If You’re Not Pitching for the Holidays Yet
You’re Already Behind
Why Strategy, Timing and Storytelling Define Who Wins the End-of-Year PR Game
There’s a moment every summer where it feels absurd to even utter the word "holiday." It’s still sweltering, school’s still out in most states and Q4 feels very, very far away.
But if you’re serious about driving visibility, credibility and business growth – whether you’re a jewelry company, a CPG brand, a women’s healthcare provider, a boutique law firm, or any expert-driven business – you need to know:
You’re already late.
Because when it comes to PR and earned media, the holiday season starts NOW.
Let me explain why.
🕰️ The PR Time Machine: Why You Need to Be Thinking Months Ahead
We like to say that PR is a time machine, because the stories you see publishing in November and December? MANY of them were pitched in July.
It used to be that editorial calendars (especially for the old-school “glossy” magazines) meant editors were working three to six months out, driven by ad sales and publishing cycles. While that’s no longer the norm for most media, planning hasn’t slowed down, it’s just evolved.
Today, journalists are under more pressure than ever to produce both evergreen content they know will hit the queue – think Best Christmas Gifts for Your Furry Friend, Holiday Party Looks That Wow, The Biggest Advancements in Women’s Healthcare in 2025 – while also staying nimble to cover shorter-lead trend stories and breaking news.
That means the foundations for those holiday, end-of-year and forward-looking stories? They’re being laid right now, even while you’re still booking Labor Day plans.
If you’re pitching holiday ideas in October, you’re not just late – you’ve missed half the party.
🎁 Product Brands: Gift Guides Don’t Happen by Accident
For product-based businesses, this timeline is even more critical. Q4 is the revenue super bowl: in 2024 alone, U.S. Q4 retail sales hit $1.98 trillion, with nearly $1 trillion in holiday season sales alone.
That’s not a wave you want to miss. But gift guide placements, “best of” lists and roundups don’t just fall into your lap. Editors are sourcing now. And with the explosion of affiliate-driven recommendations, your product’s visibility is often contingent on having the right programs (like Amazon or LTK) in place now.
Here’s what you should be locking in today:
Media-ready product images
Affiliate partnerships
Clear messaging on price, availability and shipping windows
A dedicated PR strategy for holiday-specific pitches
Because waiting until fall to get started is often the difference between being featured and being forgotten.
💡 Service-Based Businesses: Q4 is Your Thought Leadership Playground
What if you’re a consultant, service provider or expert-driven business? The holidays might not drive direct product sales, but the end of the year is your moment to:
Recap industry insights from 2025
Predict trends for 2026
Cement your authority with data-driven perspectives, white papers or surveys
Media outlets are already mapping year-end reflections and “what’s next” narratives. If you want to be the source journalists quote (and the one AI-powered search tools surface as the authority) the time to position yourself is now.
Pro tip: Field your surveys or proprietary research now if you want those insights published before year’s end or in early Q1. Without that kind of forward planning, it’s easy for your voice to be left out of the conversation entirely.
📣 PR is Your Visibility Strategy — Not an Afterthought
I say this all the time, but it’s worth repeating: PR isn’t just about luck. It’s about:
Crafting angles that cut through inbox clutter
Building relationships with media long before you need them
Telling your story with clarity, authority and credibility
This is especially important in the age of AI search. As we’ve written before, AI tools like ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews don’t just pull from your website, they pull from what the internet says about you, writ large.
If you’re not securing earned media, crafting carefully positioned thought leadership and showing up in the digital ecosystem, you’re handing control of your brand narrative to the algorithms. Spoiler alert: they’ll reduce you to the blandest version of your story.
🔍 TLDR: The PR Planning Checklist for August
✅ For product brands: Are you pitching for gift guides? Is your product “lookbook” and affiliate program dialed in?
✅ For service brands: What are your predictions, trends or data insights for Q4 and beyond?
✅ For all brands: Are you telling a cohesive, compelling story across all touchpoints – earned media, thought leadership and owned content?
If not, your competitors probably are.
🔮 Looking Ahead: Don’t Leave Your Q4 Strategy to Chance
The brands that show up in Q4 didn’t get there by accident - they planned for it months in advance. Whether it’s products in gift guides, experts quoted in year-end recaps, or thought leaders setting the tone for 2026, it all starts now.