Turn Q4 Dollars into Your 2026 Launchpad

Spending now doesn’t have to be a scramble—it can be your smartest move all year.

Leftover budget has a reputation problem. Many teams treat it like a hot potato: “Spend something—anything—so we don’t lose it.” The better approach is to treat Q4 dollars like a launchpad, pre-building the assets and frameworks that make Q1 and Q2 move faster (and cheaper) than everyone else.

Start January with a full creative toolkit

Picture your first workweek of 2026. Your web banners are already refreshed. Your product images are current and consistent. Your short-form video bank is neatly labeled by theme and format. Your packaging comps are ready for sell-in conversations. Instead of chasing vendors, you’re deploying work. That readiness advantage compounds—especially when you consider how media costs usually behave: ad competition and CPMs spike in Q4, then drop meaningfully in January, making it a prime window to launch the content you prepared in December (e.g., Meta CPMs fell ~23% from December ’23 to January ’24; Google down ~14%; TikTok down ~27.5%)¹. 

Three launchpad plays that pay off all year

1) The Asset Stack. One or two planned capture days yield a comprehensive library: hero shots, lifestyle scenes, macro details, process images, and modular video clips. Delivered tagged for web, retail, social, PR, and sales—one investment, many surfaces.

2) Campaign-in-a-Box. A small, sturdy platform—headline set, key visuals, landing-page visuals, email creative, paid/organic variants, and 6–15s cutdowns—so you can scale as approvals and budgets flow without restarting creative each time.

3) Packaging & Sell-In Kit. Concept visuals, line-look refinements, updated PDPs, and a crisp sales deck for retailer previews or distributor line reviews—especially useful if spring resets or category windows loom.

Calendar advantage beats budget size

In paid social, Q4 demand pushes CPMs to annual highs; in January they reset lower, which means the brand that is ready wins on efficiency and speed. Numerous benchmarking sources show Q4 CPM peaks and January troughs—great if you’ve already built assets, painful if you’re starting from scratch. 

Design for reuse, not re-work

Plan wide + tight crops. Capture text-safe frames for overlays. Shoot vertical and horizontal versions. Deliver layered files and a tidy library structure so internal teams can self-serve. The goal is to buy time with every asset. And with most B2B marketers expecting to increase investment in video and thought leadership in 2025, stocking your library now means you can fuel those channels without new production fire drills. 

Do it this month (a practical checklist)

• Prioritize two Q1 business goals (e.g., new-item sell-in + distributor education).

• Pick the minimum effective toolkit to support those goals (photos, 6–10 video clips, two banners, three one-sheets).

• Book a capture window and align the shot list to channels.

• Approve a micro-timeline that delivers a ready-to-launch package pre-holiday.

Deforest Group turns year-end dollars into a 2026 head start—asset libraries, campaign toolkits, and sell-in materials that launch quickly and scale cleanly. Spend once, launch many times.

Ready to gain momentum?

If you’re ready to gain that 2026 momentum NOW, the creative team at Deforest Group is ready to partner up and deliver for you… contact us today! 

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Source:

¹ Right Side Up blog: Understanding Q4 & ‘Q5’ Advertising Trends to Maximize; Lebesgue benchmark article for Facebook CPM trends