Anyone paying attention to the influencer space has noticed that #ad and #sponsored increases significantly during the holiday season (and as I’ll discuss, even weeks before it even starts!) Some bloggers don’t acknowledge this increase (I personally choose not to) while others choose to preface the season by saying that there may be an uptick in sponsored posts, but it’s all brands that they’re excited to partner with. I’ve read articles about marketing budgets at this time of year, I’ve listened to podcasts about holiday marketing, I’ve watched many a Drink With James Episodes and I’ve read some snark on reddit, but I finally wanted to just come out and talk about what things actually look like for me, a full-time content creator, at this time of the year. If for anything, it’s simply to set the record straight, and also to fill you in on some of the weird things bloggers do – like putting Christmas trees up way too early, or getting on stories and saying they’re sooo tired.
I would consider my account, outside of being a fashion-focused account, a “Fall account.” There’s not too many of them actually, it’s a weird little niche I carved for myself solely out of my love for the Fall and my desire to wear mostly yellows and oranges, but because of this, I see my engagement and workload with brand partners begin to increase around early September. For me, it’s almost like a mini-holiday season before the holidays, and when brands are promoting anything orange, Fall themed or pumpkin-spiced flavored, I am obviously ALWAYS EXCITED to be on that kind of campaign. By mid-October, I’d say about a week before Halloween, e-mails start to roll in for holiday partnerships.
What is a “Holiday Partnership”?
To start, I want to be clear about what I mean by a holiday partnership! I’m sorry if this is basic 101 stuff for you, but so many DM’s still ask me how it all works. A holiday partnership basically means that a brand wants to work with me for the holiday season. I have so many different kinds of partnerships running – some, like my partnership with Essilor, are year-long. Others are only one-offs, meaning I will post once for a brand, and then the partnership is over. Many other brands want to partner for the holiday season, like for example, I consider myself lucky enough to have partnered with Etsy this holiday season for three months long. I also partnered with SiriusXM this holiday for two separate posts. The brand will e-mail me with a “scope of work” or an itemized list of what they want from me, whether it’s just 1 post, or a post with stories, or a blog post, etc. We discuss the rate, the timing they want the post to go live, what the creative will look like, etc. Once the contract is signed, it is time for me to get to work.
My first holiday partnership this year was for Etsy, and it went up on November 12th. So, from the outside, it seems like on November 12th I began to shift my feed to a holiday focus. But internally, we had been picking the product for this shoot and discussing what to focus on for weeks beforehand. In order to shoot this photo, I had to decorate my home early for the holidays. So yes, I did decorate for Christmas about 1-2 weeks after Halloween! But, in a bloggers universe, when we are shooting content in partnership with brands, we are sometimes at the mercy of their timeline, and when they want posts to be put up.
What does a Content Calendar and Shooting Schedule Look Like?
This leads me to my next topic – what in the world does my holiday calendar look like, and how do I run it? What does a normal week of work for a content creator look like? For me, the very first thing I will ask a brand who e-mails me (EVEN IF I LOVE THEM SOOO MUCH! ) is when they want content to be submitted by, and when they want the post to go up. Shockingly, some brands wait until the week-of to ask if you’d like to partner, which throws my entire content calendar off! Once I secure a job, and the contract is signed, I will add it to my “shooting calendar” and I will add the post date to my content calendar. Below is an example of what a week of posts and shoots could look like for me. I try to have an idea of what I am going to be posting and shooting for the week before the week begins, so my assistant Sea and I can location scout and plan ahead.
On a regular week, not during the holiday season, I’d say I shoot 1-2 sponsored jobs and the rest are shoots I’ve dreamed up – whether they’re styling videos, travel posts, home decor posts, etc. I try to keep my organic content as the focus of my feed. During the holiday season, this all changes. I had weeks where I shot 7 sponsored jobs in one week. I also try to squeeze in shoots for organic content as well, so this could mean certain days where we shoot 3 jobs in one day, and then the next day I’ll change 3 times to shoot 3 unsponsored looks. Basically, it’s a lot of planning, and shooting! You may by this point be wondering why anyone would take on so much, and the honest reason for me is that all of the partnerships I sign on with are EXCITING TO ME. From styling videos with Modcloth, to cute holiday gifting items from Fossil to partnering with incredible light shows like the Bronx Zoo and Luminocity, each and every one of the collaborations that land in my inbox, and eventually turn into actual jobs for me are things that I am SUPER EXCITED to be a part of! There just happens to be way more of them at this time of the year. I consider myself so so lucky, and even though things can get hectic, I’d rather work harder while there’s more jobs out there, and then slow down in the earlier months of January – March.
There’s a few reasons why the holidays are dramatically different from the rest of the year from the inside looking out, and here’s why:
So, when you take into account the shipping windows before Christmas when you’re shopping for presents(Usually you’ll need to get your orders in a few days before), it’s completely understandable why brands begin planning their campaigns around Halloween! They want to make sure that they’re giving holiday shoppers enough time to realistically shop their products. But this leads bloggers to push Christmas content earlier and earlier, decorate earlier, and also to seemingly not live in the moment around the holidays.
If there’s one thing that I can tell you all, it’s that I still do live in the moment! I work normal working hours, like most of you out there, and a majority of my content is shot from Monday – Friday from 9-5PM! Maybe it’s a bummer to find out how it all really works (and that a lot of posts are not truly in the moment) or maybe it gives some perspective on an industry that is tight-lipped and misunderstood. Either way, thanks for making it this far if you read the entire post!
I’d love to hear your thoughts on it all in the comments!