Tapping into hyper-specific cultural nuances allowed Walgreens to show up authentically for the holiday season.

For years, Walgreens holiday sales had been declining as consumers favored rival retailers. To rebound, Walgreens set out to drive sales across three distinct cultural audiences: U.S. General Market, U.S. Hispanics, and Puerto Rico. Unfortunately, Walgreens didn’t have budget for three bespoke campaigns. Cultural relevance would have to come through one unified effort.

Our research uncovered two insights:

 1)As people tried to maximize joy and manage expectations during the holidays, health took a back seat. As one respondent noted: “I really don’t have wellness in mind because I’m always so stressed.” People wanted help with holiday well-being but lacked a clear source of support.

 2)For USH and Puerto Rican families, Christmas is more than a holiday—it’s a deeply rooted cultural celebration extending beyond family, offering love and care to neighbors and the broader community.

These insights sparked our strategy to give Walgreens distinct relevance against competitors and connect health and holiday desires across USH, Puerto Rico and General Market: Walgreens is a neighbor who helps you stay healthy through the holidays. Walgreens didn’t just sell products—it created a space for convenience and care during a chaotic holiday season.

Our strategy inspired “Full House,” a campaign celebrating the vibrancy of Nochebuena and Parranda—two Hispanic traditions where family, music, and abundance take center stage. We embraced these traditions, then amplified what makes them profound for General Market. The result? A culture-out approach that resonated and boosted Walgreens’ sales across all audiences: During Christmas week, Walgreens experienced sales lifts of +27% in General Market and +36% among USH. Additionally, Puerto Rico exceeded sales expectations with lifts of +5% seasonal, +5% wellbeing, +9% grocery/personal care.

This exercise taught us that marketing efforts needing to include all don’t require “strategies for all.” Rich, culturally inspired strategies can scale and outperform generic catch-all approaches.