Holiday 2025: AI, Loyalty And The New Rules Of Winning
Marketers love the idea of "brand love." Consumers don't. Fresh data from a GWI study commissioned by Razorfish shows repeat buys are driven by convenience, product performance and a brand's ability to meet real needs.
In most categories-from groceries and QSR to airlines-fewer than a quarter of consumers say "love" motivates repeat purchases. For many who do prefer a brand, it's tied to a single product. If that product disappears, more than half would switch for coffee, clothing, health or beauty.
Decouple Loyalty From Love
Assume repeat purchases are pragmatic. Find the real drivers for your customers-availability, price stability, frictionless service, standout SKUs-and build around that. Keep sentiment tracking, but weight it after convenience and performance signals.
Loyalty That Feels Human
Empathy beats points. Nearly 7 in 10 customers would be more loyal to a hotel that checks in an early red-eye arrival than one that hands champagne to honeymooners. Access-based perks-limited drops, exclusive events-often outperform blanket discounts that feel like a pushy sales tactic.
Macro Shifts You Can't Ignore
Finances are in the driver's seat. With tariffs raising prices, more than 90% of consumers say they'd change their vehicle purchase behavior-historically a category with strong loyalty.
Influencers are steering choices, too. Between 20% and just over 30% of consumers say influencer "authenticity" affects purchases in groceries, restaurants, airline tickets and mobile phones. Treat influencer content as a conversion lever, not a vanity play.
AI For The Holidays: A Tool, Not Your Strategy
This season is the first where AI will materially change both how shoppers buy and how brands serve. Use it to scale execution. Keep humans on strategy, brand voice and QA.
Your AI Holiday Checklist
- Data hygiene first: clean IDs, recent events, accurate product feeds, clear opt-ins.
- Brand controls: style guides, tone constraints, product claims, compliance rules.
- Human review: approve segments, subject lines, copy and logic before launch.
- Testing discipline: holdouts, pre/post metrics, and daily readouts for fast tweaks.
- Measurement plan: define lift metrics per channel before you press send.
Shoppers Are Getting Smarter (Blame AI)
Holiday buyers are researching more and waiting longer. E-commerce product views are up 37% year over year. Apparel and accessories show 21 product views per order vs. 16 last year. Panic buys are fading.
- Strengthen PDPs: comparison charts, size/fit help, returns clarity, reviews and UGC.
- Nudge thoughtfully: price alerts, back-in-stock, low-inventory messaging, bundles.
- Guide with assistants: on-site chat with clear handoffs and accurate recommendations.
Be Where People Now Search
More shoppers are using conversational assistants to find and buy. Some brands already connect catalogs to chat experiences so customers can discover and checkout directly. If you test these channels, log every interaction to customer profiles and fold insights back into segmentation.
Creative: Where AI Works (And Where It Backfires)
One major beverage brand doubled down on AI-generated holiday spots after last year's backlash. The new ads are higher fidelity, but viewers still flagged uncanny moments and continuity errors. The studio behind the work said about 20 people still hand-drew characters and scenes-AI made production faster, not effort-free. Coverage here provides useful context: The Hollywood Reporter.
- If you ship AI video, be transparent about process and credits.
- Stress-test for uncanny frames, hands, faces, text and continuity before media spend.
- Pair AI production speed with human-centered stories. Don't swap craft for novelty.
Media Buying: Platform Risk Is Real
Internal documents reported by Reuters suggest a major social platform projected about 10% of revenue-roughly $16B-could be tied to scam or banned-goods ads. The company disputed that view, but the takeaway for marketers is simple: don't assume inventory quality is protected by default. Read the report: Reuters.
- Use allowlists for peak weeks; keep blocklists fresh and specific.
- Ask partners for fraud reporting and refund policies upfront.
- Monitor abnormal click/engagement spikes and sudden CPA dips.
- Diversify spend across formats and channels to reduce single-point exposure.
Attention Is Out There-Earn It
The World Series proved it. Average U.S. viewership topped 15.7M per game, with combined U.S./Canada/Japan audiences averaging 34M. Game 7 hit 51M viewers, including nearly half of Canada tuning in at some point and roughly 12M in Japan.
- Cross-border stars multiply reach. Localize creative and offers by region.
- Ride cultural moments with fast, lightweight creative and clear CTAs.
Holiday Action Plan For CMOs (Start This Week)
- Product insurance: protect your "hero" SKUs with inventory, waitlists and close subs.
- Pricing pressure: scenario plan for tariffs; set thresholds for promos vs. margin.
- Influencer rigor: clear briefs, unique codes, incremental KPIs and post-buy audits.
- Loyalty revamp: add empathetic perks (early check-in style benefits) and access passes.
- AI guardrails: lock prompts, tone, disclaimers; human sign-off before scale.
- On-site upgrades: speed, search relevance, filters, accessibility and guest checkout.
- Attribution sanity: mix MMM or lightweight geo tests with channel holdouts.
- Data capture: consented first-party signals across web, chat, email, SMS and retail.
- Conversational channels: prep structured feeds and product metadata for assistants.
- Contingency: have a response plan for AI creative backlash or platform brand-safety issues.
People Moves To Note
- Veeam Software named Allison Cerra as CMO.
- loanDepot appointed Nikul Patel as chief growth officer.
- Teads hired Mollie Spilman as chief commercial officer.
Strategy Nuggets Worth Borrowing
- Recent NYC campaign: simple narrative, ruthless message discipline, and community-first distribution beat big budgets.
- Heineken shows how heritage brands stay relevant: keep innovating formats, keep a clear point of view, and show up consistently where culture gathers.
Level Up Your Team's AI Skills
If your marketing org needs hands-on, practical AI training before BFCM, explore this certification: AI Certification for Marketing Specialists. You can also browse the latest courses here: Latest AI Courses.
Your membership also unlocks:
