Digiday+ Research: A look at brands’ 2024 holiday marketing plans

Digiday published detailed reports about how marketers including brands, retailers and agencies are planning for the holiday season this year (you can read those here and here). Below we put together a brief breakdown of how holiday sales and marketing will look specifically for brands and retailers in 2024.

Digiday’s survey found that brands and retailers expect their holiday revenue to rise this year, with two-thirds of respondents (66%) saying they think their holiday revenue will be up in 2024 compared to 2023. That’s up slightly from 62% of brands and retailers who expected their holiday revenue to rise last year, and from the 60% who said the same the year before. The percentage increases aren’t huge, but it does show brands’ and retailers’ optimism concerning holiday revenue has been trending upward slightly since 2022.

Digging a bit deeper into the data, the largest percentage of brand and retailer pros expect their holiday revenue to be up a fairly significant 11% to 30% this year. More than a third (36%) told Digiday this year that they expect their holiday revenue to rise between 11% and 30%, while 21% said this year they expect holiday revenue to be up between 1% and 10% over last year, and 9% expect the rise to exceed 30%.

This represents a reversal from last year, when nearly a third of brands and retailers (31%) said they expected their holiday revenue to rise between 1% and 10%, while less than a quarter (21%) said they expected the increase to be between 11% and 30%.

So, what are the sales channels that brands and retailers expect will drive this year’s increase in holiday revenue? We ranked the sales channels brands and retailers plan to use as part of their 2024 holiday strategies this year, and found that owned e-commerce sites, social commerce and retailers other than Amazon will be the top three sales channels this holiday season.

Specifically, 83% of brand and retailer pros told Digiday that their companies plan to use their own e-commerce sites as a sales channel during the holidays this year, while 68% said they plan to sell via social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, and 55% said they’ll sell through retailers other than Amazon like Target and Nordstrom.

Surprisingly, less than half of brand and retailer respondents to Digiday’s survey (43%) said selling through Amazon will be part of their companies’ 2024 holiday strategies. And just over a third (38%) said their own physical retail including stores and pop-up shops will drive their holiday sales this year.

When it comes to the shoppers that brands and retailers will be trying to draw into those sales channels this year, for the first time since Digiday started its annual holiday survey, more brands and retailers said they’ll be targeting new customers than said they would focus on existing customers.

Fifty-five percent of brand and retailer pros told Digiday this year that new customers will be the primary audience for their holiday advertising, while 45% said the same of existing customers. Historically, the responses to this question have been split exactly 50/50.

So, while 55% vs. 45% isn’t a huge difference, it is worth noting that it indicates that brands and retailers are optimistic about bringing in new customers this year, especially when we consider the expected rise in holiday revenue.

To find out exactly what marketing tactics brands and retailers will be using to attract those new customers and entice existing customers to buy with them this holiday season, Digiday also ranked the marketing tactics brands and retailers plan to use during the 2024 holiday season. According to Digiday’s survey, gift guides will be the most-used marketing tactic during the holidays this year, followed by haul and unboxing videos, and product collaborations.

To be exact, 60% of brand and retailer pros said this year that they expect to use gift guides as a marketing tactic during the holiday season, which is actually a drop from the 66% who said the same last year. Meanwhile, 53% said they will use haul and unboxing videos featuring influencers. Last year, this tactic was the top one used by brands and retailers, with nearly three-quarters (73%) saying they would use haul and unboxing videos during the 2023 holiday season — a significant drop for this marketing tactic. Forty-three percent of respondents said they’ll use product collaborations this year, which was also the first year this tactic was offered as an option in Digiday’s holiday survey.

CTV and streaming ads, TV ads and physical mail get an honorable mention in this year’s holiday marketing tactic rankings, which might come as a surprise. These tactics did fall toward the bottom of Digiday’s ranking this year (fifth place, eighth place and seventh place, respectively), but they all saw a significant jump from the percentage of brands and retailers that employed these marketing tactics during last year’s holiday season.

More than a third of brand and retailer pros (36%) told Digiday this year that they expect to use CTV and streaming ads as a marketing tactic during the holiday season, up from just 7% last year. And TV ads saw a similar increase: from 8% in 2023 to 17% in 2024. More than a quarter of brands and retailers (26%) said this year that they’ll use physical catalogs and direct mail as a holiday marketing tactic — a big jump from the 13% who said the same last year.