10 Brands That Are Making Holiday Marketing Unique in 2026

Key Takeaways

The holiday season now starts in October. Debenhams released the first major Christmas ad of 2026 on October 15, and Twix merged Halloween and Christmas into one campaign.
Long-form brand films are back. Debenhams, Waitrose and Apple all used films of two to four minutes and launched them on YouTube, not TV.
The craft-versus-AI debate is the creative story of the season. Apple's handmade puppet film and Coca-Cola's AI-generated trucks show two very different bets.
Creators and real-world moments are doing the heavy lifting for snack and restaurant brands like Cup Noodles, Pringles, Chipotle and Twix.
The most useful lesson for marketers: every standout campaign gives people one specific, easy-to-repeat idea, from "Hallowmas" to a gift guide sorted by personality type.

Every holiday season, brands compete for the same scarce resource: attention. Feeds fill with discount banners, inboxes overflow and TV breaks start to blur together. Yet each year a handful of brands manage to break through with something people actually talk about, share and remember.

We studied the holiday campaigns of the 2025 season and the first wave of 2026 campaigns, from Halloween through the run-up to Christmas, to find the brands doing something genuinely different. Below are the 10 that stood out, with the campaign itself where it is available to watch, expert analysis and the lesson your brand can take into this season.

How We Chose These Brands

We reviewed holiday campaigns covered by trade publications including Adweek, PRWeek, Marketing Week and Ad Age between October 2025 and October 2026. A brand made the list only if its campaign met three criteria: it did something its category does not usually do, it earned meaningful press or audience attention, and it offers a lesson other marketers can realistically apply. We did not include campaigns based on spend alone.

The list covers the 2026 campaigns already in market, plus four campaigns from the 2025 season that are still shaping how brands approach this year.

Part 1: The 2026 Season So Far

1. Debenhams: Winning Christmas by Going First

Debenhams became the first major retailer to release a 2026 Christmas ad, debuting its four-minute film Christmas. For Everyone on October 15. The film follows Tina, played by Emily Atack, who returns to her childhood village for Christmas and reconnects with former school friend Chris, played by Mathew Horne. A power cut, a snowstorm and a surprise performance of "Dreams" by 90s star Gabrielle bring the village together.

What makes it unique is the launch strategy. The online-only retailer debuted the film on YouTube rather than TV, then rolled it out across social, out-of-home and press. It also cast creators Saffron Barker, Sammi Maria and Jay Beech alongside the celebrity leads, and launched a Christmas hub with shoppable edits tied to the ad. The campaign was created in-house, produced by Pulse Films and directed by Tom Day.

Video: Debenhams, Christmas. For Everyone (2026). Watch on YouTube

Expert take: FashionNetwork noted how telling it is that a major Christmas campaign now launches first on YouTube, when only a few years ago terrestrial TV would have been the obvious choice. Read FashionNetwork's analysis.

The lesson: Launching early gives you weeks of uncontested attention before the big retailers arrive. Pairing a long-form film with a shoppable landing page turns that attention into sales. Our guide to the ROI of omnichannel campaigns in 2026 covers how to sequence channels like this.

2. Twix: Inventing a Holiday Called "Hallowmas"

Instead of choosing between Halloween and Christmas, Twix combined them. Its Hallowmas campaign, now in its second year, stars Zombie Claus, a Santa who was bitten by a zombie. The idea ties directly to the brand's "Two Is More Than One" platform: just as a Twix pack has two bars, Hallowmas is two holidays in one.

The 2026 campaign kicked off with Zombie Claus appearing on the street-interview series Subway Takes, followed by 40-second and 15-second spots created by adam&eve\TBWA. Fans can enter a $20,000 contest through November 8 by sharing how they blend "fear and cheer," and Zombie Claus will hand out Twix bars to trick-or-treaters in Williamsburg, New York on Halloween. The campaign also launches new Twix Skulls.

View Zombie Claus on Subway Takes on Instagram

Expert take: Adweek's coverage details how the campaign layers a creator-led launch, short-form spots, influencer activity and a consumer contest into one season-long story. Read Adweek's breakdown.

The lesson: You do not have to pick one holiday moment. Bridging two can stretch a campaign's life from early October to late December, as long as the idea connects back to something true about your product.

3. Pringles: Turning a Brand Legend Into a Halloween Campaign

Pringles took one of the strangest true stories in branding, the fact that Pringles can designer Fredric Baur had some of his ashes buried in a Pringles can in 2008, and built its Halloween campaign around it. The "Once You Drop" campaign stars funeral director and creator Dan Madden, known online as Dan the Funeral Man, in a 90-second spot.

Fans who "love Pringles to death" can sign a "Last Will and Taste-ament" form on the campaign site for a chance to win an "afterlifetime" supply of Pringles and a one-of-a-kind silver Pringles urn. BBDO New York and Weber Shandwick supported the campaign.

Expert take: PRWeek featured the campaign among the standout Halloween treats of 2026, alongside Twix and Chipotle. See PRWeek's Halloween roundup.

The lesson: Your brand's own history can be your most original creative asset. Pairing it with a niche creator who has real credibility on the topic makes a quirky idea feel authentic rather than forced.

Cup Noodles launched a limited-edition Hot Garlic Chicken "Vampire Noodles" flavor that turns blood-red when prepared, then let a fictional vampire creator, Vladison Dedmon, take over its Instagram. The account's bio now says it belongs to Vladison, and the content includes garlic exposure tests, guitar singalongs and noodle mukbangs. Fans also competed to win a casket filled with Vampire Noodles. Golin supported the campaign.

View Vladison Dedmon's Cup Noodles takeover on Instagram

The lesson: A full channel takeover by a character is more memorable than a single sponsored post. It turns the brand account itself into entertainment. For more on working with creators, see our guide to influencer marketing and the future of advertising.

5. Chipotle: Bringing Back a Discontinued Favorite, in Person

Chipotle paired its 26th annual Boorito costume discount with something new: a five-city Summon the Spirits Tour serving the neon green Chipotle Margarita, a drink the chain discontinued in 2020. The margarita is available only on specific October dates in Denver, New York City, New Orleans, Dallas and Los Angeles, promoted with Ouija board and crystal ball-themed videos on Instagram and TikTok. Burson supported the campaign.

View Chipotle's Summon the Spirits Tour on Instagram

The lesson: Scarcity plus a real-world event creates urgency that a discount alone cannot. Limiting a fan favorite to a few cities and dates gives people a reason to show up and post about it. Our article on experiential marketing in 2026 explores this approach.

6. Glossier: A Gift Guide Built Around Holiday Personalities

Glossier's 2026 holiday campaign, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Meltdown," casts four New York creatives as festive personality types, such as "The Overcommitted," played by Coco Cultr founder Jesa Chiro, and "The Perfectionist," played by model Alana Champion. Instead of a standard gift guide, Glossier organized its holiday collection around these archetypes, so shoppers find gifts based on the type they or their friends identify with. The campaign film, directed by Steven Brahms, launches on November 6.

Expert take: TheIndustry.beauty highlighted how the casting and archetype-led gift guide frame the season as chaotic, last-minute and joyful rather than picture-perfect. Read the full campaign report.

The lesson: Organizing products by personality, not price or category, makes gift discovery feel personal. It also mirrors how people now ask AI assistants for gift ideas, by describing the person rather than the product, which we explored in our research on which brands AI recommends for holiday gifts.

Part 2: Last Season's Standouts Still Shaping 2026

7. Apple: Choosing Handmade Puppets Over AI

Apple's 2025 holiday film, A Critter Carol, follows a group of woodland animals who find a hiker's lost iPhone 17 Pro and use it to film themselves singing a song about friendship before returning it. Every critter is a handcrafted puppet, and the film was shot on iPhone 17 Pro. It was directed by Mark Molloy with agency TBWA\Media Arts Lab, released on November 27, 2025, and later earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Commercial.

Video: Apple, A Critter Carol (2025). Watch on YouTube

Expert take: Brand strategist David Pullara calculated that the iPhone appears on screen for only about a quarter of the ad's runtime, and argued that very few brands could justify such a product-light holiday film. Read David Pullara's analysis.

The lesson: In a season full of AI-generated content, visible human craft has become a differentiator in its own right. Apple also showed the product doing the work, filming the story, rather than describing features.

8. Coca-Cola: Betting on AI, and Owning the Debate

Coca-Cola took the opposite path. For the second year running, it remade its classic 1995 "Holidays Are Coming" ad with generative AI, releasing new versions in November 2025, including one exclusively for the US. The 2025 production reportedly involved generating more than 70,000 AI clips, refined by over 100 specialists in post-production. The campaign drew heavy online criticism, but it also made Coca-Cola the center of the industry's biggest creative conversation of the season.

Video: Coca-Cola, "Holidays Are Coming" (2025), behind the scenes. Watch on YouTube

Expert take: Marketing Week reported that Coca-Cola produced its AI version at around a tenth of what the ad would previously have cost, and that its European marketing leadership expects AI-made ads to become the norm. Read Marketing Week's report.

The lesson: AI can cut production costs dramatically, but holiday advertising runs on emotion and nostalgia, and audiences notice when something feels synthetic. If you use AI, be open about it and use it where it adds to the idea, not just where it saves money. Our overview of AI in advertising trends goes deeper.

9. John Lewis: Making the Gift the Message

John Lewis has defined the UK Christmas ad for nearly two decades, and its 2025 campaign, "Where Love Lives," released on November 4, 2025, took a quieter route. The film follows a teenage son who struggles to tell his dad how he feels and uses music to say it instead, ending with the line "If you can't find the words, find the gift." The soundtrack is Labrinth's reimagining of Alison Limerick's 90s club classic "Where Love Lives."

Video: John Lewis, "Where Love Lives" (2025). Watch on YouTube

The lesson: The strongest holiday stories connect emotion directly to the act of buying. John Lewis positions the gift itself as the way to say something hard to say, which gives the product a role in the story rather than a cameo at the end.

10. Waitrose: Turning a Christmas Ad Into a Rom-Com

Waitrose's 2025 campaign, The Perfect Gift, was a four-minute romantic comedy starring Keira Knightley as herself and comedian Joe Wilkinson, reprising his role as Phil from the grocer's 2024 ad. The pair meet at a Waitrose cheese counter over a shared love of a cheddar, and the story ends with Phil recreating Knightley's nan's pie recipe, which inspired a real Waitrose festive pie. The film premiered on YouTube on November 12, 2025, with shorter movie-style trailers on TV directing viewers online. It was directed by Molly Manners.

Expert take: DesignRush's analysis noted how the long-form, character-first format put food at the center of the love story, using specific products to drive the emotional payoff. Read DesignRush's breakdown.

The lesson: Borrowing a beloved entertainment format, here the Christmas rom-com, lets a brand earn viewing time rather than interrupt it. Using TV spots as trailers for the full film online is a smart way to make paid media work harder.

Planning your own holiday campaign? Lean Summits helps brands turn seasonal ideas into measurable growth across paid media, social, search and AI visibility. Book a free strategy call and we will help you find the idea that makes your brand stand out this season.

6 Trends Defining Holiday Marketing in 2026

1. The season starts earlier, and blends holidays together

Debenhams launched its Christmas film in mid-October, and Twix's Hallowmas runs Halloween straight into Christmas. Brands that wait until November are competing in the most crowded weeks of the year.

2. Long-form films are back, and they launch on YouTube

Debenhams, Waitrose and Apple all made films between roughly two and a half and four minutes long. Instead of compressing stories into 30 seconds, these brands built content people choose to watch, then used shorter cuts to drive viewers to the full version.

3. Craft and AI are both creative statements

Apple's puppets and Coca-Cola's AI trucks show that how an ad is made is now part of its message. Whichever approach you take, audiences will notice and talk about it.

4. Creators are the channel, not just the amplifier

Cup Noodles handed its account to a character creator, Pringles built its campaign around a funeral director creator, and Twix launched on a street-interview series. Our article on how social media is impacting brand equity in 2026 explains why this matters for long-term brand value.

5. Real-world moments create real urgency

Chipotle's five-city tour and Twix's Halloween street appearance give fans something to attend and share, which digital ads alone cannot match.

6. Gift discovery is getting personal

Glossier's personality-based gift guide and John Lewis's "find the gift" message both reflect how people really shop: by thinking about the person first. That is also how shoppers now ask AI assistants for ideas, and it is why visibility in AI answers matters. If your products are not part of those answers, our SEO and Generative Engine Optimization team can help.

How to Apply These Lessons to Your Brand This Season

Find one ownable idea. Hallowmas, a puppet carol or a vampire takeover each work because they can be explained in one sentence. Start there before choosing channels.
Tie the idea to your product or history. Twix's "two" and Pringles' founder story feel natural because they come from the brand itself.
Plan for discovery, not just reach. Make sure your holiday landing pages, gift guides and product data are ready for search and AI engines. Our guide on upgrading your website for the holiday season is a good checklist.
Use paid media to push people to your best content. Follow Waitrose's lead and treat short ads as trailers. Our tips on holiday PPC strategy cover the mechanics.
Add a real-world or creator layer. Even a small event, pop-up or creator partnership can give your campaign the shareable moment it needs.

For retail and consumer brands, our B2C retail and food and beverage marketing teams build seasonal campaigns like these every year. You can see results from past work in our case studies.

Ready to make your holiday marketing unforgettable? Talk to Lean Summits about a holiday growth plan that connects creative, paid media, social and AI visibility, and measures what actually drives revenue.

Frequently Asked Questions

What was the first Christmas ad of 2026?

Debenhams released the first major retailer Christmas ad of 2026, Christmas. For Everyone, on YouTube on October 15, 2026. The four-minute film stars Emily Atack, Mathew Horne, Kym Marsh and Gabrielle.

What is Twix Hallowmas?

Hallowmas is a Twix campaign that combines Halloween and Christmas into one season, led by a character called Zombie Claus. It reflects the brand's "Two Is More Than One" idea and, in 2026, includes a $20,000 fan contest, new Twix Skulls and a Halloween appearance in Williamsburg, New York.

Are brands using AI to make holiday ads?

Some are. Coca-Cola used generative AI to recreate its "Holidays Are Coming" ad in both 2024 and 2025, while Apple deliberately used handmade puppets for its 2025 film. The contrast has made production approach one of the most discussed parts of holiday advertising.

When should brands launch holiday marketing campaigns?

The leading brands now start in October. Early launches face less competition for attention and give campaigns more time to build momentum before Black Friday, which falls on November 27 in 2026.

How can smaller brands compete with big holiday budgets?

Focus on one clear, ownable idea, partner with creators who have real credibility, create a small real-world moment and make sure your products are easy to find in search and AI answers. Several brands on this list won attention through creativity rather than spend.

Sources

About the Author

Shraddhanvita Tiwari is the Content Strategist and SEO Lead at Lean Summits, where she builds search and AI visibility content programs for B2B and B2C brands. This article was reviewed for accuracy by Ravi Adatrao, Marketing Strategist and President of Lean Summits.