In the UK, Black Friday kicks off the festive season, and the day is fast approaching. Black Friday falls on Friday 27 November and Cyber Monday on 30 November 2026.
PwC UK’s November 2025 survey found that shoppers taking part in Black Friday expected to spend an average of £262 each.
Creator calendars fill up quickly in busy times. Ideally, you’ll select and brief creators 8 to 10 weeks before the sale and send products by early November.
If those windows have already passed, you can still run campaigns for the rest of the festive season across the UK and other European markets.
Ideally, planning for Black Friday should start in mid-September and continue into the January sales, following the recommended timeline below.
| When | What to do | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 8 to 10 weeks before (mid-September to early October 2026) | Shortlist creators, check audience demographics and previous collaborations, and agree fees and usage rights | Creators' Q4 diaries fill up early, and many won't work with competing brands |
| 5 to 6 weeks before (mid-October 2026) | Send the brief, check disclosure requirements, and set up discount codes and tracking links | Starting early avoids a late November rush |
| 3 to 5 weeks before (late October to early November 2026) | Send product for reviews | Reviews feel more genuine when creators have time to explore products |
| From mid-November 2026 | Teasers, wishlists and "what I'm waiting for" content | Increasing brand and product awareness can support lower-funnel content |
| 27 to 30 November 2026 | Deal posts, stories and lives, with codes | Black Friday content can drive sales because shoppers expect deals |
| After Cyber Monday (from 1 December 2026) | Gifting content until the last delivery dates, then target Boxing Day and January sales | There are still two more months of sales opportunities during December and January |
Sending products to creators well before the holiday season kicks off gives them a chance to craft a Black Friday promotion that’s based on real use and feels genuine. They are more likely to turn viewers into customers with more in-depth reviews.
In the UK, Black Friday’s busy period lasts for over two months. Black Friday is an early festive season event that can help build awareness in new markets and boost sales.
The UK dates fall in this order:
For many UK shoppers, Black Friday kicks off Christmas shopping. According to GlobalData's UK Black Friday 2025 report, almost four in ten UK consumers did all or most of their Christmas shopping during Black Friday 2024. Others will be buying for themselves.
To reach both groups, creator content in late November can mix gift ideas with discount codes for shoppers treating themselves. A tagline such as “What I’m buying my sister” may work better than a generic “20% off everything” for audiences shopping for someone else.
Let's look at two examples of Black Friday content. We used data from influencer marketing platform Kolsquare to track campaign results and earned media value (EMV), an estimate of what the same exposure would cost as paid advertising.
For Black Friday 2025, action camera brand Insta360 partnered with influencers to promote discount codes and free gifts available for a limited number of orders.
During the week before Black Friday, multiple creators posted content about the sale. One influencer partnership was with The Braley Family (@thebraleyfamily, 1.1M followers, Instagram). The family has a high engagement rate of 11% on Instagram, and 13% of their followers live in the UK, according to Kolsquare data. They shared footage of their daughter riding her pony, filmed on the Insta360 GO Ultra. The caption explains that the camera “has captured so many of her beautiful memories”. It ends with the code BRALEY, offering up to 15% off in the Black Friday sale, plus a free gift for the first 10 orders. The post received 409k likes and generated an estimated €550K in EMV.
According to Kolsquare data, the family posted Insta360 content regularly from June 2025 to April 2026, featuring several of the brand’s cameras. The Black Friday post was one part of a longer partnership.
Meta ran a creator campaign for its Meta Quest 3S headset using the hashtag #QuestPartner during Black Friday 2025.
Lifestyle and gaming creator Lucy Flight (@lucyflight, 23k followers, TikTok) posted a video of two people playing on the headset on 3 November 2025. The caption informs viewers about the deal before it goes live, giving them time to plan the purchase. The video has over 18k likes.
@lucyflight Chaos, chill and competition all in one with the @Meta Quest 3S! And £50 off on Black Friday too ✨💙 #QuestPartner #ad ♬ original sound - Lucy Flight 🪿☀️
Also in November 2025, football creator Calfreezy (@Calfreezy, 4.56M subscribers, YouTube) shared a video, with a caption reading, "If you want your own Meta Quest, the Meta Quest 3S is currently on sale for Black Friday!”
According to Kolsquare data, the two posts generated an estimated €434K in EMV combined.
If your brand also sells in Europe, each market has its own gifting peak, with several falling in December or January. A campaign timed for 27 November will miss the busiest shopping periods in the Netherlands, Spain or Germany. This guide covers the UK, France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Spain, Italy, the Benelux and the Nordics.
| Market | Peaks after Black Friday | Key dates 2026/27 | What it means for creator content |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK | Boxing Day, January sales | 26 December 2026 | A gift angle until mid-December, switching to sales from the 26th |
| France | Winter sales (soldes d'hiver), with dates fixed by law | 6 January to 2 February 2027 | January content can be planned in December |
| Germany, Austria, Switzerland | Black Week, Nikolaus, Christmas Eve | 6 December and 24 December 2026 | Presents are opened on 24 December, so delivery cut-offs come earlier |
| Spain | Reyes Magos, then the January sales (rebajas) | 6 January 2027 | A second gifting peak comes after Christmas, so keep some budget for early January |
| Italy | Befana, winter sales (saldi) | 6 January 2027, with saldi expected from Tuesday 5 January 2027 | Saldi start just before Epiphany, and the regions confirm the dates in November |
| Netherlands, Belgium | Sinterklaas | 5 December 2026 (Netherlands), 6 December 2026 (Belgium) | The gifting peak comes just after Black Friday |
| Nordics | Black Week, post-Christmas sales in Sweden (mellandagsrea) | Between Christmas and New Year | Black Week is the norm, and Sweden has a separate sales window after Christmas. |
According to the French government’s Public Service website, sales start on the second Wednesday of January. If that Wednesday falls after the 12th, the start moves to the first Wednesday. In 2027, the second Wednesday is 13 January, so the sales run from Wednesday 6 January to Tuesday 2 February 2027.
Four départements start earlier, on 2 January: Moselle, Meuse, Meurthe-et-Moselle and Vosges.
Italy's winter sale (saldi) starts on the first working day before Epiphany. In 2027, that is expected to be Tuesday 5 January, but the regions won’t confirm dates until November. Valle d'Aosta starts earlier than the rest of the country.
In Spain, Reyes Magos on 6 January 2027 is a second gifting peak after Christmas. The rebajas follow, and they are no longer legally fixed.
In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, presents are opened on Christmas Eve, so gift content and delivery cut-offs come a little earlier than in the UK. In the Netherlands, a main gifting day is Sinterklaas, on 5 December 2026.
Running European campaigns from London means a packed and complicated calendar, with build-up and follow-ups starting at different times.
Here’s how to keep on top of your workload:
Multi-region campaigns are often difficult to manage. You can use an influencer marketing platform, such as Kolsquare, to filter creators by audience demographics and track every campaign from a single dashboard, so a staggered calendar doesn’t turn into seven spreadsheets.
By early November, the product seeding window for Black Friday 2026 will have mostly closed. New creators who receive products in November are unlikely to post in-depth reviews by the 27th. But that doesn’t mean opportunities are all lost.
Here are four steps to take now:
Black Friday is the start of a peak season that runs into January. Starting campaigns early will ensure your content and discount codes are ready for Black Friday weekend. If you’re starting later, Christmas and January still leave time to get it right.
See how Kolsquare helps teams plan creator campaigns market by market.
We recommend shortlisting and booking creators 8 to 10 weeks before Black Friday. That’s mid-September to early October 2026. Creators’ Q4 diaries fill up early, and many sign contracts that rule out collaborations with competing brands. Starting early also gives you time to go beyond follower counts and conduct in-depth research into each creator’s audience and past collaborations. It’s best practice to send products 3 to 5 weeks before Black Friday so that creators can make quality content based on genuine use.
Black Friday falls on Friday 27 November 2026, and Cyber Monday on Monday 30 November 2026. We recommend posting influencer deal content, stories and lives across the whole weekend, with discount codes live throughout. Teaser and wishlist content can start earlier, from mid-November.
In the UK, many consumers buy presents on Black Friday. According to GlobalData’s UK Black Friday 2025 report, almost four in ten UK consumers did all or most of their Christmas shopping during Black Friday 2024. Creator content that frames the products as gifts may suit your target market better than just a discount code.
France’s winter sales run from Wednesday 6 January to Tuesday 2 February 2027. Four départements, including Moselle, start on 2 January. Italy’s winter sales (saldi) are expected to start on Tuesday 5 January 2027, and the regions confirm the exact dates in November. Brands running Black Friday promotions in Europe can plan a second wave of creator content around these dates.
It’s possible, but gifting peaks and sales vary by region. For example, Sinterklaas in the Netherlands falls on 5 December, Christmas Eve is the main gifting day in Germany, and Reyes falls on 6 January in Spain. A successful Black Friday campaign usually launches market by market, with creators chosen by audience location. Using an influencer marketing platform helps you track all the moving parts on a single platform.
Many UK retailers start Black Friday promotions in early to mid-November, and the big retailers’ Christmas adverts launch in the same weeks. Some brands also offer early access to subscribers before the main sale. For influencer campaigns, we recommend starting to share teaser content from mid-November. This will help you build brand and product awareness before deal posts go live.
When running influencer marketing campaigns, your best bet is to start early. Brief creators 8 to 10 weeks before Black Friday and send products 3 to 5 weeks before the day. This gives you time to prepare discount codes and creators time to test the product before reviewing. Give creators exclusive offers, such as discount codes, free shipping or early access, and link each one to a dedicated landing page. Make sure every paid post is clearly labelled as an ad.
The 3:2:2 method is a creative testing approach for Facebook and Instagram ads. Some advertisers use it to trial three creatives, two primary texts and two headlines, giving 12 ad variations to test. For Black Friday, creator content can be reused in your paid social media ads to reach new customers.
Kolsquare is Europe’s leading Influencer Marketing platform, offering a data-driven solution that empowers brands to scale their KOL (Key Opinion Leader) marketing strategies through authentic partnerships with top creators.
Kolsquare’s advanced technology helps marketing professionals seamlessly identify the best content creators by filtering their content and audience, while also enabling them to build, manage, and optimize campaigns from start to finish. This includes measuring results and benchmarking performance against competitors.
With a thriving global community of influencer marketing experts, Kolsquare serves hundreds of customers—including Coca-Cola, Netflix, Sony Music, Publicis, Sézane, Sephora, Lush, and Hermès—by leveraging the latest Big Data, AI, and Machine Learning technologies. Our platform taps into an extensive network of KOLs with more than 5,000 followers across 180 countries on Instagram, TikTok, Twitch, Facebook, YouTube, and Snapchat.
As a Certified B Corporation, Kolsquare leads the way in promoting Responsible Influence, championing transparency, ethical practices, and meaningful collaborations that inspire positive change.
Since October 2024, Kolsquare has become part of the Team.Blue group, one of the largest private tech companies in Europe, and a leading digital enabler for businesses and entrepreneurs across Europe. Team.Blue brings together over 60 successful brands in web hosting, domains, e-commerce, online compliance, lead generation, application solutions, and social media.
Your monthly dose of exclusive insights, strategies and trends shaping the creator economy. For insiders, by insiders.
L’essentiel, directement dans votre boîte mail.
.webp)
%20(1)%20(1).png)
.webp)
.webp)
