The holiday shopper has already decided how she’ll buy before most brands have finished their promotional calendar. More than 90% of shoppers plan to shop Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or another major sales event this year, according to Bain & Company’s 2026 Holiday Shopping Outlook. That is not a niche behavior anymore. It is the default.

Price Sensitivity Is The Season’s Baseline

Bain’s data frames this plainly: financial pressure has pushed price sensitivity to the front of nearly every purchase decision, and AI-enabled comparison tools have made price gaps impossible to hide. A shopper who used to compare two or three stores can now compare dozens in the time it takes to type a question into an AI platform. Promotions and competitive pricing aren’t a differentiator this season. They’re table stakes.

The Sale Window Rewards Whoever Got There First

Bain’s data shows shoppers aren’t just price-sensitive, they’re organized about it: deal-hunting starts well before Black Friday itself, and the brands already top of mind by the time the discounts hit are the ones that get the visit. A media plan that only shows up once the sale starts is competing for a decision that’s already mostly made.

Show Up Before The Sale

The advertisers who win Black Friday and Cyber Monday aren’t the ones with the loudest promotion on the day. They’re the ones who built awareness and brand preference weeks earlier, so that when the price comparison happens, on an app, in a store aisle, or through an AI assistant, their brand is already the one being compared favorably. Waiting until the sale window to show up means competing purely on price, against a shopper who has already made most of the decision.

At Media Manager, we build holiday media plans backward from that moment of comparison, not forward from the promotion calendar. By the time 90% of shoppers hit the sale, the brands that showed up first are the ones they remember.