Beyond the Festive Rush: How Top Brands Turn Seasonal Sparkle Into Year-Round Loyalty

This post was created in partnership with Roundel.

Main Facts: The Intersection of Seasonal Magic and Lasting Brand Loyalty

Holiday shopping has long been heralded as the Super Bowl of retail—a high-stakes, high-reward window where brands vie fiercely for consumer attention. However, industry leaders are shifting their gaze past the December finish line. A recent ADWEEK House Advertising HQ fireside chat, co-hosted with media network powerhouse Roundel, explored a transformative premise: the ultimate goal of holiday marketing is not just a high fourth-quarter sales ledger, but the cultivation of enduring, year-round consumer relationships.

The panel, moderated by Liz Kneebone, Vice President of Community Programs and Development at ADWEEK, brought together Jenny Holleran, Vice President of the Partner Solutions Group at Roundel, and Meredith Diehn, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Goodwipes. Together, they dissected how modern brands can leverage seasonal joy, cross-channel integration, and hyper-targeted consumer empathy to transform fleeting holiday shoppers into lifelong brand loyalists.

The core takeaway for modern marketers is clear: while tentpole moments like the winter holidays, the Super Bowl, and back-to-school shopping seasons provide unmatched entry points for customer acquisition, their true value lies in their capability to seed long-term habits. By meeting shoppers with unexpected delight, addressing real-world pain points, and maintaining omnichannel continuity, brands can build lasting emotional equity that withstands the post-holiday lull.

Chronology of the Conversation: From Impulse Buys to Intentional Engagement

To understand how brands can capture—and keep—consumer attention, the conversation flowed chronologically through the modern consumer journey, starting with the chaotic spontaneity of physical and digital storefronts and ending with long-term retention strategies.

1. The Reality of the Non-Linear Path to Purchase

Jenny Holleran opened the discussion by grounding the theory in a universally relatable scenario: the classic Target run. A consumer walks through the sliding doors with the strict intention of picking up a single household essential. Yet, an hour later, they leave with a cart containing a new Christmas tree, several impulse home-decor items, and a $300 bill.

This phenomenon highlights a fundamental truth of modern retail: consumers do not follow a linear path from inspiration to purchase. The journey is messy, winding, and heavily influenced by serendipitous discovery. For platforms like Target and media networks like Roundel, the objective is not to interrupt this meandering path, but to enhance it. By delivering inspiration seamlessly—both digitally and in-store—brands can turn unplanned discoveries into positive, memorable experiences rather than disruptive sales pitches.

2. Identifying Pain Points as the Catalyst for Joy

Shifting the lens to product-specific strategy, Meredith Diehn explained how Goodwipes—a fast-growing flushable wipe brand—finds its footing in unexpected places by anchoring its marketing in consumer empathy. Rather than relying solely on traditional advertising tropes, Goodwipes targets real-world discomfort.

For instance, the brand frequently activates at endurance events like marathons, where public or temporary bathroom facilities are notoriously subpar. By supplying high-quality products and pairing them with upscale, unexpected packaging, Goodwipes elevates a mundane necessity into a moment of unexpected luxury.

“For us, it’s understanding what those pain points are, and how can a booty wipe, as simple as that, provide a little bit of fun and joy?” Diehn noted during the session.

This philosophy extends directly into the holiday season. Recognizing that the holidays can be intensely stressful for household hosts, Goodwipes pivoted its seasonal messaging to alleviate holiday hosting friction. By positioning its products as a simple, effective way to upgrade the guest bathroom experience, the brand positioned itself as an ally to stressed-out hosts, turning a practical product into an act of holiday hospitality.

3. Bridging the Gap: From Seasonal Spark to Everyday Routine

Once a brand successfully captures a consumer’s attention during a high-traffic window, the critical challenge begins: continuity. Both Holleran and Diehn emphasized that the end of December should mark the beginning of a deeper consumer relationship, not the conclusion of a campaign.

Diehn pointed to the emotional power of nostalgia as a vehicle for continuity. During the holidays, consumers are acutely focused on preserving childhood traditions and forging new ones with their own families. Brands that align themselves with these emotional touchstones can anchor themselves deeply in family memory.

However, maintaining momentum requires more than nostalgia; it requires strategic persistence. Holleran posed a vital question for brand strategists: “How are you showing up and reminding consumers to purchase your product, because they had that joy during that big seasonal introductory moment, and continuing that through until it becomes routine?”

To achieve this, Diehn suggested that brands look beyond traditional advertising calendar markers (such as Q4, back-to-school, and summer kickoffs) and instead map their outreach to personal consumer inflection points. Whether a consumer is training for a spring marathon, packing a postpartum hospital bag, or managing a major life transition, everyday personal milestones offer rich, contextual opportunities to maintain engagement.

Supporting Data and Industry Insights: The Economics of Omnichannel Delight

While creative storytelling and emotional resonance form the heart of modern marketing, data-driven execution dictates success in a crowded media landscape. Retail media networks (RMNs) like Roundel—Target’s in-house media company—sit at the epicenter of this shift, leveraging first-party data to help brands connect with high-intent shoppers across multiple touchpoints.

The Power of the Retail Media Ecosystem

According to recent digital marketing industry analyses, retail media spending continues to outpace traditional display advertising growth. This surge is driven by a simple consumer reality: shoppers are increasingly receptive to brand messaging when they are already in a "shopping mindset," whether browsing a retailer’s website or walking down physical aisles.

Key industry metrics underscore the strategies discussed by Holleran and Diehn:

• The Omnichannel Expectation: Over 70% of modern consumers research products digitally before making an in-store purchase, or vice versa, making unified cross-channel messaging critical for brand survival.
• The Value of Unexpected Discovery: Data shows that impulse and unexpected purchases account for a significant percentage of basket sizes during peak retail seasons, proving that ambient inspiration is a major revenue driver.
• Retention vs. Acquisition: Industry benchmarks consistently demonstrate that acquiring a new customer can cost anywhere from five to seven times more than retaining an existing one. This economic reality validates the panelists’ emphasis on turning one-time holiday buyers into year-round brand loyalists.

By utilizing first-party retail data, brands can identify who bought their products during a tentpole event like the winter holidays, track their purchasing patterns into the new year, and deploy targeted digital or in-store reminders before the customer’s product runs out or their habits wane.

Official Responses and Strategic Perspectives

The fireside chat provided a masterclass in modern brand stewardship, featuring direct guidance from executives who are actively shaping the future of retail marketing.

Jenny Holleran on Putting the Consumer First

Holleran’s overarching directive for marketers navigating an increasingly complex media ecosystem was refreshingly fundamental: start with the guest, not the media channel or the Key Performance Indicator (KPI).

In an era where marketers are inundated with metrics—impressions, click-through rates, attribution models, and ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)—it is easy to lose sight of the human being on the receiving end of the campaign. Holleran argues that true omnichannel success begins by mapping out what the consumer actually wants, needs, and feels at any given touchpoint. When a campaign is designed around genuine consumer utility and delight, the performance metrics naturally follow.

Meredith Diehn on Cultivating Community and Reciprocity

Diehn built upon this human-centric approach by emphasizing the importance of nurturing existing brand communities. Rather than pouring the entirety of a marketing budget into top-of-funnel acquisition, brands should invest heavily in making their current followers feel seen, valued, and appreciated.

Diehn shared a tactical example from Goodwipes’ own playbook: proactively reaching out to dedicated followers via direct messages (DMs) to send unprompted care packages as a token of gratitude.

“That kind of joy, of feeling like a brand that you love loves you right back, is something that you can’t replicate,” Diehn stated.

This grassroots, high-touch approach demonstrates that brand loyalty is a two-way street. When consumers feel an emotional reciprocity with a brand, they transform from passive buyers into active brand advocates who evangelize the product within their own social circles.

Strategic Implications: What This Means for Marketers

The insights shared by Roundel and Goodwipes carry profound implications for brand strategists, media planners, and retail executives preparing for the future of commerce.

1. The Redefinition of "Seasonality"

Marketers must retire the outdated notion that seasonal campaigns are isolated sprints. Instead, tentpole moments should be treated as high-velocity onboarding funnels. Every holiday shopper, back-to-school parent, or Super Bowl snack buyer represents a lead for year-round habit formation. Brands that fail to build retention bridges between major shopping seasons risk wasting the heavy acquisition investments made during Q4.

2. Empathy as a Competitive Advantage

In commoditized product categories—such as personal care, household goods, and packaged foods—traditional functional benefits are no longer enough to secure brand preference. As Goodwipes demonstrated, identifying acute consumer pain points (such as uncomfortable marathon facilities or stressful holiday hosting duties) and solving them with a touch of luxury and humor creates a powerful emotional moat.

3. The Imperative of First-Party Data Integration

As the digital advertising landscape phases out legacy tracking methods and privacy regulations tighten, partnerships with retail media networks will become increasingly vital. RMNs provide brands with clean, privacy-compliant first-party data that illuminates the true, non-linear consumer journey. By leveraging these insights, brands can target consumers not just based on broad demographics, but on actual behavioral inflection points throughout the year.

4. Humanizing the Brand Experience

Finally, the discussion serves as a timely reminder that algorithmic efficiency must be balanced with human empathy. Whether it is a surprise DM from a brand founder, a thoughtfully packaged product that turns a chore into a delight, or an in-store display that sparks a moment of genuine wonder, the brands that win the future will be those that prioritize human connection over sterile conversion metrics.

Conclusion

Holiday shopping will always be a critical revenue driver for brands across industries, but its true power lies in its potential for transformation. By treating seasonal moments not as final destinations, but as the starting line for lasting relationships, brands can transcend the holiday rush. Through deep consumer empathy, strategic omnichannel continuity, and genuine community engagement, companies like Goodwipes and retail partners like Roundel are proving that the joy of the holidays doesn’t have to end on December 31—it can fuel brand loyalty all year long.