Consumer shopping habits are being shaped by social media more than ever before. As marketers begin planning their upcoming holiday campaigns, it’s important they understand and capitalize on the profound effect social media has on this crucial season. Whether it’s a trending recipe, a viral product review, or a favorite creator’s curated gift guide, social media is setting the tone for how people plan and shop. 

In 2025, brands and agencies are making bigger bets than ever on social and influencer strategies. The influencer marketing industry is expected to grow more than 12% this year, reaching $22.2 billion. Meanwhile, the global creator economy is projected to more than double by 2030, surging to over $528 billion. 

Social can’t be a side channel when it comes to holiday campaigns when it is so central to how consumers discover and connect with brands. Instead, put social at the center, and harness insightful audience tools to amplify its impact out of platform.  

How Influencer Content Shapes How People Shop  

The number of user-generated content creators has grown by 93% over the past year, reflecting a continued shift in who holds influence. Today’s holiday shoppers are just as likely to be swayed by a micro-influencer’s cozy décor haul or a friend’s festive charcuterie board as they are by a celebrity endorsement. 

As a result, brands are embracing a wider pool of creators. There are 162 million content creators in the US, with 45 million of those creators working professionally to produce content. That expanded pool opens more targeted, relatable ways to engage audiences across interests, locations, and lifestyles. 

The magic of the holidays is tailor made for social media content and influence. From gift giving to the curation of celebrations, meals, and family experiences, marketers can leverage social media’s undeniable influence on consumer holiday spending. 

But while many marketers are investing in influencer content directly on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, few have a scalable holiday campaign strategy for extending that engagement across other media. That’s where new opportunity lies, and Alliant is gearing up to help brands make the most of it this holiday season.  

Influence Everywhere: A Holiday Example 

Food writer, chef and influencer, Alison Roman attracts a highly engaged audience with her Holiday Ham Party content on YouTube. The audience engaging with this content is an ideal fit for brands like WIlliams-Sonoma or Le Creuset, which is already an Alison Roman favorite.  

A cookware brand could reach consumers engaging with Alison’s content on social platforms and extend that momentum across other channels like programmatic digital, CTV and direct mail. Through a custom audience, the same cookware brand could hone in on affluent adults with an HHI $150K+, strong interest in cooking and food, or propensity to purchase William-Sonoma brand products.  

The result, reaching a holiday host looking to bring a ham dinner with wow factor to their family celebration with the relevant cooking product messaging across multiple touchpoints. This is a data collaboration with some serious full-funnel influence. 

The Right Audiences to Drive Holiday Impact 

Alliant’s Social Audience solutions give marketers a way to build audience strategies rooted in what’s happening on social and deploy them across any channel. These audiences are built using social signals from top platforms like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitch, and LinkedIn. What makes them unique in the vast landscape of audience targeting data is the ability to layer those signals with powerful demographic, behavioral, and lifestyle data from Alliant’s DataHub. 

As holiday planning gets underway, brands are hungry for new ways to capture attention and drive conversion in a season where every impression counts. Alliant’s Ultimate Holiday Audience Guide offers countless ways to reach shoppers across a wide range of planning, shopping and celebration audience categories, include social, CPG and custom audiences. 

Interested in sprinkling some holidata magic onto your campaigns this season? Reach out to Alliant.