The 2026 Holiday Marketing Landscape Signals a Strategic Pivot Toward Connected TV and Linear Broadcast Advertising

The marketing landscape for the 2026 holiday season is undergoing a profound transformation as retailers and brands pivot away from the influencer-led and experiential tactics that dominated the mid-2020s. According to a comprehensive survey conducted by Glossy, corporate investment strategies are shifting toward high-reach, top-of-funnel media channels, specifically Connected TV (CTV) and linear television, marking a significant departure from the localized, content-heavy campaigns of the previous year. This strategic realignment reflects an industry-wide reassessment of how to capture consumer attention in an increasingly fragmented digital marketplace where the line between content discovery and transactional intent is becoming blurred by artificial intelligence.

The Rise of the Screen: A Shift in Media Spending

The most striking development in the 2026 outlook is the resurgence of television as a primary vehicle for holiday commerce. Data from the survey reveals that 45% of respondents plan to leverage CTV and streaming platforms for their holiday campaigns, a significant increase from the 23% who utilized these channels in 2025. This 22-percentage-point surge is particularly notable because it reverses a downward trend observed between 2024 and 2025, during which CTV usage saw a 14-percentage-point decline.

Simultaneously, linear TV is experiencing a revival that few industry analysts projected just two years ago. After a period of relative stagnation, where usage dropped by only 4 percentage points between 2024 and 2025, the channel is set to grow by 20 percentage points this year. Currently, 33% of brands and retailers have committed to traditional TV ads for the upcoming holiday rush, compared to only 13% in 2025. This resurgence suggests that brands are seeking the stability and mass-market reach that traditional broadcast environments provide, even as the digital ecosystem grows more complex.

Chronology of Changing Tactics

To understand this shift, one must look at the recent history of holiday marketing. In 2024, the industry was heavily focused on building brand equity through immersive experiences and social media content. By 2025, this focus solidified into the "era of the influencer," where hauls, unboxing videos, and curated gift guides became the gold standard for conversion. However, the 2026 data indicates a cooling period for these specific tactics.

The reliance on brand experiences, which was the most-used tactic in 2025, has dipped by 9 percentage points as brands look to optimize budgets. More drastically, gift guides—a perennial holiday staple—have seen their usage fall by 19 percentage points, while influencer-led unboxing content has dropped by 14 percentage points. This transition is not necessarily a rejection of these formats, but rather a reflection of the diminishing returns associated with the saturation of social media feeds. Marketers are moving toward channels that offer higher predictability and clearer measurement of return on investment (ROI).

Strategic Insights: The "Whole Year" Philosophy

The shift toward streaming and television is not a decision made in isolation. Industry leaders argue that the holiday season should be viewed as a culmination of a year-long strategy rather than an isolated burst of activity. Laura Brodie, Chief Growth Officer at the supplement company Ritual, notes that relying on streaming solely for the holidays is a high-risk endeavor for brands without an established presence in those channels.

"Streaming is a really valid channel to invest in during the holidays because consumption of that media spikes," Brodie said. "But participating in streaming is actually a decision for the whole year. Starting to engage just for the holiday would be a risky move, especially for a smaller brand."

Brodie emphasizes that for streaming to yield the desired results, it must be supported by historical data that justifies the expense. When brands have clear visibility into their year-round ROI, the holiday season serves as a force multiplier, allowing them to scale their efforts during the peak window when consumer purchase intent is at its highest.

Targeting Demographic Segments

The efficacy of television and streaming, particularly for specific consumer segments, remains a key driver for the 2026 budget allocations. Ari Bloom, founder and CEO of A-Frame Brands, points out that these channels remain the most reliable mechanisms for reaching specific high-value demographics, such as women over the age of 30.

"Streaming and television is an effective audience conversion mechanism," Bloom noted. "We’ve done a lot of work on daytime TV and on QVC. We see significantly bigger segments in the holiday time period from November through mid-December, and we always put attention on those times."

By focusing on these specific times, brands can align their advertising with the natural shopping cadence of their core audience. This focus on "conversion-first" media is further underscored by a potential return to traditional marketing tools like physical catalogs. Bloom suggests that despite the digital-first nature of modern retail, the physical catalog remains a potent driver for in-store traffic, particularly when paired with exclusive, paper-only discount offers that create a sense of urgency.

The Resilience of Legacy Tactics in the Age of AI

Despite the decline in the intended use of gift guides for the 2026 season, they remain a top-performing tactic when viewed through a historical lens. Thirty-one percent of marketers identify gift guides as their most successful holiday strategy over time, followed closely by brand experiences at 28%.

The apparent contradiction between the decrease in usage and the high historical performance is explained by the evolving nature of digital search. As artificial intelligence and Large Language Models (LLMs) begin to dominate the search experience, the role of the gift guide is being redefined. Rather than acting as simple landing pages, gift guides are increasingly serving as the foundational data for AI-driven search results.

"Gift guides are very interesting in the world of AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) and thinking about LLM optimization," said Brodie. "Overall, best-of lists and gift guides are a close sister to AI search results. Gift guides can play an important role in holiday and especially bridging LLM research and AI overviews. So, I’m bullish about gift guides."

In this context, the decline in the "use" of gift guides might reflect a change in how they are formatted and promoted—shifting from manual social media promotion toward structured data that is more easily ingested by AI algorithms.

Broader Implications for the Retail Sector

The 2026 holiday season represents a pivotal moment for retail marketing. The industry is moving away from the "all-in" social media approach that characterized the post-pandemic recovery and toward a more balanced, omnichannel strategy. While CTV and streaming are seeing massive gains in budget allocation, they are currently tied for the No. 4 spot in terms of historical performance, suggesting that the industry is still in a discovery phase regarding the true conversion potential of these platforms.

Conversely, pop-up shops continue to rank as the No. 3 most effective strategy, reinforcing the value of physical, tangible brand interactions. The only outlier in this analysis is the "influencer haul and unboxing" category, which has seen a decline in both planned usage and historical performance, signaling a potential long-term fatigue among consumers regarding this specific type of content.

Conclusion: A Measured Approach to Holiday Spending

As brands prepare for the final quarter of 2026, the data suggests a move toward professionalization and channel diversification. The retreat from social-media-heavy strategies is not a sign of retreat from digital, but rather a more calculated movement toward channels that offer better data transparency and audience targeting.

The primary takeaway for retail executives is clear: the 2026 holiday season will reward those who can effectively bridge the gap between legacy media—like TV and catalogs—and modern AI-driven search environments. By leveraging television for brand awareness and optimizing gift guides for the AI era, brands can create a cohesive strategy that addresses both the high-level reach required to capture holiday shoppers and the precise targeting needed to convert them. As the industry moves into the final months of the year, the focus will remain on balancing the scale of streaming media with the enduring effectiveness of proven, conversion-focused tactics.