Celebrity-fronted campaigns are taking over 2025 holiday ads
Expect star-studded holiday campaigns across all media channels this year as brands lean on celebrity partners to help boost brand awareness in an ultra-competitive shopping environment.
Some examples include True Religion working with Ciara, Fashionphile naming Martha Stewart its 2025 holiday ambassador and Nordstrom’s “Oh What Fun” campaign leading with actor-turned-TikTok icon Kyle MacLachlan. And Shipt this week rolled out a campaign with actor Sterling K. Brown that highlights its new gifting feature.
Justin Baer, founder and CEO at menswear Collars & Co., said his 4-year-old company felt ready to invest in more celebrity marketing ahead of the holiday season after hitting $50 million in sales last year. So far this year, the company is seeing a 60% year-over-year sales increase. To help bolster the brand ahead of the holiday season, the company announced in late October that its newest ambassadors are businessman Bill Rancic and football announcer Greg Olsen, who will be featured in campaigns across social channels and in stores.
“We’re really looking to build long-term partnerships with these people as brand ambassadors and do more than just a few posts,” he said. The brand also has existing partnerships with NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson and ESPN sportscaster Joe Buck. “We know that’s not going to end up paying for their fees. But, you know, it’s our brand association, and these are guys who connect with our audience and can help amplify our brand. But it’s definitely a long-term play.”
At a time when brands are scrutinizing every marketing dollar, some brands are betting on star power to drive growth. The holiday season is a prime time to get in front of shoppers, and people will spend an average of about $890 this season, according to the National Retail Federation, the most out of any consumer spending event of the year. In turn, some holiday campaigns are hoping that the right celebrity partnership will help them stand out and drive more awareness beyond holiday sales themselves.
Commie McMullen, executive creative director at music partner Massive Music who works on partnerships between brands and musicians, said more brands are looking for people with staying power as they increase their influencer marketing spend.
“A more traditional influencer up to quite high level can be killed by an algorithm, whereas with artists, you will always be sought out,” he said. “People will always physically go to record shops and to gigs, so that makes them very, very compelling.”
The payoff can be especially big when the celebrity posts about the partnership. Sephora nabbed the “Queen of Christmas” herself, Mariah Carey, for a holiday campaign titled “It’s Time,” which started on Nov. 1. The ad also features actor and comedian Billy Eichner as a disgruntled elf who tries to cancel Christmas. The ad generated 2.5 million views on Carey’s YouTube page in under two days, and was timed to coincide with the start of the annual Sephora Savings Event.
Baer from Collars and Co. said campaigns featuring celebrities may not generate as much impact as they used to or drive immediate sales. “In the old days, you could pay Dwayne Johnson $30,000, and you could pretty much guarantee you’re going to deliver a million views on a video,” he said. “Now, these celebrities with huge followings might only get 10,000 views on a video if it’s not good.”
Instead, he said it makes sense to invest in bigger-name partners when a company can distribute the campaign materials across channels like social, direct mail, out-of-home, podcasting and television. Overall, he said, the goal is to build long-term brand awareness.
“You’re paying for brand affinity, and that’s really strong,” Baer said. “We’re at that stage where we’re spending a little bit more on brand and on the long game, and we’re really excited about it.”
He said his team will track social engagement, customer surveys and LTV to help gauge effectiveness of the new partnerships, but with the mindset that it’s not necessarily about what the numbers immediately show.
“This is our first holiday season doing something like this, and we are a direct response company. But we understand we’re not going to see [the same] ROAS numbers on these kinds of campaigns as we’ve been seeing with our direct response campaigns,” Baer said.
Another newer facet of the celebrity campaign is going beyond simply featuring talent in photography by building curated product selections. Sephora has said it will feature Carey’s favorite beauty picks on its site, while Collars & Co. is putting together “Greg Olson’s Edit” and “Joe Buck’s Picks” landing pages that highlight the pieces shown in their campaigns. Baer said the brand will also utilize campaign photography in three new stores that are opening this quarter. While sales are predominantly online, Baer said the company’s core customers are older men who still value the in-store experience.
It’s not only Collars and Co. that thinks about what celebrity-fronted holiday campaigns can mean for new customer acquisition at a time when they know people are out shopping.
Kristen D’Arcy, CMO at True Religion, told Modern Retail that the brand’s 2025 campaign starring Ciara is aimed at celebrating confident, multi-hyphenate women as it aims to grow women’s sales to make up 60% of its business.
“A couple of years ago, it was 40% women, 60% men’s,” D’Arcy said. “Now, it’s almost an even 50-50, and we think there’s a tremendous growth opportunity to bring new women into the brand. But because they control the majority of purchasing decisions in the house, we also know they influence what the men and the kids in their lives wear.”
Julia Waldow contributed reporting to this article.