Using Print to Stand Out During the Holidays: Ideas for Seasonal Marketing, Packaging & Gifts

Thanks to the winter holidays, Q4 is often the most energized and celebratory quarter of the year. This gives brands an unparalleled opportunity to connect with customers, clients, staff, and other stakeholders through custom prints and packaging. Afterall, the tangible aspects of handling prints and packages are fundamentally linked to the holiday experience. Rituals like opening boxes, receiving cards, and putting up holiday decorations can all be tapped into with print and packaging design, building goodwill and positive associations for your brand.

Despite this, many brands still phone it in during the holidays, producing generic campaign concepts and print materials just so they can have something technically new for that year. But consider this: the ‘checking a box’ approach is a huge faux pas for personal gift giving. It makes recipients feel like no real care was shown. So why would one expect it to work any better in marketing, where a brand is even less likely to be given the benefit of the doubt than a person?

To help your brand avoid the pitfall of a generic holiday campaign, we’ve compiled some of our favorite print and packaging customizations that will get your creativity snowballing. Use these strategies to tap into the joy that permeates the holiday season and build stronger connections with everyone your brand holds dear.

Seasonal Packaging That Gets Noticed

For many, the winter holidays are centered on gift giving. That makes great packaging design a particularly impactful marketing move during this season. While a plain, brown box will certainly get stuff moved from A to B, it’s also a huge missed opportunity to build rapport, loyalty, and brand reputation with the recipient.

For packaging that really stands out during the holidays, consider using:

• Custom Folding Cartons - An easy-to-assemble solution that elevates your product presentation, custom folding cartons easily accommodates seasonal re-designs, and enhances the sense of value and uniqueness associated with the products it contains.
• Foil Details - Always an eye-catching and value-enhancing finish, foil printing tends to feel particularly appropriate during festive occasions. Adding foil to your holiday packaging can help customers draw connections between the joy and celebration of the season and your brand’s particular offerings.
• Special Unboxing Experiences - Think custom packaging that’s designed to be reused as a gift box, kitted crates with surprise gifts or blind box elements, and printed designs that feature crafts, puzzles, or decorations. These kinds of out-of-the-box (pun intended) ideas will extend the time your recipients spend with your materials, and can help link your brand to fun, lasting holiday memories.
• Unique Textures- Enhanced tactile experiences like spot gloss patterns or soft touch finish can help your holiday packaging feel more sophisticated, playful, and/or artisanal - all desirable emotions associated with the holidays.
• Holiday Look Books and Catalogs - Including high-quality holiday lookbooks or catalogs as bonus gifts with your packaged materials can increase the sense of value each delivery imparts. It also ensures your brand’s wider offerings are immediately available for recipients to browse, right when interest and excitement are at their peak.

Holiday Marketing Collateral

Of course, not everything printed for the holidays is a box or a carton. So much of what’s sent and shared is 2D print collateral like brand inserts, thank-you notes, limited edition promotional flyers, etc. These materials also provide ample opportunity to connect with holiday cheer, connecting your brand directly with the joys of card-sending traditions.

One strategy for making your collateral more meaningful to the season involves developing unique holiday motifs and artwork. Specifically, assets that reference both your brand and the look and feel of the season. Such designs can fall anywhere along the formal-to-whimsical spectrum, depending on your brand and intended audience. One business might opt for a scenic drone shot of their snow-covered corporate campus, leaning into the iconic natural beauty of the season. Another could create a retro greeting card-inspired re-work of their brand’s logo or mascot, tying themselves to the warmth and nostalgia of the holidays. Whatever approach you take, the key is to find a design balance that instantly reads as your brand while confidently incorporating elements of the holidays.

You can also help your print collateral tap into the excitement of gift giving with elements like:

• QR codes linking to digital campaigns.
• Exclusive holiday discount codes.
• ‘Freebies’ built into the printed design, like gift tags that can be cut out and used for gift wrapping.

Client & Partner Gifting Made Memorable

Printed holiday gifts are an excellent way to make a memorable impression on important clients, customers, partners, investors, and more. These print products may function as enhancements to the gift itself, such as custom gift wrap and packaging. Or, they can serve as the gift itself. Think stationery, printed greeting card sets, commemorative books, planners, and calendars.

Adding personalization and enhanced finishes to these materials can help communicate an even stronger message of gratitude by upping their perceived value and thoughtfulness. Popular techniques for elevating print quality include:

• Adding the names or initials of the recipient.
• Embossing text or design elements.
• Using spot gloss or foil to pick up key design details.

Of course, nothing really says ‘we appreciate you’ quite like a handwritten note tucked in with a gift. But if this isn’t feasible due to time or scale restraints, you can also use high-quality printing to reproduce a handwritten message of thanks at scale.

Need a commercial print and packaging partner for your next holiday campaign? We’d love to hear from you! At Wallace Carlson, we have over 90 years of experience creating innovative custom print and packaging solutions for clients in every imaginable industry. Simply reach out to our team today to set your print plans in motion!