Transform holiday marketing challenges into opportunities
Raise your hand if you’re ready to stop dwelling on economic headlines. We hear you.
Holiday planning in 2026 is happening in an environment where consumer behavior, promotional budgets, competitive activity, and market conditions can change quickly. While brands can’t control those factors, they can control how quickly they respond.
The brands that perform best during the holiday season are often the ones that can act on new opportunities faster than competitors. That might mean launching a rebate when pricing pressure increases, introducing a sweepstakes tied to a retail partner promotion, or extending an offer that is already outperforming expectations.
This is where Quick-to-Market (QTM) promotions come in.
Rather than waiting months for a fully custom build, QTM promotions allow brands to launch proven promotional experiences in days, giving marketing teams the flexibility to react to changing conditions without sacrificing quality, compliance, or the consumer experience.
With the holiday season quickly approaching, speed can become a competitive advantage.
What is QTM?
QTM is our rapid-launch promotion platform designed to help brands launch sweepstakes, rebates, and other promotional campaigns quickly and efficiently. Built using a proven framework, QTM allows brands to get promotions into market in a matter of days rather than months.
The platform is designed specifically for standard consumer promotions and focuses on simplicity, conversion, and speed to market. It includes mobile-friendly entry forms, receipt upload capabilities, Google Analytics integration, fraud protection tools, and flexible branding options while avoiding the complexity of a fully custom website build.
Because the foundation is already built, marketing teams can focus on strategy and execution rather than lengthy development timelines. This makes QTM particularly valuable for brands that need to react quickly to market conditions, retailer opportunities, seasonal promotions, or late-breaking campaign ideas.
Consumers are looking for value this holiday season
Much has been written about consumers shopping earlier and becoming more deliberate about how they spend their money. While economic conditions continue to evolve, one thing remains consistent: consumers actively seek value during the holiday season.
Research from recent holiday shopping studies continues to show strong interest in promotional events, discounts, rebates, and limited-time offers. Consumers are comparing prices more frequently, evaluating brands based on value, and looking for opportunities to stretch their budgets further.
Much has been written about consumers stocking up early on essentials and even holiday gifts to avoid higher prices later. Last year’s Salsify Holiday Pulse Report shows that 15% of shoppers were among the early birds, with much of the shopping activity concentrated in the fall holiday season.
58% plan to shop in peak holiday season, September through December
73% are enthusiastic about Black Friday Deals (up 11% over 2024)
For brands, this creates a balancing act. Holiday strategies still require long-term planning, but they also need flexibility.
A successful holiday promotions strategy often combines:
- Long-term promotional planning
- Real-time adjustments based on market conditions
- The ability to launch new offers quickly when opportunities emerge
QTM promotions help balance planning and agility.
Why are QTM promotions becoming more popular?
Marketing teams are being asked to do more with less while responding to market changes faster than ever.
Promotional opportunities can emerge quickly through retailer partnerships, competitive activity, seasonal trends, social media conversations, or shifts in consumer demand. Traditional custom development timelines often make it difficult to capitalize on these opportunities before they pass.
Quick-to-Market promotions solve this challenge by providing a ready-to-launch framework that significantly reduces development time while maintaining a professional consumer experience. Instead of spending months planning, designing, and developing a custom promotional experience, brands can focus on promoting the offer and driving participation.
How fast can a QTM promotion launch?
One of the biggest advantages of a QTM promotion is the ability to go from idea to launch much faster than a traditional custom-built promotion. For existing clients, promotions can move from kickoff to launch in as little as one week after onboarding requirements are complete.
Because the framework already exists, there is no need to build an entirely new promotional site from scratch. Core functionality is already in place, including:
- Mobile-responsive entry forms
- Receipt upload functionality
- Google Analytics integration
- Customizable branding elements
- Fraud prevention capabilities
- Consumer data collection and reporting
These built-in features help reduce development timelines while maintaining a high-quality experience for consumers.
What’s included in a QTM promotion?
Modern QTM platforms should provide more than just a landing page.
Our QTM framework includes:
- Mobile-friendly promotion experiences
- Consumer registration and data collection
- Receipt and proof-of-purchase uploads
- Two-factor authentication for fraud prevention
- Google Analytics integration
- UTM parameter tracking
- Custom-branded headers and promotional messaging
- Flexible payment and reward options
- Thank-you page customization
One of the newest capabilities is enhanced UTM parameter tracking, which allows marketers to identify which campaigns, channels, and traffic sources are driving conversions. This makes it easier to connect promotion performance back to paid media, email, social, and other marketing initiatives.
While speed is a major advantage, brands should never have to sacrifice compliance, security, or fraud prevention to get a promotion into market quickly.
When should brands use a Quick-to-Market promotion instead of a custom build?
Not every promotion requires a fully customized solution.
QTM promotions are often a strong fit when brands need to:
- Launch quickly
- Stay within a defined budget
- Run a single rebate or sweepstakes offer
- Capture receipt submissions
- Collect consumer data
- Test a promotional concept before investing in a larger build
Rebates and sweepstakes are particularly well-suited for a QTM framework because they typically rely on proven consumer journeys that do not require extensive customization. However, if a promotion requires complex integrations, advanced functionality, extensive data requirements, or highly customized user experiences, a custom solution may be a better fit.
Ultimately, the most important thing is matching the promotional strategy to the business objective.
How QTM promotions help brands stay agile during the holidays
Holiday promotions rarely unfold exactly as planned. Budgets shift. Retail priorities change. Competitive activity increases. New opportunities emerge.
A QTM solution gives marketing teams the flexibility to respond without waiting months for development resources. Whether a brand wants to launch an additional rebate, support a retailer promotion, capitalize on a trending moment, or extend an existing campaign, a Quick-to-Market framework makes those decisions easier to execute.
The QTM solution frees you from the need to lock into a holiday promotion months in advance—giving you flexibility to adjust for tariffs, shifting budgets and late-breaking trends. Agility is key in a year where conditions are changing rapidly.
A QTM can help brands achieve a trifecta for their holiday promotions strategy: a long-term plan that has been in the works for months, a QTM that gives them the ability to be nimble as economic conditions change, which leads to the strongest possible approach to holiday planning.
One thing that never changes is the desire of consumers to find value in a season that tends to bring them the best shopping opportunities of the year. Consumers continue to show strong holiday spending, with U.S. holiday season spending increasing by an estimated 4.2% year over year in 2025, reaching approximately $1 trillion in total expenditures, according to aggregated estimates reported by Englebrook Independent News based on retail and financial data. We’re optimistic for a successful season in 2026 and are committed to equipping our clients with the best tools to capture it.
The bottom line
Holiday success is no longer determined solely by the promotions planned six months in advance. Increasingly, it depends on how effectively brands can adapt when conditions change.
Quick-to-Market promotions provide a practical way to combine strategic planning with executional agility. By reducing launch timelines, lowering implementation complexity, and maintaining a professional consumer experience, QTM solutions help brands respond to opportunities when they matter most.
For marketing teams preparing for this holiday season, the ability to launch a sweepstakes, rebate, or promotional campaign in days rather than months can create a meaningful competitive advantage. When consumer behavior, budgets, and market conditions are constantly evolving, the brands that can move quickly are often the ones best positioned to capitalize on new opportunities.
