The hecticness of the holidays has set in. As you wind down and 2025 comes to a close, check out our final Marketing Minute of the year.
The Grinch & Walmart
Walmart is bringing fresh energy to the holiday season by extending its “Walmart? Who Knew?” campaign with a festive twist. By transporting the Grinch into “Walmart Whoknewville,” the brand flips expectations and reintroduces itself as a surprising holiday destination. The play on nostalgia and adding a little bit of chaos helps to make these ads shine. It’s a good example of how brands can blend brand storytelling and pop culture to generate visibility during the most competitive time of year.
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year?
McDonald’s fans are not lovin’ the brand’s AI-generated holiday ad. The 45-second spot showcases AI-generated people navigating a series of holiday mishaps, set to a playful reimagining of the holiday classic “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” which underscores the chaos unfolding on screen. There was a score of backlash some saying, “This ad made me go to Taco Bell,” or “McDonald’s unveiled what has to be the most god-awful ad I’ve seen this year.” As we discussed last year when Coca-Cola faced similar backlash, moments like this highlight the public’s appetite for AI, its limitations and encourage a closer look at when and how it should be used.
Hashtag Restrictions
Say hello to new hashtag restrictions. Beginning this month, Instagram will allow up to 5 hashtags in a reel or post. What spurred this change?
While hashtags have long been a social media staple, Instagram has been gradually shifting away from hashtag-driven reach over the past year. Rather than hashtags guiding content discovery, reach is now driven more by keywords in captions, on-screen text, and engagement quality. It’s important to note that posts that rely on long hashtag blocks will start to underperform or get flagged as spam. Social media marketers can also expect some mild reach fluctuation as we transition away from hashtag-heavy copy.
Our recommendations as this change goes into effect:
- If hashtags are part of your strategy, choose 3-5 highly relevant tags per post (branded + niche).
- Be intentional with the hashtags you’re using. Stay away from generic hashtags.
- Test/rotate hashtags to see what performs best.
- Lead captions with searchable keywords (be clear about what the post is about).
- Keep an eye out for banned/restricted hashtags.
Thanks for spending some time with the Marketing Minute this year. See you in 2026!