The holiday season gives brands plenty of opportunities to advertise. The harder challenge is getting customers to trust, remember and talk about the brand when seemingly everyone is running a Christmas promotion at the same time.
That is where public relations can play a different role.
Advertising lets a business pay to put its message in front of consumers. PR can create third-party validation through journalists, creators, publishers, community organizations and real-world experiences. That distinction matters in 2026: Edelman’s latest Brand Trust research found that 88% of consumers consider trusting a brand an important or critical purchase factor, virtually equal to product quality and value.
For the holiday season, the strongest PR strategies therefore should not focus on generating publicity for publicity’s sake. They should create credible attention that can eventually move consumers closer to purchase.
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Here are five ways businesses can do that in 2026.
Holiday gift guides continue to be one of the most direct connections between earned media and Christmas purchasing.
The important part is timing.
Muck Rack’s research with gift-guide writers found that many journalists begin receiving holiday product pitches around August and Labor Day, with some freelancers wrapping up much of their holiday work by Thanksgiving. One prolific commerce writer opened her 2026 holiday gift-guide pitching window in mid-August.
That means brands hoping to appear in major holiday roundups should ideally start PR outreach before their Black Friday campaigns begin.
But the pitch also needs to be specific. Rather than positioning a product simply as a “great Christmas gift,” identify exactly where it belongs. A $20 product might fit a Gifts Under $25 guide. A premium item might work for Luxury Gifts. Other opportunities could revolve around coworkers, travelers, parents, homebodies, food lovers or last-minute shoppers.
Journalists also need the practical details immediately. Muck Rack’s gift-guide guidance recommends supplying price, URLs, high-resolution images, affiliate information and confirmed inventory upfront. Editors do not want to recommend a product only to discover that customers cannot buy it.
The easier you make the product to evaluate, feature and purchase, the stronger your chance of turning editorial exposure into actual holiday traffic.
Holiday PR no longer belongs exclusively to traditional media.
Creators can act as trusted third-party voices, particularly when their content reaches a very specific community.
The important shift in 2026 is that audience relevance is becoming more valuable than follower count. Sprout Social found that only 17% of consumers consider follower count when deciding whether to engage with a creator. Its research also found that consumers were more likely to prefer a recommendation from a niche creator than from a large influencer—21% versus 15%, with the preference even stronger among Gen Z.
This gives smaller businesses an opportunity.
Instead of trying to afford one celebrity creator, a beauty brand might partner with several skincare specialists. A restaurant could invite local food creators. A specialty retailer could work with creators whose followers are already interested in its category.
American Express’s 2025 Shop Small research reinforces the opportunity for local businesses: 82% of small businesses using social media said they had seen a sales spike after creators or influencers posted about them, while 81% said creator engagement helped grow their customer base and sales.
For holiday campaigns, send creators something worth experiencing rather than just another generic PR package. Give them enough time to use the product, encourage genuine demonstrations or reviews, and provide trackable links or affiliate codes where appropriate.
That last part is important. PR can generate attention, but tracking allows the business to understand which creator relationships are actually contributing to revenue.
Holiday gift guides increasingly sit at the intersection of editorial content and commerce.
Publications may earn affiliate revenue when a reader clicks a product recommendation and makes a purchase. Muck Rack notes that commerce content is valuable to publishers because it can generate both search traffic and revenue, and its gift-guide experts specifically recommend including affiliate information in product pitches.
This means brands should think beyond traditional media relations.
Before pitching commerce journalists, confirm that your affiliate program is functioning, product pages are live, inventory is healthy and tracking is in place. If the publishers you are targeting work through particular affiliate platforms, make sure your products are accessible through networks they can actually use.
The broader affiliate channel is significant. Impact.com’s 2025 partnership research found that 74% of surveyed brands generated between 11% and 30% of their total revenue through affiliate marketing, while 59% planned to allocate at least one-quarter of their affiliate budgets to creator partnerships.
That does not mean an affiliate commission guarantees editorial coverage. Editors still need products that genuinely fit their audience and editorial standards.
It does mean that reducing the commercial friction around your product can make it much easier for commerce publications, affiliates and creators to turn recommendations into measurable sales.
Christmas is also the season when businesses can connect a purchase with something larger than the transaction.
A holiday partnership with a nonprofit, community organization or local cause can create a stronger PR story than another percentage-off sale.
For example, a retailer might donate part of the proceeds from a specific holiday collection. A restaurant could support a local food program. Another business might create a buy-one-give-one initiative or commit a fixed amount from every purchase toward a relevant nonprofit.
There is evidence that this can affect purchase consideration. YouGov research across 17 markets found that 45% of consumers said they were more likely to purchase from a brand that advertised that part of its proceeds would go to charity, compared with just 5% who said it would make them less likely to buy. Among consumers aged 18–24, that figure increased to 53%.
Younger consumers are particularly attentive to whether a brand’s actions align with their values. More recent YouGov data found that 63% of U.S. Gen Z consumers say they are more likely to buy from brands expressing views they agree with, although honesty, trustworthiness and consistency remain even more important.
That last point is critical.
Cause marketing should not be a Christmas decoration.
Choose a cause that genuinely makes sense for the company, clearly explain what is being donated and make the impact transparent. A credible community story can attract media interest while giving customers another reason to support the business. An obviously opportunistic one can do the opposite.
Not every PR story has to begin with a press release.
Sometimes the story can be something people physically experience.
A short-term Christmas pop-up, unexpected installation, holiday tasting, interactive display or collaboration between nearby businesses can give local media and creators something visual to cover while giving customers a reason to visit in person.
The commercial potential of experiential marketing is significant. EventTrack 2026 reports that 61% of consumers are more inclined to purchase after attending an event or brand experience.
For a holiday activation, the idea does not have to be enormous.
A boutique and coffee shop could create a two-day Christmas shopping event. A beauty business could host a holiday-prep experience with complementary local brands. A retailer might transform part of its store into an interactive gift-finding station. A restaurant could invite local creators and press to preview a seasonal menu before opening it to the public.
The PR strategy should begin before the doors open. Invite local journalists, niche creators and community figures for an early preview, give them strong visual moments to capture and make it simple for attendees to share the experience online.
Then keep the campaign going after the event through photos, creator content, local press coverage, customer videos and retargeting.
The activation creates the moment. PR and digital marketing extend its life.
The most effective holiday PR campaigns do not operate separately from email, social media, paid advertising or local marketing.
A gift-guide placement can become a trust signal in an email campaign. A creator review can become paid social creative when usage rights allow. A nonprofit partnership can generate local media coverage and social storytelling. A pop-up can generate weeks of content before and after the event.
This is where PR becomes much more commercially valuable.
Rather than asking only, “How much media coverage did we get?”, businesses should also look at referral traffic, affiliate sales, creator codes, branded search, website activity, bookings, store visits and conversions after PR activity.
The goal is not simply to make noise around Christmas.
It is to create credible attention that gives people another reason to discover, trust and eventually buy from the brand.
The holiday season is crowded enough that another promotional message can easily disappear.
A strong PR strategy gives businesses other ways to earn attention: through the publication recommending the product, the niche creator demonstrating it, the community supporting the cause or the experience customers want to share.
The common thread is credibility.
Businesses that start early, create stories worth covering and connect PR with measurable sales channels can turn holiday buzz into much more than awareness.
They can turn it into business.
There is no single required budget. A small business can run a focused holiday PR campaign primarily through internal outreach, especially when targeting local media, niche publications and micro-creators.
Costs can increase if the strategy includes PR agencies, product samples, creator partnerships, affiliate commissions, events, pop-ups or paid amplification. The important thing is to decide which PR opportunities are most likely to reach customers who can realistically buy from the business rather than trying to be everywhere.
A holiday media kit should make it easy for journalists and creators to understand and cover the brand. Include a short company description, product or service information, pricing, high-resolution images, founder or spokesperson information, relevant links, holiday availability and contact details.
Product businesses should also include shipping deadlines, inventory information and affiliate details when relevant. If the campaign involves an event or nonprofit partnership, include the dates, location and key campaign details.
Holiday PR should be measured beyond the number of media mentions a brand receives.
Businesses can track referral traffic from media placements, affiliate links, creator discount codes, website activity, branded search volume, inquiries, bookings and sales following coverage.
UTM links and campaign-specific codes can make attribution easier. Some PR activity will also influence customers indirectly, so businesses should look for increases in brand searches, direct website traffic and conversions across other channels after major coverage.
Quality is usually more important than volume.
A smaller list of journalists who regularly cover your category, audience or geographic market will often be more valuable than sending the same pitch to hundreds of unrelated contacts.
Before contacting someone, review what they have written recently and determine whether your story genuinely fits their beat. Personalized outreach also reduces the likelihood that your holiday pitch looks like mass spam.
Yes. Holiday PR does not have to revolve around gift guides.
Service businesses can pitch expert commentary, seasonal trends, community initiatives, holiday events, consumer advice, year-end insights or unusual customer behavior within their industry.
For example, a financial professional could comment on holiday budgeting, a salon could discuss seasonal beauty trends, and a restaurant could pitch a unique holiday dining experience.
The key is finding a timely story that connects the business’s expertise with something the media’s audience cares about during the season.
One thoughtful follow-up is usually enough.
If the journalist still does not respond, avoid repeatedly sending the same message. Holiday editorial calendars move quickly, and silence may simply mean the story was not a fit, the deadline has passed or the journalist already has enough products or sources.
Use that information to refine the angle and identify another relevant publication rather than continuing to push the same contact.
Sometimes, but businesses should check the publication’s usage rules first.
Being featured by a publication does not automatically give a company permission to reproduce the article, use the publication’s logo in advertising or quote large portions of the coverage.
When permission is available, earned-media recognition can be a powerful trust signal across websites, social media and sales materials. Businesses should make sure they have the appropriate rights before turning a PR placement into promotional creative.
SociallyBuzz helps businesses connect PR, social media, content, paid advertising and digital strategy to turn attention into measurable growth.
If you want your holiday campaign to do more than simply add another promotion to the Christmas noise, we can help create a strategy designed to get your business discovered, talked about and chosen.
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