Weekly Brief: December 8, 2025
Lisa Frederick, Director of Marketing at Ciao Bambino, a travel advisory service, noted that “Family vacation demand is heating up well in advance of ‘Planuary,’ the rush that traditionally kicks off after the New Year.” My initial takeaway was that I had never heard the term “planuary” to describe the spike in lookers and bookers that historically happens in Q1. But also that numerous destinations are now seeing people locking in their 2026 family vacations a bit further out and ahead of the Q1 rush.
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― Marketing Briefs ―
News To Act On
⚡️ 180+ Social Media Calendar for Every Holiday of 2026 // Buffer
There are lots of calendars out there, but my favorites are bookmarkable and easy to access. Buffer released its 2026 Social Media Holiday Calendar, a comprehensive list of key cultural moments, themed days, and engagement hooks for marketers to plan content more strategically.
Hotel Marketing Takeaway:
➟ Map content to booking windows. Identify social holidays in Q1 (Planuary!) and early Q2 that align with peak search and booking periods for your resort, then build hero content around those moments to drive demand when intent is highest.
➟ Build thematic pillars for the year. Use the calendar to pre plan twelve months of content tied to wellness, culinary, art and culture, sustainability, festive, and activation themes so that each month has at least one anchor story that supports your brand positioning.
⚡️ YouTube 2025 Global Culture & Trend Report // YouTube
YouTube released its 2025 Global Trends Report, outlining how culture, creators, and consumer behavior are evolving across video, search, and AI-assisted discovery. The report highlights shifts in how people learn, plan travel, make purchase decisions, and engage with long-form and short-form formats.
Hotel Marketing Takeaway:
➟ Leverage creator style storytelling. Adopt creator driven formats such as POV tours, behind the scenes, and hosted narratives as viewers have stated they trust creator tone more than polished brand ads.
➟ Optimize for multi format discovery. Build content that works across Shorts, long form video, and YouTube search since travelers increasingly use all three during inspiration and planning.
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Did You Know?
Trending news, marketing news, and reports:
▶️ Year in Search 2025: What and how we searched this year // Google
▶️ 2025 Social Media Dictionary // Sprout Social
▶️ The future of social media: 7 expert predictions for 2026 // Sprout Social
▶️ The complete Super Bowl 60 ad tracker for 2026 // Marketing Dive
▶️ Marketing To Gen Z, “6-7” And 7 Things CMOs Should Know // Forbes
▶️ Concerts, Sports, and the Rise of Experience-Led Travel // Skift
▶️ Design & Marketing Trends 2026 // Pretty Little Marketer
▶️ 2025 Creator Economy Ad Spend & Strategy Report // IAB
▶️ How to do Annual Planning for SEO // Product Led SEO
▶️ Decades of Marketing // marketoonist
▶️ Las Vegas bets big on wellness despite travel slowdown // Seattle Times
▶️ Wellness Tourism Rewrites Global Beauty Expectations // Beauty Matter
― Job Postings & Career News ―
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― Agency News ―
Agencies You Should Watch
Tracking the agencies shaping the hospitality industry’s biggest moments while building an ever-growing resource list for hotel marketers.
✅ HotelMinder has launched The Lobby, a curated network that connects hoteliers directly with vetted hospitality experts. It gives you another reliable resource to expand your network, strengthen your partnerships, and be the person who can always say, I have someone in mind who can help.
Campstories is named PR agency of record for the City of Napa (via O’Dwyer PR)
B-Engaged, global sports marketing agency headquartered in London, is engaged by Visit Seattle, the official destination marketing organization for Seattle and King County, WA, to lead its global football strategy in the build-up to the 2026 FIFA World Cup. (via O’Dwyer PR)
REYA Communications is named U.S. public relations agency of record for Schlosshotel Fiss, a ski-in/ski-out property in the Tyrol region of western Austria. (via O’Dwyer PR)
― The Vibe Quotient ―
Following the Vibe
A weekly round-up of fresh inspiration and a closer look at experiential design, sensory branding, and the quiet details that define unforgettable spaces.
experiences // Smithsonian Sleepovers
The Smithsonian is inviting families to spend a night inside its most beloved museums with after-hours experiences that turn exhibitions into immersive playgrounds for learning. Children and adults explore galleries by flashlight, join educator-led activities, and settle in for a sleepover beneath ocean creatures, dinosaurs, spacecraft, or cultural artifacts, depending on the museum. The program transforms world-class institutions into memorable overnight adventures.
art and culture // Ralph Lauren x USPS commemorative capsule
Ralph Lauren unveils a limited-edition capsule celebrating the heritage of the United States Postal Service, merging classic Americana with contemporary sportswear. The collection features apparel and accessories inspired by USPS iconography, from vintage postal colors to reimagined insignia, creating a polished yet nostalgic look rooted in American craft and cultural history.
wellness // after dark rituals at Rosewood Mayakoba
Rosewood Mayakoba has introduced the Akbal Series, a set of nighttime wellness rituals inspired by Mayan tradition and offered daily from 8pm to midnight. Guests can unwind with moonlit Yin yoga, outdoor breathwork, Float and Glow ice-to-warm therapy, and a cacao-making ritual rooted in ancestral practices. A new non-alcoholic pop-up bar features ingredients tied to full moon folklore, adding another layer to the resort’s cultural wellness story.
― What is the 5.15 ―
Leading luxury hotel marketing across resorts and task force marketing roles over the past 15+ years led me to begin publishing The Hotel Marketing 5.15 in 2025 as a way to help keep clients up to date on hospitality marketing news and activations. I currently work remotely for Ka La‘i Waikīkī Beach, LXR Hotels & Resorts.
Based on a communication method developed by Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, the 5.15 is a weekly format designed to synthesize key insights in 15 minutes or less and be read in five minutes. This newsletter applies the same principle to hotel marketing: concise, actionable trends and opportunities curated for industry professionals.
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