A-Frame Brands, Mastercard, and Ritual are among the brands redirecting holiday marketing spend away from owned channels—email, SMS, and owned websites—toward paid social and retail partnerships for the 2026 holiday season, according to Glossy research. The shift marks a departure from the owned-channel dominance that defined post-iOS14 physical product marketing and signals exhaustion in list-driven acquisition.
The brands are rebalancing budgets after incremental gains from email and SMS campaigns softened. Rather than doubling frequency or expanding segmentation, they are moving dollars into paid social placements and retailer partnerships where audience reach extends beyond existing subscribers. A-Frame Brands, which markets physical goods across multiple direct-to-consumer lines, cited the need to reach new buyers outside its existing file. Ritual, a supplement brand selling physical subscription products, is allocating more spend to Meta and retail media networks. Mastercard, though a financial services brand, represents the broader pattern among companies selling physical gift cards and co-branded merchandise during the holiday window.
The mechanism is straightforward: owned channels deliver high conversion efficiency but finite reach. Email and SMS work when the recipient already knows the brand. Once a list is saturated—opened, clicked, or ignored—the next marginal dollar returns less revenue. Paid social and retail partnerships, by contrast, introduce the product to cold audiences at scale. The trade-off is lower immediate conversion but higher net-new customer volume. For brands planning a fourth-quarter revenue spike, new buyers matter more than optimizing existing list yield.
The reallocation also reflects retailer leverage. Retail media networks—ads served on Amazon, Walmart, Target, and other platforms—allow brands to reach shoppers at the point of purchase decision. A shopper searching for a gift on Amazon in November sees the brand's product in a sponsored slot, bypassing the email inbox entirely. According to Glossy, several brands in the study are increasing spend on these placements to capture high-intent traffic during compressed holiday shopping windows.
A small physical-product brand can run the same play without matching enterprise budgets. Start by calculating owned-channel saturation. If email open rates have flattened below 18 percent over the past three sends, or SMS click-through has dropped below 4 percent, the list is tapped. Move 20 percent of the planned owned-channel holiday budget into Meta advantage+ shopping campaigns targeting lookalike audiences seeded from the existing customer file. Set the campaign to optimize for purchases, not clicks, and run it from November 1 through December 15. Track new-customer revenue separately from returning-customer revenue to measure the incremental lift.
Simultaneously, approach one retail partner—whether a marketplace, a specialty retailer, or a local chain—and negotiate a co-marketed holiday promotion. Offer the retailer an exclusive SKU or bundle, then split the cost of a paid social campaign driving traffic to the retailer's site. The retailer gains a differentiated product, the brand gains access to the retailer's audience, and both parties share ad spend. A $1,500 co-op budget split evenly funds a two-week Meta campaign reaching tens of thousands of qualified shoppers.
The broader implication is that owned channels are shifting from primary revenue drivers to retention and upsell tools. Brands still send holiday emails, but the expectation is to convert existing customers, not acquire new ones. The acquisition budget moves to paid and partnership channels where cold audiences convert at lower rates but deliver higher absolute volume. For a physical-product marketer planning 2026 holiday revenue, the play is to treat the email list as a base and build incremental revenue through paid reach and retail co-marketing. The owned channel holds the floor; paid and partnership channels build the ceiling.
When owned-channel returns flatten, move acquisition budget to paid social and retail partnerships while using email and SMS only for retention.
Editorial & Disclosure Notice: This article was written with artificial intelligence from public sources and is published without individual human review. Artificial intelligence and other digital tools are also used for research, analysis, editing, formatting, and production. Errors, omissions, outdated information, or inaccuracies may occur. References to companies, brands, products, services, organizations, or individuals are for informational and editorial purposes and do not imply endorsement, sponsorship, affiliation, partnership, or approval unless expressly stated. All trademarks and other intellectual property remain the property of their respective owners. Opinions, analysis, estimates, and commentary are informational only and should not be construed as financial, investment, legal, tax, medical, procurement, or other professional advice. Information may be corrected, clarified, or updated after publication. Corrections or removal requests: jenny@pops4.com.
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