What’s your best advice for brands planning their holiday creator strategy right now?

The brands that win the holiday season start early and think relationally: which creators have genuinely used this product, which audiences are already predisposed to buy, and which platforms are actually driving purchase behavior right now. The holiday window is brutally compressed. Once November hits, you’re not building awareness — you should be converting. That means your partnerships need to be locked, the briefs need to be tight, and the content needs to be ready to amplify through paid social the moment it performs organically. The brands that figure this out don’t just have a good holiday season. This is the blueprint to use all year long.”

Mark Shaeffer, Author and Executive Director, Schaefer Marketing Solutions

My best advice: Become the brand people actually want to give or receive as a gift. That starts with the emotion you want people to feel about your product this season. Get clear on that first, then find creators who already convey that same feeling in their own content. From there, the foundation that holds in any season still applies: They need to genuinely hold sway with your target audience and fit your brand culturally. And one holiday-specific filter I lean on heavily: Look at what a creator has actually done in past holiday campaigns. It’s the noisiest content window of the year, and you want a partner who’s already proven that they can break through it. Since you asked what to do right now: Start now. In my experience, the best creators get booked early, and authentic holiday content needs real runway. The brands quietly planning this in summer are the ones that look effortless come December.

Neal Schaffer, Author and Digital Consultant

Great marketing and communications do not exist without each other. One builds awareness and drives action; the other builds trust and protects credibility, and your holiday strategy needs both working in the same direction. That alignment has to be intentional, which starts with clarity on what you are already building and an audit of what you already have. The strongest holiday strategies are not built from scratch: They extend the campaigns and narratives you have already invested in and connect them back to your organization’s core mission. Intentional alignment is what separates seasonal marketing and communications that actually perform from content that just fills a calendar. The other piece is audience intelligence. Generational context matters more than most brands want to admit. Millennial audiences respond to nostalgia and emotional resonance. Generation Z wants relevance, not a rerun. So, the real strategic question is whether your holiday activation is a genuine creative moment or just your year-round approach with a bow on it. The brands that break through are the ones willing to ask what has not been done yet in their category and go there first.

Brenda Gonzalez, Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce