The biggest holidays of the year are literally around the corner, and you’re probably already getting your Black Friday, Christmas, and year-end seasonal campaigns ready. According to Adobe’s 2026 holiday forecast, U.S. consumers are expected to spend a whopping $275.1 billion online this holiday season 😱.
But there’s one little complication: your team members are taking time off. And if you’re a marketing agency, your clients are probably doing the same.
Suddenly, getting a simple sign-off on a social post, ad creative, or campaign email can turn into days of unanswered messages and out-of-office replies.
So, how do you keep content approvals moving without interrupting everyone’s well-deserved holiday breaks? Here are five practical ways to make it happen.
First of All, Why Content Approvals Get Tricky During the Holidays
The holiday season can throw even the most organized content approval workflow off track. And when you’re managing multiple campaigns with tight deadlines, a few common challenges can quickly become major bottlenecks:
- There’s more content to approve: With so many social media holidays and major shopping events packed into the last quarter of the year, marketing teams are producing more campaigns, social posts, and other content that needs reviewing and approving.
- Key approvers are out of office: Your marketing manager, creative director, or client’s main point of contact might be on vacation right when you need their approval.
- Clients have different holiday schedules: If you’re an agency managing multiple clients, coordinating approvals gets complicated when everyone’s taking time off at different times.
- Deadlines aren’t flexible: Black Friday promotions, Christmas campaigns, and year-end announcements have fixed launch dates. A delayed approval could mean missing an important campaign window altogether.
Luckily, with a little planning and a proactive approach, you can keep your campaigns moving even when approvals become harder to get.
5 Strategies to Keep Content Approvals Moving Over the Holidays
1. Check Everyone’s Holiday Availability Early
Before the holiday rush begins, find out when the people responsible for approving your content will be away. This includes your internal team, managers, and clients (if you’re an agency).
A few things you can do:👇
- Ask key stakeholders to share their planned time off in advance.
- Identify backup approvers who have the authority to sign off when someone is unavailable.
- Agree on which content needs approval before people leave and what can wait until they return.
For example, if your client’s marketing director is away for the last two weeks of December, arrange for their approval requests to go to a designated backup instead.
2. Set Approval Deadlines Well Before Publishing Dates
One of the easiest ways to avoid last-minute approval headaches is to give yourself some breathing room between when content gets approved and when it needs to go live.
For example, if you’re launching a Black Friday campaign on November 27, aim to have everything approved at least a week beforehand.
This gives you enough time to:
- Collect feedback from all stakeholders
- Make any requested revisions
- Get final sign-off without rushing
And remember to communicate these deadlines to your clients and team members early. That way, nobody is surprised by an urgent approval request right before their holiday break.
3. Send Holiday Content for Approval in Batches
Instead of sending individual approval requests, try preparing and submitting your holiday content in batches.
For example, if you’re managing social media for a client, you could prepare their entire Christmas content calendar in November and send the posts for approval together.
The same goes for holiday emails, ad creatives, videos, and other campaign assets.
This way, stakeholders can review several pieces of content in one sitting rather than dealing with constant approval requests while they’re trying to enjoy their time off.
4. Keep All Feedback and Approvals in One Place
The last thing you want during the holidays is to spend hours digging through email threads and Slack conversations trying to figure out whether a client approved a particular piece of content.
That’s why it’s important to have one central place where everyone can review content, leave feedback, and track approval decisions.
A dedicated content approval platform like Gain can help you do exactly that. You can send social posts, videos, PDFs, and other marketing content through structured approval workflows while keeping a record of who approved what and when. So even if someone goes on vacation, the rest of the team can easily see where things stand.
5. Automate Approval Reminders (and Have a Backup Plan)
Even with the best preparation, some approval requests will inevitably get overlooked during the holidays.
Rather than manually following up with every client or stakeholder, use automated reminders to nudge people when their approval is still pending.
For example, Gain can automatically notify approvers and send reminders, so you don’t have to keep track of every outstanding request yourself.
It’s also worth having a backup plan for content that doesn’t get approved on time. You could:
- Route urgent requests to an authorized backup approver
- Reschedule nonessential content for a later date
- Publish previously approved evergreen content instead
FAQs
As a general rule, aim to secure final approval at least one to two weeks before publication. For larger holiday campaigns involving multiple stakeholders, legal reviews, or several rounds of revisions, allow additional time. The key is to work backward from your launch date, account for reviewers’ holiday schedules, and establish a firm sign-off deadline that leaves room for unexpected changes.
Agencies should establish a holiday approval schedule for each client, accounting for planned absences, review deadlines, and designated backup approvers. Using a centralized content approval platform also helps agencies manage multiple client workflows, consolidate feedback, and maintain a clear record of approvals, so campaigns can progress without relying on scattered email threads or individual team members.
Keep Your Holiday Content Approvals Moving With Gain
The holidays are busy enough without having to chase clients and colleagues for approvals. With a little advance planning, clear deadlines, and the right approval process, you can keep your campaigns on schedule while everyone enjoys their well-deserved time off.
And if you want to make things even easier, Gain helps you manage content approvals in one place, automate reminders, and keep track of every sign-off, so nothing gets lost in the holiday shuffle.
Give Gain a try for free and make holiday content approvals one less thing to worry about.
