Petco rolls out 2026 holiday campaign with services in the mix
Bottom line
Petco has launched its 2026 holiday campaign, “Never Naughty, Always Nice,” positioning the season around affordable gifting, services, and in-store experiences for pet parents. According to Petco’s Oct. 13 announcement, the campaign includes hundreds of gifts priced at $10 or less, free Santa photo events, holiday-themed in-store programming, gourmet food and treat options, and promotions tied to grooming and other services. The company is also steering shoppers toward its holiday shop and app as part of a broader omnichannel push. (corporate.petco.com)
Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, the campaign is another sign that large pet retailers are continuing to blend seasonal merchandising with wellness, grooming, and service traffic. Petco has been emphasizing services and health-and-wellness positioning in its corporate messaging, and its recent financial and annual-report materials point to continued focus on profitable growth, data integration, and customer value across retail and services. Holiday campaigns like this can increase foot traffic, impulse purchases, diet changes, treat exposure, travel stress, and grooming demand, all of which can translate into more client questions about nutrition, toxic foods, decorations, anxiety, and preventive care. (ir.petco.com)
What to watch: Watch whether Petco’s holiday push drives measurable service engagement, especially in grooming and wellness-adjacent categories, during the fourth quarter. (corporate.petco.com)
Petco has kicked off its 2026 holiday campaign, “Never Naughty, Always Nice,” with a retail-and-services message aimed squarely at pet parents who increasingly treat pets as family during seasonal celebrations. In its Oct. 13 announcement, the company said the campaign features hundreds of gifts at $10 or less, free Santa photos, in-store events, and a curated holiday assortment spanning toys, treats, apparel, travel items, and festive add-ons. (petco.gcs-web.com)
The campaign builds on a strategy Petco has used in prior holiday periods: pairing gift merchandising with a broader health-and-wellness identity. Earlier company materials tied holiday shopping to services such as grooming, training, and veterinary care, while more recent corporate disclosures have emphasized integrating services and retail more tightly as part of a turnaround and growth plan. That context matters because this year’s campaign is not just about seasonal novelty; it also functions as a traffic driver for higher-frequency, higher-margin service categories. (ir.petco.com)
Petco’s announcement highlights six core elements of the campaign, including value-priced gifts, free photo opportunities with Santa, in-store holiday events, gourmet food and treats, festive apparel and accessories, and service-oriented offers that connect the season to grooming and care routines. The company’s holiday shop page also points shoppers toward travel and calming products, which suggests Petco is merchandising around seasonal stressors as well as celebration. Petco’s educational content similarly frames the holidays as a period when pets face elevated risks from décor, plants, rich foods, guests, and disrupted routines. (corporate.petco.com)
From an industry standpoint, the campaign aligns with Petco’s broader effort to reinforce its identity as “the Health + Wellness Co.” rather than a pure-play discretionary retailer. In first-quarter 2026 results, the company described its focus on returning to sustainable, profitable growth, and its annual report said it plans to deepen data-sharing between services and the rest of the business to improve campaign effectiveness and long-term customer value. That makes a holiday campaign like this notable beyond merchandising: it is also a test of how well Petco can convert seasonal shopping into repeat engagement across grooming, nutrition, and wellness touchpoints. (ir.petco.com)
I did not find substantial third-party expert commentary specifically reacting to this campaign announcement. However, Petco’s own sustainability and corporate materials show the company has spent the past several years trying to differentiate on “clean” grooming and wellness-oriented positioning, which helps explain why services are featured alongside gifts in a holiday promotion. That positioning may resonate with pet parents who want convenience and seasonal experiences, but it also raises the operational stakes for store teams during a high-volume period. (petco.com)
Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, the practical significance is less about holiday branding and more about behavior change among clients. Seasonal retail campaigns can prompt sudden diet shifts, increased treat consumption, use of novelty chews or apparel, more boarding and travel, and a spike in grooming appointments before gatherings and photos. That often means more conversations about gastrointestinal upset, foreign-body risks, toxic holiday foods and plants, stress-related behavior, dermatologic flare-ups, and safe calming strategies. It also reflects the continued convergence of retail, grooming, and wellness in the pet sector, where large chains are working harder to own more of the pet parent relationship year-round. (petco.com)
For clinics, that creates both a challenge and an opening. Practices may see an increase in routine client questions that can be addressed proactively through holiday safety messaging, nutrition guidance, and reminders about anxiety management, parasite prevention, and post-grooming skin monitoring. Retail campaigns that normalize pets as full participants in family celebrations can also reinforce demand for preventive and quality-of-life services, especially when clients are already spending on seasonal extras. This is an inference based on Petco’s campaign design and the company’s broader services strategy, rather than a claim Petco has made directly. (corporate.petco.com)
What to watch: The next signal will be whether Petco references holiday traffic, services attachment, or seasonal category performance in upcoming earnings commentary, and whether competitors answer with similar campaigns that further blur the line between retail promotion and wellness engagement. (corporate.petco.com)