Putting Michaels' holiday offering on display.

Michaels | Holiday Wonderland

Experiential Strategy + Media Relations

The opportunity

Michaels is synonymous with creativity and DIY, but the retailer's offering extends far beyond craft supplies. Ahead of the critical holiday shopping season, we saw an opportunity to broaden perceptions of Michaels by showcasing the breadth, quality, and style of its holiday decor assortment and positioning the retailer as a destination for decorating, gifting, entertaining, and creativity.

With four new holiday collections launching across stores and online, the challenge was to translate a broad seasonal assortment into a compelling brand story that could drive discovery in a way traditional pitching and product mailers couldn't accomplish alone.

The Approach

I developed the concept for Michaels' first experiential holiday media event, bringing four new decor collections to life for media in New York City. The event was strategically timed for late October, as editors shifted their attention from Halloween to holiday coverage and consumers entered the critical holiday shopping period.

Working closely with Michaels, I oversaw the program from concept through execution, leading my account team and managing an experiential agency and external vendors. Together, we transformed the collections into four styled environments and developed interactive experiences that showcased the breadth of the assortment across decorating, gifting, personalization, gift wrap, Cricut, and baking. My role spanned creative direction, event production, partner management, and the supporting communications strategy.

The Impact

The event gave media a new way to experience Michaels and helped broaden the conversation around the retailer beyond traditional arts and crafts, creating new storytelling opportunities tied to holiday decorating, gifting, entertaining, and seasonal shopping.

The broader Holiday Wonderland campaign earned national coverage including TODAY, Shop GMA, and PureWow, reinforcing Michaels' position as a destination for holiday inspiration and discovery.