Glossy's research found that leading brands including A-Frame Brands, Mastercard, and Ritual are deprioritizing owned channels in favor of other tactics during the 2026 holiday season, per Glossy+ Research.
ReadingThe steal: if you've been pouring budget into email and SMS funnels, test a 20% reallocation to paid social or retail partnerships during your next quarter. Measure the CAC and repeat rate on the new channel against the old. If owned-channel performance has plateaued, the ROI might live elsewhere now. Don't abandon the channel; just stop overweighting it.
MY STASH TAKEThis is the honest read: owned channels work until they don't. You can send email until your unsubscribe rate climbs or your open rate flatlines. When that happens, the best brands don't panic; they just move the percentage. A-Frame and Ritual are saying: we still do email, but we're testing retail and paid in parallel.
WatchWatch for detailed case studies on which owned-channel tactics (SMS, email, community) brands are scaling up and which they're deprioritizing.