Holiday cards and gifts from Canada’s ad agencies are rolling in. For more merry messaging, check out parts one, two and three and, if your agency has something festive to share, feel free to give us a shout.
Icebreaking aid from Point Blank
Vancouver-based ad agency Point Blank knows that when Canadians reconnect with family and friends in person over the holidays, there’s likely to be a bit of awkwardness.
The fact is, the transition from online chats to in-person conversation is likely to leave a lot of people feeling a little weird, and possibly at a loss for words. Point Blank is troubleshooting that issue by providing a gift set of holiday-themed coasters that feature fun, festive facts to keep conversation flowing.
From the precise number of calories you’ll burn by building a snowman to the world record for the largest hot chocolate, these coasters will spark some interest at whatever party you’re attending.
Hot Tomali makes a gift of its unused office equipment
While this Vancouver-based agency’s staff has transitioned to working from home, much of its office equipment was sitting unused. It decided to change that by finding a new home for the unused equipment.
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Hot Tomali gathered up desks, chairs, computers, monitors and stationery and converted the lot into a number of workstations for the Down Syndrome Resource Foundation, a non-profit that has been struggling through the pandemic.
The workstations will be used to help young adults with Down Syndrome develop their computer skills, build resumes and look for employment.
“While essential to our work, money spent on equipment can lessen the amount of funds we can directly apply to our programs and services,” says Wayne Leslie, CEO of the DSRF. “By helping to reduce these operational costs, Hot Tomali is supporting the essential Down Syndrome health and education services we prove to families.”
Major Tom defers to the green-thumbed experts
Major Tom might be wild about nature, but they’re more knowledgeable about marketing and space exploration – and a creative video from the agency makes that perfectly clear.
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In the video, all of the bedtime story reading and spoon-feeding in the world won’t keep Major Tom employees’ houseplants alive.
Still, this isn’t a team that’ll take defeat lying down. In that spirit, Major Tom has made a donation to The Arbor Day Foundation to support its work planting thousands of trees across North America.
Elemental’s film both a sign of the times and a cinematic homage
The Toronto-based agency decided to mark the season by tipping its cap to a holiday classic: Home Alone.
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In a short film, Elemental re-contextualizes the film’s script to tell the story of an agency employee, Kelvin, who often goes unappreciated by his coworkers, hitting all of the film’s narrative beats and making use of its memorable score.
A day after Kelvin wishes his coworkers would disappear, they seemingly do – a realization that first sparks joy as he wreaks havoc over his office, but then panic as an ill-fated ex-agency employee tries to enter the workspace.
After a head-down moment, the familiar ringtone of a Zoom call pulls Kelvin back to reality and, when he answers, he finds out that everyone has simply switched back to working from home. Not only that, but an assignment he had been given beforehand? Most definitely due by the end of the day.
Will has the solution to work-from-home loneliness
Rather than imagining the joy of working in an empty office, Will has a satirical offer to help those who are tired of the isolation of their home offices.
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Shot in the style of a TV infomercial, “Will From Home” imagines a service “that lets you bring all of the magic of working in an office to your home office,” by making “all your favourite coworkers” available for rent.
And all of the office worker archetypes are present in this spot, from the person who microwaves stinky food to the one who just can’t help but hurl what seems like a constant stream of obscenities.
You can bet this will cure your loneliness.
