Robbie Thain
Founder, CEO
AI-generated illustrative image. Not an official campaign image.
Anthropologie’s holiday campaign pairs storytelling with styling services. Makai examines the staffing, shopper handoff and measurement implications.
On October 19, 2026, Anthropologie launched its “On My Way” holiday campaign, according to campaign reporting. The creative centers on the anticipation of reuniting with friends and family. The program also brings that seasonal idea into physical retail through planned in-store styling events and complimentary shopping services.
The reported program combines in-store styling with concierge services, creator-led content and home collaborations. A DoorDash partnership adds another shopping option, including for last-minute gifts, and is described as a testing ground for the holiday effort.
The store component has a defined seasonal window:
The seasonal context is substantial. According to Retail Insight Network, the National Retail Federation forecast U.S. holiday retail sales of $1.013 trillion for November and December 2026, a 4.2% year-over-year increase. That is a market forecast rather than evidence of this campaign’s performance.
The campaign coverage does not identify participating locations or exact event dates. Concierge scope is also unspecified. It provides no event-level attendance, conversion, sales-lift or Return on Investment (ROI) results, so this is a campaign-design example rather than a proven sales case.
At Makai, we see the useful move as giving the emotional promise a practical job. A reunion story provides the setting. Styling assistance gives shoppers something concrete to do with it.
For food and beverage marketers, the equivalent is not copying a fashion service. It is connecting the campaign idea to a relevant product conversation and trial. Our retail demonstrations use trained brand ambassadors to support in-store sales through those interactions.
Our process blends creativity with strategy and data to connect emotion with action. We believe the warm welcome and the business objective belong in the same brief. Neither needs to crowd out the other.
That is also the logic behind connecting live engagement with the retail handoff: participation needs a clear relationship to the next purchase opportunity.
For teams adapting this approach, the operational question shifts from presenting a seasonal message to delivering the help that message promises. That changes the staffing discussion. The brief needs to describe the shopper interaction rather than stop at event coverage.
For a CPG demonstration, Makai’s relevant model is a trained ambassador supporting a real conversation and product trial. The planning question is what assistance the shopper receives and how that interaction connects to a purchase occasion. Samples distributed alone would not answer that question.
Flow deserves the same attention. In a retail demonstration or trade show adaptation, the product experience and the next shopping step belong in the same plan. The useful layout discussion concerns where interested participants go next, not simply how busy the footprint appears.
Makai’s capabilities span permitting through CRM reporting. We view that connected scope as a reason to keep the experience and its business objective together during planning. For this campaign model, the operational priority is a coherent handoff from attention to assistance to an opportunity to buy.
In the campaign coverage, Anthropologie Global CMO Barbra Sainsurin described a holiday “world” extending through “everything from our home collaborations and creator-led content to in-store styling experiences and new ways to shop.”
For us, the practical phrase is “in-store styling experiences.” It places a human service inside the creative idea. The CPG translation is a product interaction with a purpose beyond repeating the advertising message.
The research’s practical measurement guidance is to define success before launch and separate store outcomes from broad campaign reach. Relevant measures could include event attendance or styling appointments. Store conversion and basket size can address the purchase side where those measures fit the activation.
For a CPG adaptation, choose measures that match the experience being offered. A useful starting point is judging sampling beyond headcount. Keep the welcome generous and the measurement disciplined.
For your next seasonal campaign, will your team be able to show how the assisted product experience connects to a purchase opportunity rather than report only how many people stopped?
Translating seasonal attention into an assisted product trial is where Makai’s retail demonstrations bring trained brand ambassadors into the store. For CPG marketers facing difficulty measuring Return on Investment, those product conversations sit within Makai’s broader focus on experiential campaigns designed to generate qualified leads.
30 Years Experiential & Retail Activation Partner for CPG & Beverage Brands | Multi-Market Demos, Roadshows & Costco/Club Programs That Actually Sell
