Holiday Marketing 2026: CTV and TV Ads Surge as Gift Guides Fade

Nearly half of brands and retailers — 45% — plan to run CTV/streaming (connected TV) ads this holiday season, up from 23% in 2025, according to Glossy+ Research's report "The 2026 guide to holiday marketing strategies." The report is based on a survey of 90 brand and retailer professionals plus interviews with marketing executives at A-Frame Brands, Mastercard and Ritual.

What does the 2026 shift look like?

CTV/streaming posted the largest year-over-year gain of any holiday tactic: 22 percentage points. TV ads followed with a 20-point jump. Thirty-three percent of respondents plan to use TV ads this season, versus 13% in 2025.

The streaming rebound reverses a decline. CTV/streaming usage had dropped 14 percentage points from 2024 to 2025 before recovering in 2026. TV ads proved more stable, slipping just 4 points between 2024 and 2025 before this year's surge.

Brand experiences lost their No. 1 spot. The tactic, the most-used holiday marketing strategy in 2025, fell to second place behind streaming/CTV ads. Forty-one percent of marketers expect to use brand experiences in 2026, down from 50% in 2025 — a 9-point drop.

Two tactics are losing budget outright:

• Gift guide usage fell 19 percentage points year over year.
• Influencer hauls and unboxing videos fell 14 percentage points.

Why executives back streaming

Laura Brodie, chief growth officer at supplement company Ritual, framed streaming as a channel that demands year-round commitment. "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."

She added a qualifier for brands with proof of performance: "If you have the data to back it up over the course of the year showing this is a channel that's proven and the ROI metrics associated, it can make a lot of sense to spike it during holiday."

Ari Bloom, founder and CEO of brand incubator A-Frame Brands, pointed to demographics. "Streaming and television is an effective audience conversion mechanism, especially with women over 30 years old," Bloom said. "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."

Do the old tactics still perform?

Yes — by track record. Gift guides and brand experiences remain the top two best-performing holiday tactics over time, even as 2026 usage declines. Thirty-one percent of marketers said gift guides have historically performed best for their company during the holiday season; 28% said the same of brand experiences.

Pop-up shops rank No. 3 in historic performance. CTV/streaming ads tie for No. 4. Influencer hauls/unboxing videos are the only strategy that fell in both historic performance and intended 2026 use.

Ritual's Brodie argued gift guides will regain relevance as AI-powered search tools lean on curated lists to answer queries. "Gift guides are very interesting in the world of AEO and thinking about LLM optimization," Brodie said, referring to answer engine optimization (the practice of shaping content for AI search results). "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."

What about catalogs?

Bloom urged brands not to overlook print for 2026. "Catalogs have always been very successful, and they're heavily conversion-focused," Bloom explained. "When they're discount-driven and when people's attention is on buying, you can do offers that you can only get via physical paper, and it does drive people into stores."

The practical takeaway for beauty and retail marketers: budget is moving toward screens in November and mid-December, but the highest-converting legacy tactics — guides, experiences and print — are not disappearing, and AI search may give gift guides a second life.