
  
  
• Creators leverage the scarcity-reward mechanism – Time-bound deals activate the brain’s reward anticipation system, increasing responsiveness to cues that feel exclusive or scarce. Creators excel here because their content is immediate and embedded in real-time platform culture. 

4 holiday creator marketing strategies

Holiday campaigns work best when creators feel like part of the cultural moment.

1. Festive-themed creator content

Nostalgia, rituals, family habits, and seasonal aesthetics can all influence how audiences respond to content. This might look like:

• “Holiday morning routine” reels featuring beauty or wellness products
• TikTok “decorate with me” videos showcasing home goods
• YouTube blog episodes with products that naturally appear in daily moments

For example, every year, creators across TikTok and Instagram organically amplify Starbucks’ “Red Cup Season” content, generating millions of impressions without heavy brand intervention.

2. Creator-driven gift guides

Gift guides remain one of the highest-performing holiday formats across platforms because they reduce decision fatigue. And when a creator curates them, they offer a shortcut rooted in trust.

Effective formats include:

• “Best gifts under $25/$50/$100”
• “Gift ideas for people who are impossible to shop for”
• “My holiday must-buys”
• “If you liked X, you’ll love this” comparisons. 

3. Long-term creator partnerships

Holiday campaigns perform best when creators are not strangers to the audience. To that end, long-term collaborations let brands:

• Build pre-holiday momentum through soft mentions
• Layer multiple formats (reels, stories, TikToks, long-form reviews)
• Create an evergreen association between creator identity and brand
• Reduce skepticism (audiences know the creator actually uses the products)

4. Cross-platform creator campaigns

Holiday purchase journeys don’t follow a set path. Someone might discover a product on TikTok, compare it on YouTube, save it on Instagram, and finally buy it after using a Pinterest pin. 

Brands win when they meet that non-linear behavior with coordinated creator content.

How to plan and execute a holiday creator campaign

Holiday content needs more lead time than any other moment of the year. Creators are juggling multiple brand requests, platforms are tightening their ranking systems, and audiences are shifting into “research mode” weeks in advance. 

So, during August and September, you might want to: 

• Set objectives (awareness, conversions, gift sets, retail footfall).
• Build your creator list using data. 
• Lock cultural moments such as Diwali, Thanksgiving, Cyber 5, and final shipping dates.

In late September and early October, try:

• Finalizing contracts before creator calendars fill.
• Aligning creative direction, holiday storytelling, formats, and key SKUs.
• Mapping a content calendar with teasers, reveals, and peak urgency moments.

Finally, in November and December, focus on: 

• Activating creators in waves, from soft awareness to “last-minute gift urgency” content.
• Using real-time insights to pivot fast.
• Repurposing creator assets across paid, email, SMS, and retail displays.

Build a budget reflecting the season’s reality

When creator demand spikes during the holidays, CPMs also climb. In turn, smart teams divide budgets into three layers: 

• Guaranteed fees for top creators who anchor the campaign
• A performance pot for mid-campaign reinvestment
• A paid amplification pool for whitelisting top-performing posts  

Plan for optimization from day one

Holiday campaigns move too fast for “post-campaign reporting.” Instead, you need insights that inform decisions while the window is still open. Best practices include:

• Using UTMs and affiliate links
• Tracking early engagement velocity 
• Identifying content with strong conversion signals 
• Centralizing data so teams can adjust mid-flight

Turning holiday influence into real impact

The holiday season compresses everything: timelines, attention, expectations. In that rush, most brands try to push harder. But the smart ones focus on clarity.

If you want your brand to win this season, treat creator strategy as the backbone of your holiday planning. The best way to do that is by working with CreatorIQ, a creator management platform that powers the world’s most sophisticated creator programs.

• We centralize workflows so teams stop losing hours to scattered spreadsheets.
  
  
• We surface real-time insights so decisions can happen when the window is still open, not after the moment has passed.
  
  
• We help brands scale authentic creator ecosystems even during the most chaotic weeks of the year.

Ultimately, the holidays should set a new standard for how your brand presents itself. If you’re ready to turn seasonal attention into sustained impact, we’d love to show you how. Reach out today.

Sources: 

Shopify Blog. Seasonal Marketing Calendar 2025: Key Retail Dates and Campaign Tips. https://www.shopify.com/enterprise/blog/marketing-calendars-for-holidays 

ResearchGate. Can There Ever be Too Many Options? A Meta-analytic Review of Choice Overload. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/48210291_Can_There_Ever_be_Too_Many_Options_A_Meta-analytic_Review_of_Choice_Overload 

Edelman Trust Institute. 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer. https://www.edelman.com/sites/g/files/aatuss191/files/2024-02/2024%20Edelman%20Trust%20Barometer%20Global%20Report_FINAL.pdf 

Rhodes Wellness College. The Science Behind the Holiday Feel Good Effect Explained for Students in Life Skills Training. https://www.rhodescollege.ca/the-science-behind-the-holiday-feel-good-effect-explained-for-students-in-life-skills-training/ 

PubMed Central. Reward anticipation enhances brain activation during response inhibition. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24867712/ 

The Columbus Dispatch. Starbucks sets Red Cup Day for 2025. See what's on the menu, holiday designs. https://www.dispatch.com/story/lifestyle/food/2025/11/06/starbucks-red-cup-day-2025-bearista-holiday-menu-ohio-us/87122964007/