Watch: Inside MANSCAPED’s Black Friday TV Playbook

Nearly 6 in 10 advertisers are increasing their holiday budgets, and they're spending it earlier than you'd think. More than half will be in market by early November, and some are already live. Only one in four are waiting for Thanksgiving week.

That's what Tatari's survey of marketers told us about their Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) plans. I walked through the findings in a recent Adweek webinar, but I knew the data was only half the story. So I talked to a brand who has their holiday strategy locked in. 

Brian Thibault, VP of Marketing at MANSCAPED, joined me to share their Q4 holiday plan. It's the brand's biggest quarter of the year, and Brian started planning it a year out. He explains how a brand born on performance media rebuilt around TV, how his team proves TV is working when most sales happen on Amazon and in 16,000+ retail doors, and exactly how MANSCAPED is approaching this holiday season.

Watch the full session below

A Performance Brand Fishing in the Same Pond

MANSCAPED launched ten years ago as a direct-to-consumer site with one trimmer and a Shark Tank pitch. Today 14 million customers have bought from it, and most of its business runs through Amazon and retail. That shift changed how the brand uses media.

The old model was built on Meta and Google, optimized to daily ROAS and CAC. It scaled the business, then hit a ceiling. "Performance media is great at collecting and converting that demand, but it's not so great at creating that demand," Brian told me. In a category where a guy buys a trimmer once every two or three years, only so many people are in the market at any moment. "We had a lot of money sitting at the bottom of the funnel, and we were fishing in that same pond over and over again. Costs are going up, new customers are going down, and then we're in the auction at the most expensive time of the year."

So MANSCAPED rebuilt around two objectives: mass reach to create demand, and performance media to convert it. This year's version started with the brand's first-ever Super Bowl spot in February, continued with streaming to retarget that audience and build frequency, and ends with holiday creative that converts buyers when they're actually shopping.

The product calendar does double duty. In September, MANSCAPED launched the Lawn Mower 6, its hero trimmer and highest price point, on Amazon, its own site, and at Best Buy, backed by new TV spots and out-of-home in Chicago and New York. The launch fills the funnel. When holiday creative turns on in October, the Lawn Mower 6 is the gift.

Linear Buys Reach, Streaming Buys Precision, Programmatic Buys the Fall-Off

Our survey found an even split between linear and streaming for BFCM buys, with paid social close behind. My recommendation is to run linear and streaming together: linear for reach in premium moments, streaming for targeting, frequency control, and cord cutters. If you're only running one, you're leaving reach or efficiency on the table.

Brian gets the linear-or-streaming question constantly, and his answer is a framework: "Linear buys reach, streaming buys precision, and programmatic buys the fall-off." For MANSCAPED, reach has centered on NBC, the network behind its Super Bowl spot, with opportunistic buys in the MLB playoffs, the NBA, and the first football game of the season. Streaming is the majority of spend, concentrated on networks that have proven out, plus new tests like a Landman sponsorship on Paramount+ that performed well. Programmatic retargets site visitors and audiences linear and streaming have already reached, and prospects against purchased audiences to get closer to conversion.

The Halo Shows Up at Amazon and Walmart

The question Brian's finance team asks most as more money moves into TV is whether it actually works. Answering it took a new measurement model, because the old one only saw D2C. "If we only looked at it through a D2C lens, we would say this isn't working. We need to cut bait," he said. Once MANSCAPED built measurement for Amazon and retail, TV's impact showed up in those channels far more than on its own site, which are the channels the business is growing.

His stack has four layers. Pixel-based attribution from Tatari is the fastest, most granular read, down to spot, network, and daypart, but it can't see Amazon or retail. Marketing mix modeling shows what TV contributed across all sales channels in a quarter, which is where the halo appears. Incrementality testing is Brian's go-to: run one media mix in Chicago, another in New York, hold out Austin, and see which mix moved sales across all three channels. "It is expensive, but it can really tell you a lot about the channels and the creative that you're running from a true revenue perspective." Brand lift studies, twice a year, track awareness, favorability, and purchase intent with the new audiences the brand is reaching.

What the stack keeps showing: "When we have TV running, it makes social work harder. It makes our CRM efforts work harder."

Refresh the Hits, Then Test the New

Most advertisers we surveyed plan to reuse proven creative for BFCM, often with a new call to action or a fresh cut. One in five are producing a net-new holiday spot. Three in ten haven't decided.

MANSCAPED does both, and an in-house creative and production team makes that possible. Legacy assets set the baseline, so every new spot has something to beat. The Lawn Mower 6 launch came with three 30-second spots that share a feel but execute differently, plus 15-second cutdowns, all running as a test-and-learn ahead of the holiday layer. Holiday creative mixes fresh work with hero concepts the brand iterates every year, like "surprise gifting."

The brief hasn't changed: lead with proof, keep it funny. "Our creative is really what makes us stand out as a brand."

AI Has Landed in the Reporting Stack First

Most advertisers we surveyed are using AI for BFCM in some form, whether for creative production, targeting, or optimization and reporting. Those who aren't plan to.

For MANSCAPED, the biggest gains so far are in media and reporting. Business reports that took Brian a week early in his career now take hours. His team models media scenarios against the Q4 forecast, testing how moving a dollar between channels changes the revenue response curve. Creative is earlier stage, with a few AI-assisted tests aimed at producing more cuts faster and cheaper. The brand is also testing paid and organic presence in LLMs, because men are already asking them which trimmer to buy. That testing steps up in 2027.

One in five advertisers we surveyed plan to shift some paid search budget toward LLM inventory this holiday. I asked Brian if it's worth testing now. He said yes, with a caveat: "The hard part is, what does good look like? You have to be comfortable not knowing some of the KPIs." My view is that TV and AI search reinforce each other. Viewers see a spot, then query the brand in ChatGPT or Perplexity minutes later.

That's just a highlight reel. Brian and I covered a lot more about their holiday strategy that could help you with your planning. Watch the full session.

Frequently Asked Questions

When should brands launch Black Friday TV campaigns?

Earlier than Thanksgiving week. Tatari's survey found more than half of advertisers will be in market by October or early-to-mid November, and only one in four plan to launch BFCM creative during Thanksgiving week. Rising budgets mean more competition for premium TV inventory, so structuring buys early and building reach before the peak matters more than ever.

Should brands run linear or streaming TV for the holidays?

Both. Linear delivers reach in premium moments like live sports, and streaming delivers precision targeting, frequency control, and access to cord cutters. Tatari's survey found an even split between the two for BFCM buys, and both Tatari and MANSCAPED recommend running them as a single plan, with programmatic retargeting to capture the fall-off.

How do you measure TV's impact when sales happen on Amazon and in retail?

Pixel-based attribution is the fastest read but only sees online conversions. MANSCAPED layers in marketing mix modeling to see TV's contribution across all sales channels in a quarter, matched-market incrementality tests to measure true revenue lift across D2C, Amazon, and retail, and brand lift studies to track awareness and purchase intent.

How far in advance should you book premium sports inventory?

As early as possible. MANSCAPED committed to its Super Bowl spot about seven months before the game and considered that late. Large sports packages are typically negotiated during summer upfronts. Both speakers also recommend holding back a discretionary budget each quarter to capture last-minute inventory that networks release at steep discounts.