Santa doesn’t do last-minute briefs. And neither should you.
Faced with budget constraints and increasing pressure to deliver ROI, more and more marketers are starting their holiday preparations early. In fact, in 2024, 25% of marketers started planning in Q1 or earlier.
Still think May is too early? Think again.
The holiday season is one of the most competitive, high-stakes periods for marketers. And the brands that win aren’t the ones scrambling in November—they’re strategizing now.
So buckle up, Scrooges. We’re here to show you why kicking off your holiday planning today will give you a competitive edge, and how to make 2025 your boldest, brightest holiday season yet. Because while Santa might be on vacation, smart marketers are already working their magic.
First things first: the holidays aren’t just for B2C
It’s safe to say that B2C has traditionally had a monopoly on the Christmas season. And with the typical retail chaos that ensues every holiday season, it’s easy to see why.
But news flash: Christmas isn’t just for B2C. In fact, studies from LinkedIn show that B2B ad engagement increases by around 18% in December. Meaning businesses are just as open to those warm, fuzzy, Christmassy feels.
As your customers wrap up Q4 and start to prepare for the new year, it’s the perfect time for them to take stock of their current technologies, service partners and solutions. Do they align with their goals and priorities for the new year? Are there gaps that need filling?
It’s prime time for B2B marketers to swoop in and capitalize on the new business opportunities that come with a fresh start. But you’ve got to be in it to win it—and a slap-dash, last-minute holiday campaign simply isn’t going to cut it. That’s where we can help.
It’s not Christmas magic. It’s data-driven strategy.
So how do you build and deliver a standout, memorable holiday campaign? It’s not luck. It’s not even Christmas magic. It’s all down to early planning, data-driven strategy, and bold creative thinking.
Santa’s workshop doesn’t wait until November to start building toys. So why wait for the frost to set in before you start thinking about your holiday campaign?
- Get a head start
When it comes to Christmas, the early bird gets the worm. While most businesses wait for the end of summer to start thinking about their holiday campaign, yours could already be well underway, giving you more time to analyze past performance, dig into customer insights, explore predicted trends and consumer behaviors, and plan accordingly. Meaning no rushed decisions, and more strategic, data-driven thinking.
- Dig into the data
Unlike B2C, in B2B you can’t count on last-minute, panicked gift shopping to boost your sales figures for the end of Q4. B2B buying behaviors are different. They’re more complex, require a much larger decision-making unit, and often involve a significantly larger investment. Which means if you want to drive results from your holiday campaign, every decision needs to be founded on data.
Planning now gives you more time to dig into customer insights, intent data, trending topics, challenges, opportunities and predictions—so you can ensure your campaign is not only relevant but perfectly aligned with your audience’s needs and pain points.
- Amplify creativity
Creativity isn’t made to thrive under strict, rushed timelines. Starting early gives your teams breathing room to brainstorm, concept, test and optimize—whether it’s messaging, visuals or platform concepts. So, by the time Christmas rolls around, you have a campaign that’s totally different to anything else in the market. Something that isn’t just reactive, but turns the heads of the people that count.
- Work smarter, not harder
The holidays are an extremely high-pressure time for all your teams. With Q4 targets to hit, preparations for the new year, employees on annual leave and logistical challenges popping up left, right and center, the last thing you need is the added stress of a last-minute holiday campaign to get out the door. Early planning is all about working smarter, not harder.
By getting the ball rolling sooner, you can allocate budget across channels and teams more effectively, coordinate with external vendors ahead of time, build realistic production timelines (with buffer room) and plan workflows in advance for a smoother, more seamless launch.
While there’s obviously no one-size-fits-all recipe for holiday campaign success, the most successful examples across B2B typically have one thing in common. And that’s proactive planning. Not sure where to start? Talk to our team.
Holiday magic in action: Stibo Systems’ Data-Driven Christmas
We hear you. It’s one thing telling you WHY you should start planning your holiday campaign early, but what about the outcome? What difference does it actually make when you finally hit that big red launch button?
The result is something creatively eye-catching, emotionally resonant, and experientially unforgettable. Just take this example from our client, Stibo Systems, which has just been shortlisted for the The Drum Awards for Digital Experience.
With early insights, months of creative development and experimentation, a data-driven strategy and emotive storytelling, we helped Stibo Systems build a digital, interactive storybook experience inspired by Disney. Targeting Chief Data Officers across retail, it tells the story of how Santa’s Chief Data Elf saved Christmas with Stibo Systems’ unified Customer Experience Data Cloud—helping them make sense of data chaos to always get the right toy to the right child.
“We wanted to create a relatable and engaging story to explain what our solution can do. And what better way to do that than attach it to an emotional season like the holidays? With the positive feedback and engagement we received on socials, it’s clear we accomplished our goal!” – Gustavo Amorim, CMO at Stibo Systems
Want to see how we did it? Check out the full story here.
‘Tis the season to start planning
With the sun shining and the summer holidays calling, the festive season feels pretty far away right now. But we all know how quickly it creeps up on you—and preparation is the key to success.
If you’re feeling inspired to kickstart your holiday campaign sooner rather than later, our team can help. Whether you’re after showstopping creative, data-obsessed strategy, unforgettable events and experiences or multi-channel media magic—we’re here to help you plan, execute and deliver for maximum impact. Because there really is no time like the present (pun intended)!
