TL;DR
77% of brands concentrate creator budgets in November and December, leaving summer holidays with less competition and higher creator availability.
29% of brands agree that competition for attention during the holiday season is their greatest challenge, creating opportunities for campaigns outside of BFCM.
While 85% of brands spend over $50K during the holidays, there’s room to ramp up non-Q4 holiday spending as 49% have flexible budgets that roll into the new year.
Long-term partnerships could be the key to year-round engagement as 31% of brands reuse the same creators, but only 8% of creators report consistent annual partnerships.
Table of Contents
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Email AddressMost brands are laser-focused on Q4 campaigns, but research from Later reveals massive year-end oversaturation. According to insights from 222 brands and 403 creators, 77% of brands allocate the majority of their creator budgets to November and December campaigns, creating intense competition for creator attention.
The data reveals significant gaps around underutilized holidays such as Father’s Day, summer, and even Halloween. While brands have somewhat active campaigns around these holidays, a majority of creators don’t tend to have brand collaborations during this time (less than 20% of creators have collaborated with brands during the summer holidays).
Additionally, 29% of brands agree that competition for attention during the holiday season is their greatest challenge. Brands can benefit from pushing seasonal campaigns outside of the crowded winter holiday window where creators are less saturated and brand content can gain better visibility.
What this means for your 2026 planning
Start identifying alternative holiday moments now so you can prioritize creator outreach in Q1.
Calculate your true Q4 costs including premium creator rates, rushed production timelines, and reduced campaign effectiveness.
Consider how reallocating even a portion of your Q4 budget to underserved holidays could deliver better overall annual ROI.
The brands succeeding in influencer marketing are identifying white space opportunities where competition is lower, creators are more available, and audiences are more receptive to discovering new products.
Why summer holidays are your secret weapon
While a majority of brands prioritize Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Year-End Holiday campaigns, the summer months are the best time to capture attention. Father’s Day and summer holidays including Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day see a fraction of the brand activity that Black Friday alone generates.
Our research reveals that only 35% of brands have holiday campaigns for Father’s Day or summer holidays. Even fewer creators have collaborated with brands during this time, with only 16% citing brand collaborations during the summer holiday months.
Summer holidays offer distinct advantages. Creator availability during the summer months is substantially higher than in November, meaning top-tier creators can dedicate proper time and creative energy to your campaign rather than treating it as one of many partnerships (60% of creators have 1-5 brand partnerships during the holidays, and some have up to 20). Additionally, production timelines run shorter in summer months because creators aren't managing competing brand obligations.
The audience mindset during summer differs dramatically from Q4. Consumers are in discovery mode rather than transaction mode, making them more receptive to learning about new brands. This allows audiences to engage with content more thoughtfully rather than being overwhelmed by purchase pressure that’s often present during the holiday season.
Summer also offers an opportunity for brands to experiment with holiday campaign budgets. 49% of brands have flexible budgets that roll into the new year, which means there’s room to ramp up non-Q4 holiday spending.
What brands should do:
Identify which summer holidays naturally align with your product category (e.g., cooling products for Fourth of July, travel gear for Memorial Day, back-to-school items for Labor Day).
Reach out to creators in March-April for summer partnerships (41% of creators prefer a 1-2 month lead time), when they're planning content calendars but haven't yet been overwhelmed with requests.
Develop campaign concepts that tap into summer mindsets such as outdoor activities, travel, family time, or seasonal transitions rather than forcing product placement into generic holiday content.
Test smaller summer campaigns in 2026 to validate performance before committing larger budgets in 2027.
Ready to build a diversified holiday strategy that drives business impact all year? Book a strategy session to learn how Later can help you identify, plan, and execute creator campaigns in 2026.
How to identify your brand’s perfect underserved moment
Not every underserved holiday will work for every brand. The key is matching your product’s natural use cases with holidays that see high consumer interest but low brand competition. Start with a gap analysis by reviewing where your competitors concentrate their creator budgets, then identify complementary moments where consumer activity remains high but brand presence is low.
For example, competitive analysis may reveal that Valentine's Day typically sees heavy competition in jewelry and flowers but remains underserved for experience-based products and services. Easter may command attention in candy and home décor but leaves opportunities in spring fashion and outdoor products. Back-to-school dominates in August for children’s products but creates opportunities in self-care and organization for parents managing the transition.
Beyond traditional holidays, consider niche observance days that connect deeply with your specific audience. National Coffee Day, Small Business Saturday, Prime Day, or even created moments like “Winter Wellness Week” can become ownable holidays for your brand when you’re the only one activating around them.
What brands should do:
Map your product’s natural usage patterns against the full calendar year, identifying when consumers need or think about your category.
Research competitor creator campaigns over the past year to identify concentrated investment periods and ignored opportunities.
Survey existing customers about which holidays they associate with your product category versus which holidays they’d be open to discovering new options.
Test 2-3 underserved holidays in 2026 with smaller creator partnerships to validate performance before scaling investment in 2027.
Building your 2026 diversified holiday calendar
Planning a diversified holiday strategy requires starting early. The brands successfully capturing underserved holiday opportunities begin their planning well in advance, not weeks before a campaign launch. This extended timeline allows for strategic creator selection, proper creative brief development, and the ability to lock in partnerships before the competition.
A balanced calendar spreads investment across the year rather than concentrating it in Q4. Consider allocating a significant portion of annual creator budget to Q4 traditional holidays, another portion to underserved moments throughout the year, and a percentage to always-on creator partnerships that maintain year-round presence. This distribution reduces team burnout, smooths workflow, and ensures you have consistent creator-brand content throughout the year.
Start with pilot programs in 2026 that inform your 2027 influencer marketing strategy. Test Memorial Day with several creator partnerships, for instance, or experiment with Father’s Day campaigns at a fraction of what you’d spend on Mother’s Day. Measure performance against your traditional holiday benchmarks, paying special attention to cost per acquisition, engagement rates, and creator retention for continued partnerships.
What brands should do:
Create a 2026 holiday investment calendar by Q2 2025, identifying target holidays, tentative budget allocations, and creator outreach windows.
Begin outreach to priority creators several months before each target holiday, explaining your vision for building long-term partnerships rather than one-off transactions (only 8% of creators report consistent annual partnerships, revealing opportunities for ongoing relationships over seasonal gigs).
Develop holiday-specific creative briefs that give creators flexibility while ensuring brand consistency across your annual calendar.
Track performance metrics across all campaigns to continually optimize which holidays deserve increased investment and which should be deprioritized.
How to capture underserved holiday opportunities with Later
Later’s research reveals gaps in seasonal campaigns and year-round creator partnerships. Successfully executing a diversified holiday strategy requires tools that support year-round planning and multi-campaign coordination. Later’s leading influencer marketing platform provides the infrastructure to identify opportunities, connect with the right creators, execute efficiently, and measure results across all your holiday activations.
1. Plan with predictive intelligence
Later EdgeAI analyzes when your specific audience is most receptive to creator content, helping identify which underserved holidays align best with your customer behavior patterns. Rather than guessing whether Father’s Day or Memorial Day offers better ROI, use intelligent data to guide strategic decisions before committing to a budget.
2. Build efficient creator workflows
When you’re managing multiple holiday campaigns throughout the year instead of concentrating everything in Q4, operational efficiency becomes critical. Later’s collaboration features enable your team to manage relationships with creators across different campaigns, maintain consistent brand messaging, and scale programs without proportionally scaling resources.
3. Measure performance across the calendar
Later’s analytics dashboard provides comparison across different holiday campaigns, helping you understand which underserved moments truly deliver value. Track CPM, engagement rates, audience demographics, and conversion performance to continually optimize your holiday mix for 2026 and beyond.
4. Secure creator partnerships early
Later’s creator marketplace connects you with talent across follower tiers and specialties, making it easier to lock in partnerships 4-6 months in advance for your priority holidays. When you’re reaching out for a June campaign in February, you're competing with far fewer brands and can build relationships with creators who have the capacity to do their best work.
For enterprise brands managing sophisticated, year-round creator programs, Later’s influencer marketing services team provides strategic guidance on portfolio diversification, holiday selection, and campaign optimization.
Diversify seasonal opportunities in 2026
The data is clear: continuing to concentrate creator budgets in the oversaturated Q4 window leaves massive opportunities on the table. The brands that succeed in 2026 are the ones planning now to diversify their holiday strategy by identifying underserved moments where competition is lower and performance potential is higher.
This doesn’t mean abandoning Q4 campaigns, but instead being strategic about where you deploy resources for maximum impact. The $50K opportunity underscores the cumulative value of capturing multiple underserved moments throughout the year by expanding your creator campaign resources beyond the November-December window.
Ready to build a diversified holiday strategy that drives business impact all year? Book a strategy session to learn how Later can help you identify, plan, and execute creator campaigns in 2026.
Methodology
This research was conducted in two parts: an internal survey with 403 creators from the Later Influence database, and an external survey through the third-party research firm Centiment with 419 brands. Of those brands, 222 qualified based on running both holiday campaigns and influencer marketing campaigns, with $5M+ in annual revenue. All data is self-reported and reflects perceptions and attitudes about holiday creator marketing.
