Seasonal promotions offer brands powerful opportunities to gain consumer attention, but they also face a flood of competing messages. To stand out, marketers must meet their audience where they spend their time and combine presence with timely, relevant, and engaging messaging.

Effective campaigns are built long before the moments of connection arrive. Whether it’s the start of a new season, a “Hallmark” holiday, or a cultural moment of celebration, brands that plan ahead can launch with precision, reaching the right audience at the moment their interest peaks.

Timing, in this case, is everything — a point proven by Tinuiti, a large independent full-funnel marketing agency that developed a seasonal strategy in late 2024 that drove significant growth for illy, an Italian coffee company known for its premium espresso.

Tinuiti’s full-funnel approach utilized Amazon’s advertising solutions to reach consumers across digital media, where they watch their favorite shows and movies or listen to their preferred podcasts. The campaign resulted in 34.9% year-over-year revenue growth for illy: a performance that earned Tinuiti and illy the Amazon Ads Partner Award for Seasonal Strategy. In this article, we’ll share tips from Tinuiti for how other brands can achieve similar success.

The Amazon Ads Partner Awards spotlight agencies and partners that drive advertiser success with Amazon Ads across both regional and global categories. The Seasonal Strategy Award honors partners who excel at delivering three-phase campaigns during the biggest shopping moments of the year, from Prime Day and Black Friday to the holiday season.

For illy, Tinuiti delivered just that. The seasonal campaign, which launched on International Coffee Day (October 1) to build momentum leading up to the peak of the holiday shopping season, generated such strong demand that illy reached the #1 Best Seller position on Amazon.com in the ground coffee category during Q4 2024.

Inside the numbers of Tinuiti’s success

Illy is a familiar presence on grocery store shelves, with its signature red logo and sleek silver tins. But even with strong brand recognition, illy started 2024 with a minimal share of a crowded coffee category and declining brand consideration. The brand needed to make an effective change.

Tinuiti set out to deliver one. After identifying gaps in illy's marketing approach, the agency developed a three-phase strategy designed to meet shoppers at every stage of their journey. Streaming TV and Prime Video placements helped rebuild upper-funnel awareness, and Amazon DSP and Sponsored Ads provided tailored remarketing to drive conversions among high-intent audiences.

The campaign delivered a significant lift. Illy saw 42.8% growth in new-to-brand orders, a 34.9% jump in revenue from Q3 to Q4, and a 28% higher click-through rate on ads featuring the #1 Best Seller badge. The surge led to illy reaching the #1 Best Seller spot in the ground coffee category for the first time in Q4.

These wins built on an earlier test run in Q2 2024, where illy recorded a 21% increase in brand consideration. Together, the results strengthened illy's position heading into the holiday season and underscored the success of Tinuiti’s full-funnel seasonal strategy.

4 lessons from an award-winning campaign

By building a full-funnel strategy with Amazon Ads, Tinuiti captured peak demand, boosted visibility, and drove increased conversion and new-to-brand growth.

The result is a blueprint for seasonal success that other brands can follow for their seasonal campaign. Tinuiti’s tips include:

1. Maintain an Always-On Media Intelligence Engine: “Dedicate a portion of your budget to year-round testing across channels,” notes Jordan Lampi, a commerce strategist at Tinuiti, who worked on the illy campaign. “Use these ongoing campaigns to isolate and validate high-impact variables (creative, audiences, bids) to refine and de-risk your critical peak season strategy.”
2. Architect the Full-Funnel Customer Experience: Lampi emphasizes that each creative element plays a specific and crucial role in the customer journey. “Design targeted, stage-specific messaging and creative (awareness, consideration, conversion) that aligns precisely with the customer's buying intent.” And monitor the effectiveness regularly. “Maximize reach and efficiency by rigorously testing diverse ad formats and inventory pools beyond traditional conversion tactics,” Lampi suggests.
3. Establish Data Benchmarks: Setting expectations and a realistic timeline is always a best practice before launching a new advertising campaign, notes Karie Casper, commerce senior strategist at Tinuiti, who worked alongside Lampi on the illy campaign. Benchmarks should rely on historical data to define clear and measurable KPIs. “This proactive data-grounding ensures that post-event performance is not just measured but contextualized against clear goals, leading to unambiguous insights and reporting,” says Casper.
4. Mandate Cross-Functional Strategic Alignment: “Drive frequent and transparent communication across all contributing teams (Media, Creative, Operations), adds Joe O’Connor, senior innovation and growth director at Tinuiti. “Ensure crystal-clear alignment on shared objectives, the overarching campaign strategy, and the critical operational handoffs necessary for flawless execution.”

Driving measurable lift when it matters most

The holiday season from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day represents the most concentrated revenue window in retail. In 2024, this period generated $994.1 billion in retail sales, accounting for nearly 19% of annual revenue compressed into just two months.[1]  

These numbers underscore the importance of engaging with audiences during retail’s peak season with promotional messaging across digital media. Brands must plan well in advance to connect with shoppers in this compressed window of intense retail activity. Whether announcing limited-edition rollouts or introducing new festive flavors, engaging with customers across their preferred channels helps brands stand out from the crowd.

Brands can learn from Tinuiti’s year-round testing protocols, full-funnel customer experiences, and data-driven campaigns across digital channels to build their own successful seasonal campaigns.

[1] National Retail Federation | NRF Says Holiday Season Was a Notable Success as ‘Consumers Came Out to Spend’ | January 16, 2025