Seasonal Marketing: When to Start Planning Your Christmas Campaign

Quick answer

Start planning your Christmas campaign in September, and have it running by late October or early November. The peak trading weeks are the busiest of the year for most retail and hospitality businesses, so the shops that win are the ones already front of mind before shoppers start buying. Early planning also gets you better ad availability and rates, and time to fix anything that is not working.

Why early wins

Three simple reasons.

Shoppers decide sooner than you think. By the time the town centre lights go on, a lot of people have already chosen where they are spending. If your name is not in their head by early November, you are fighting to change a decision that is half made.

Advertising space and rates. Christmas is the most contested advertising window of the year. Book late and you take what is left at the price that is left. Book early and you get the slots you want at a calmer rate.

The businesses that win Christmas are not the ones that shout loudest in December. They are the ones people already had in mind in November.

Room to adjust. A campaign that starts in early November gives you weeks to see what is landing and shift budget towards it. A campaign that starts in December gives you days.

A month-by-month plan

Treat this as a template you can reuse every autumn.

August to early September: think Look back at last Christmas. What sold, what did not, what did customers ask for that you did not have? Set one clear goal (footfall, bookings, online orders, gift vouchers) and a budget you are comfortable with.

September: plan Decide your offer and your message. Choose your channels. If broadcast or outdoor is part of the mix, this is when to enquire, because you are booking ahead of the rush. Brief anyone making creative for you now.

Early October: build Get the creative made: ad scripts, social assets, window displays, email templates. Sort stock and staffing for the busy weeks. Nothing should be left to make in November.

Late October to early November: launch Go live. This is early enough to catch the planners and the organised gift buyers, and it means your name is already familiar when spending peaks. Run consistently rather than in one short burst.

December: push and capture Layer in last-minute and last-posting-date messages, gift vouchers for the truly late shoppers, and clear opening hours everywhere. Keep your Google Business Profile and listings bang up to date.

Early January: review Note what worked while it is fresh. Next year's plan starts here.

Where radio fits in the run-up

The Christmas run-up is when people are in the car more, doing the shopping runs, the school pickups, the trips to the retail parks. That is radio's home turf.

Radio reaches 51.1 million adults a week across the UK, 87% of adults (RAJAR, Q2 2026), and it reaches them in the two places a leaflet cannot: the car and the workplace. For a seasonal push that needs to build fast and stay in people's heads through a busy month, that repeated, trusted presence is useful. Radio advertising lifts ad awareness by 49% and brand trust by 32% (Radiocentre, "Radio: The Performance Multiplier", 2026).

It works best as part of a mix. Use radio to build the name and the offer in the weeks before the peak, then let search, social and your Google listing catch the people who go looking for you.

Frisk tip: Book your Christmas radio dates before the end of September if you can. The best slots in the run-up go early, and late booking costs you both choice and calm.

A quick note on the numbers

You will see plenty of claims about how big a share of annual sales happens at Christmas. Some are solid and some are not, so we have left the exact figure as a verification task rather than repeat a number we cannot stand behind. What is not in doubt is that for most retail and hospitality businesses these are the highest-spending weeks of the year, which is reason enough to plan early.

Your next step

Block out an hour in the last week of August to review last Christmas and set this year's goal. That single hour is what makes the rest of the plan easy. If a tight budget is the worry, start with the low-cost marketing ideas for local business, and if you are weighing your channel mix, the North East advertising guide lays out the options. When you are ready to look at radio for the run-up, Frisk can walk you through it.