Don't look now, but the holidays are right around the corner. You may not have even taken your winter jackets out of storage, but advertisers are already in a jolly, holly holiday mood, and it seems to start a little earlier every year, and 2026 is no exception.
We asked our customers how they're getting ready. We surveyed a diverse mix of brands, from BYLT and Tecovas to MANSCAPED and Bearbottom Clothing, and more, about their holiday planning, creative strategy, and how TV fits into their biggest sales season of the year.
Holiday ad budgets are rising (again)
Nearly six in 10 advertisers say they'll increase their BFCM TV spend compared to last year. In fact, those planning a significant increase jumped from 16% in 2025 to 22% this year. That's not just more brands spending on TV, it's existing advertisers betting bigger with greater conviction.
Lesson: More competition means timing and efficiency matter more than ever before.
As budgets rise, competition for quality TV inventory is intensifying. Brands that pace their spend strategically, building toward peak BFCM moments rather than front-loading or waiting until the last minute, consistently see stronger clearance and efficiency. Use historical performance data to identify when demand and conversion rates spike, then structure your buys around those windows.
TV is driving digital sales, not door busters
Black Friday once meant bundling up at four a.m. to wait in line for the mall to open. For this year's TV advertisers, that world no longer exists. Asked which sales channels they're prioritizing for the holidays, not a single advertiser cited in-store. 58% are focused squarely on their website, with 39% taking an omni-channel approach that still prioritizes digital. TV has evolved beyond just a brand awareness play into a performance channel engineered to drive consumers directly to checkout.
Lesson: Build your ad creative and measurement around the digital checkout
Make sure your attribution is set up to capture the full funnel impact from TV impression to site visit to purchase. Consider retargeting website visitors on TV to re-engage the audiences your digital channels are already driving to your site.
October is the new November
The traditional Black Friday window has expanded dramatically. More than half of advertisers (54%) plan to be in-market with holiday messaging before mid-November, with 17% launching their BFCM TV campaigns as early as October. This makes sense since this aligns with shoppers who have been hunting for deals as early as the fall. The largest single group (37%) is going live in early November, weeks before the shopping weekend actually begins. Only one in four are waiting until Thanksgiving week.
Lesson: The earlier you plan, the better your inventory options
BFCM is a multi-week campaign requiring earlier creative production, earlier media commitments, and faster optimization cycles. Brands that lock in placements and build audience familiarity before the holiday noise peaks tend to see stronger performance and pay less for it. Premium inventory goes fast. The brands planning now won't be scrambling in October.
The more screens the merrier: Brands will use linear and streaming together
Among prioritized channels, linear TV and streaming/CTV were separated by just 5 percentage points. The era of "linear vs. streaming" is effectively over. Today's TV advertiser runs both.
Lesson: Linear and streaming amplify each other. Run them together.
Equally striking: Paid Social tied linear TV at the top, with 77.5% of advertisers running both TV and social simultaneously. That's not a coincidence. TV and social are most powerful when they work together. TV creates the brand familiarity and emotional resonance that makes your paid social ads more efficient. Viewers who've already seen your TV spot are far more likely to click when they encounter your brand again on social. It's what we call the halo effect, and these advertisers are clearly building their holiday mix around it.
Most brands are going back to their holiday hits
Only one in five advertisers are producing net-new, BFCM-specific TV spots this year. The majority are repurposing existing creative, either holiday or non-holiday, and nearly 30% haven't decided yet. That means roughly four in five TV advertisers will be running recycled spots during the most cluttered advertising period of the year.
Lesson: Repurposing is a strong strategy but net-new creative could be an advantage
Repurposing strong creative isn't a shortcut. It's a smart, efficient strategy. Identify what performed well before and bring it back with refreshed offers or updated messaging. But if you can produce even one holiday-specific spot, the competitive landscape for original creative is wide open.
'Tis the season for TV. And now you should be ready.
The TV advertisers in this survey share a common thread: they're moving earlier, measuring more rigorously, and treating TV as a performance channel that needs to earn every dollar. Following their lead can help your BFCM campaigns cut through when it counts most.
