Elevated grocery prices and anticipated holiday financial stress are making shoppers more selective about which brands earn a spot in the cart. But the bigger shift, according to a panel at ADWEEK House with Ibotta and Pernod Ricard, is the calendar: the holiday buying window is getting longer, and it starts earlier.
The holiday runway is stretching
Chris Dungan, VP of client partnerships at Ibotta, says consumers are “elongating that purchasing period” to flatten the consumption curve instead of compressing purchases into the final weeks before the holiday.
Krystle Rocci, integrated strategy director at Pernod Ricard, said the implication for brands is timing. The decision moment is moving earlier, so marketers need to reach consumers before they reach the shelf or the cart. Then, when the actual purchase decision happens, the brand is already in consideration.
Promotions need proof, not just reach
Pernod Ricard uses promotions to move large volumes of product quickly. With Ibotta’s first-party data, the spirits company can identify and attribute what changed consumer buying behavior during a promotion—rather than stopping at impression counts.
Rocci framed the creative test as reaching people in the right moment and right mindset to drive an intended action, and moving them down the purchase funnel. For spirits, that matters because purchase occasions are specific and often planned.
From trial to repeat purchase
A promotion can attract a first-time or lapsed buyer, but that is only the first test. Dungan says the true loyalty test is whether the consumer chooses the brand again on the next category purchase.
Rocci said the relationship levers include the bottle, the flavor profile, the price point, and continued re-engaging content. Pernod also wants buyers to explore the full portfolio; Absolut and Kahlua can complement each other on an espresso martini occasion, she noted.
That portfolio approach grows baskets and collective equity. Dungan added that leveraging promotions, scaling purchases across products, and driving incremental sales over a tight period is the kind of messaging that lands with CFOs as well as CMOs.
What to do with a longer season
- Move holiday media and promotion timing earlier than the traditional late-season burst.
- Use first-party data to attribute behavior change, not just ad impressions.
- Design the first promotion with the second purchase in mind: loyalty content and portfolio cross-sell.
For marketing teams, the shift is practical. A single December push misses the early intention window, and a promotion that cannot prove repeat purchase will stay a cost line rather than a growth argument. The brands that adapt will intercept the longer decision path with measurement that shows influence before the shelf.
Source: Adweek
