Why it matters:
- For seasonal brands, customer demand compresses revenue into a brief window, often leaving business teams and production capacity idle for long stretches.
- Brands that go quiet in the off-season risk losing relevance with consumers and weakening their standing with retailers who prefer products that move year-round.
- Expanding relevance beyond a single season unlocks ongoing revenue streams and reduces reliance on a single high-stakes selling period, executives from businesses including The Elf on the Shelf and L’Oréal told CO—.
From Christmas elf dolls to sunscreen, seasonal products often earn the bulk of their sales in a tight spending window that can spark a single, huge revenue spike, long stretches of low or no sales, and budgeting and forecasting headaches.
Companies that sell products or services primarily in one season can under-utilize employees, factories, and distribution networks for months, while disappearing for part of the year can mean having to work your way back to relevance. By contrast, going year-round can create more predictable, steady income, which can be healthier for long-term planning. Meanwhile, a more diversified calendar spreads the risk of bad weather, a news event, or supply chain issues disrupting a brand’s key selling season.
Innovating to stoke year-round sales strengthens relationships with retailers who want products that sell for the entire year, support cross-merchandising opportunities, and justify premium shelf real estate. Still, generating year-round demand for products typically pegged as seasonal is no small feat.
Through building new partnerships, creating fresh formats, and producing off-season “spin-off” products, Elf on a Shelf, L’Oréal, and Ocean Spray are three brands in the midst of diversifying to increase the likelihood their products showing up in consumers’ basket outside their traditional season.
The Elf on the Shelf: Building an evergreen entertainment universe while tapping new categories and licensing tie-ins that keep its characters relevant beyond December
In the 20 years since twin sisters Chanda Bell and Christa Pitts introduced families to a picture book and accompanying elf doll inspired by their family’s Christmastime tradition, the brand has sold some 30 million Scout Elves, elf pets, and elf mates through major retailers like Target and leaned into partnerships with major brands.
“Our growth trajectory has been spiking year-over-year for a decade,” said Co-founder and Co-CEO Pitts. The Elf on the Shelf brand, through its parent organization, The Lumistella Company, has grown into a beloved holiday tradition, almost synonymous with Christmas. The sisters wanted to expand its reach beyond the winter holiday, helping to boost sales even more and grow the brand’s relevance.
To celebrate The Elf on the Shelf’s 20th year in 2025, Bell and Pitts unveiled revamped mission, vision, and values that position the company not just as a seasonal staple, but as a global, year-round lifestyle and entertainment brand dedicated to creating moments of joy for families. Core to their multimedia brand expansion is the concept of the Santaverse, an immersive, more evergreen, cozy wintertime world that’s designed to attract new fans while deepening connections with existing ones.
“It’s the entire universe of our North Pole characters,” Pitts said. Characters like Razzle the Celebration Snowman (a plush snowman with his own book) are designed to appeal to an audience beyond those who celebrate Christmas and to be enjoyed by consumers year-round.
Partnerships with major brands, from food businesses to toy companies to video game makers, have been integral to The Elf on the Shelf keeping its brand relevant outside of Christmas. For example, it worked with Outright Games to launch of The Elf on the Shelf: Christmas Heroes console video game, marking its move into the gaming industry.
Other partnerships include one with Flipz pretzels on The Elf on the Shelf sweet-and-salty pretzel packs, and with Basic Fun! (leaning into nostalgia) to design a custom Lite-Brite, inspired by how Scout Elves often leave messages for their families. Licensing ventures include cereal tie-ins and expanded collections such as its Elftacular Year-Round Celebration Sets, which position its elves for every occasion from Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day through Halloween.
“We focus on working with [partners] where there’s a natural synergy and organic DNA match between the brands,” including a clear mission to stoke family joy. That’s when “conversations flow easily, creative ideas build naturally, and the partnership comes together seamlessly,” Pitts said.
Accenture’s Americas Retail and Travel Consulting Lead Lori Zumwinkle says The Elf on the Shelf is well-positioned to be a company that could be a case study on how to transform from a seasonal product to a year-round one. “If you think about the Elf’s success, it’s in part based on a story line about the elf—one that can be continued throughout the year. What does Elf do on Valentine’s Day? Is Elf in love? Does Elf monitor children in the spring? And the summer?” she said. “Simply selling Elves in different seasonal clothes alone could extend the sales lifestyle, not unlike how Barbie is constantly transforming.”
[Read more: The Elf on the Shelf Founders on Evolving From a Beloved Holiday Business to Multimedia, Year-Round Brand Expansion]
Innovating to stoke year-round sales strengthens relationships with retailers who want products that sell for the entire year, support cross-merchandising opportunities, and justify premium shelf real estate.
L’Oréal: Reframing suncare as an everyday essential to unlock post-summer growth
For the world’s largest beauty brand, L’Oréal, more than half of consumers (and especially younger ones) skipping everyday sun protection and reserving suncare for beach trips has turned into an expansion opportunity. The company is working, along with its sunscreen competitors, to grow suncare into a year-round business.
A central strategy is targeting shoppers in the United States who don’t follow recommended health guidelines regarding sunscreen usage, which is daily, according to the American Academy of Dermatology Association. The sunscreen business needs “supplemental channels to promote the importance of daily sun protection,” Gina Daley, Assistant Vice President of Integrated Health at L’Oréal Dermatological Beauty, told CO—.
Pivotal to winning over next-gen shoppers and turning the seasonal business into a year-round staple is the brand’s Sun Responsibly campaign (which echoes the iconic “Got Milk?” campaign of the ’90s). Driven by relationships with dermatologists and retailers, L’Oréal Dermatological Beauty created a Sun Care Consortium that worked for two years on a nonbranded campaign to promote sun safety.
The campaign debuted at the American Academy of Dermatology Meeting and rolled out across thousands of retail stores and digital platforms supported by Ulta Beauty, CVS Health, Walgreens, Hy-Vee, and Meijer. “The images [in the campaign] were designed to reflect consumers in unexpected, year-round settings where using sunscreen may not be intuitive,” Daley said. Key was to have competing retailers and dermatologists on board as partners in the messaging, too.
While dermatologists have touted the campaign in-office, Walgreens has partnered with Sun Responsibly, hosting in-store sampling and coupon events where its beauty experts guide shoppers to the best products for their needs.
“We need to encourage a new era of SPF use—one that defies traditional notions of seasonal suncare,” explained L’Oréal’s Daley, including by addressing a critical inclusivity gap: While white and Asian consumers over-index on SPF use, fewer than 50% of Black consumers report regular application.
With the population growing increasingly diverse, it’s critical for suncare brands to tackle formulation needs across skin tones and expand representation in how they communicate, she added. To do just that, L’Oréal launched CeraVe Hydrating Mineral Sunscreen Sheer Tint SPF, a 100% mineral sunscreen, and La Roche-Posay expanded its assortment to include four shades of tinted mineral (SPF 40) sunscreens.
“The aim of Sun Responsibly is not to compete for share, but to expand the market through education and access,” Daley said. “If more consumers understand the importance of sun protection, all brands have a greater opportunity to meet their needs.”
[Read more: How Three Legacy Brands Are Honoring Their Storied Histories While Modernizing for Relevance and Growth]
Ocean Spray: Repositioning cranberries for baking and healthier options to make the fruit a versatile ingredient year-round
Cranberries have long been perceived as a Thanksgiving or winter holiday staple rather than a year-round ingredient. But Ocean Spray is on a mission to change that perception by building new associations between cranberries and healthy baking and snacking and introducing new product varieties that position cranberries for year‑round use, such as savory glazes, syrups, and seeds.
The brand is leaning into healthy eating trends like reduced sugar and clean labels in its effort to remake the tart fruit into a more mainstream, versatile ingredient every cook or baker needs in the kitchen. The brand is looking for new ways to highlight the superfruit’s benefits and advance research on its antioxidant properties.
At the American Bakers Association’s International Baking Industry Exposition in Las Vegas, Ocean Spray featured cranberries in formats including maple-cranberry syrups and cranberry seeds, which are repurposed from by-products of the sweet dried cranberry process. A key message is that the tart fruit can balance out sweetness in desserts, elevating baked goods’ flavor profile, while the upcycling adds a sustainability angle.
The brand’s new BerryFusions line—offering “a more affordable price point while still providing vibrant color, bold flavor and strong consumer appeal,” according to Ocean Spray—infuses cranberries with fruit juices like pomegranate and blueberry. The cranberry-infused pieces are designed to blend more consistently into batters and doughs for easy baking. To tap into healthy eating trends, Ocean Spray makes versions with reduced sugar. Company executives envision the cranberry as a common alternative in popular baked items like raisin bagels, oatmeal raisin cookies, and cinnamon raisin bread.
Ocean Spray has also partnered with manufacturer Dyla Brands (acquired by Keurig Dr. Pepper) to launch a three-flavor line of zero-sugar powdered drink mixes that customers can carry with them on the go: White Cran x Strawberry, Cran x Grape and White Cran x Peach.
Accenture’s Zumwinkle said anything food, beverage, and beauty companies can do to extend the sales period helps the bottom line and sets them up for success in the next fiscal year.
“Extending the sales timeframe helps too—starting sales in August [for example], and ending them in late January is effective, and can roll right into Valentine’s Day promotions,” she said. “Consider how Starbucks made drinking pumpkin spice lattes a thing in the late summer—well ahead of Halloween and extended it to Thanksgiving.”
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