Now that December has arrived, the holiday cards from Canada’s ad agencies are beginning to roll in (which, in the digital age, means more emails and YouTube links than actual physical mail). Here are the ones strategy has received so far. Check back every Friday this month to see all the ways the shops are commemorating the season.
Zulu Alpha Kilo’s cash mob surprises a busker
Zulu Alpha Kilo’s staff recently gathered outside King subway station in Toronto, where Mo Guzman was playing. Guzman, a musician who busks full-time, says he does it so he can make people smile. So to recognize those efforts, the staff began filing in one by one to drop cash into his guitar case. And as the pile of cash grew, so did the crowd that gathered to watch him play. After realizing what had happened, Guzman thanked the staff and revealed why this could not have come at a better time.
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On top of what it did for Guzman, the agency made a donation of 150 turkeys to Toronto food rescue charity Second Harvest on behalf of its clients and partners, which has become something of a holiday tradition.
The Hive’s self-care calendar
Even with all the good cheer, the holidays can be hard: recent research found that 59% of people admitted to feeling sad during the holidays, while 55% lacked motivation and 51% said they felt fatigued. So, Toronto’s The Hive made a calendar full of self-care and wellness tips to help people manage stress and their mental health. Some of the tips revealed so far include not feeling obligated to participate in holiday cheer, taking time to sing to yourself and reminders to manage debt and holiday plans.
The calendars are available for sale at The Hive’s office in Toronto or at the Drake General Store, with all proceeds going to the Canadian Mental Health Association. It is also part of an increased commitment to employee mental health at The Hive. Among the initiatives the agency plans to implement next year is a bi-weekly “Wellness Wednesday,” which will feature different activities such as guest speakers, trips to meditation studios and a health-focused cooking class.
Klick Health Contagious
What starts out as something of an homage to thriller Contagion is actually promoting something else that Klick Health hopes will be contagious: kindness. The scenes in the “trailer” are all dramatizations done by Klick staff of various acts of kindness that have previously gone viral, like dressing up in costume for a kid in a children’s hospital or giving their own clothes to a person in need. The idea is that encouraging acts of kindness towards others can become an “antidote” to the hate, negativity and cruelty in the world.
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For each the first 10,000 views of the video, Klick is donating $1 to The Fred Rogers Center to support the healthy development of children.
Taxi’s foresight is 2020
While the end of another decade has had many reminiscing about the past 10 years, Taxi is instead getting ready for the future. In a throwback to the earlier, weirder days of Internet humour, the website hosting a countdown clock to the new year is full of videos and crude GIFs of 20/20 host Barbara Walters, including a supercut of her saying “2020” in the show’s opening – over and over and over again.
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There’s also an Instagram account, if you’d rather have a reminder of what year is coming up sent right into your feed.
