‘Tis the holiday season, which means strategy will be posting all of the holiday greetings, seasonal messages, techy tools and quirky products Canadian agencies have created this year, as they come in. Part one of strategy‘s annual roundup can be read here. If you want to submit your own holiday card, get in touch.
Central Station
Navigating the holidays is only getting trickier as modern technology has the potential to upend classic traditions.
Toronto-based agency Central Station was concerned that Google could tell children that Santa Claus isn’t real. To remedy this problem, and prevent the holiday spirit being drained from children around the world, the agency created a series of Google Ads from Santa Claus himself ensuring he’s real.
The ads are accompanied by a website that includes the daily schedules for Santa and his elves, statistics about a year spent at the North Pole, top recorded reindeer speeds and a mailing address to reach Santa himself. The work is all done to ensure that Santa-suspicious children won’t have their holiday hopes dashed.
Church+State
Toronto-based marketing agency Church+State revealed its annual holiday card this week, made in partnership with video prodco Airfoil Media.
Playing off of the increased use of artificial intelligence across many industries this year, including advertising, the video sees Santa use “ChatPTG” to generate a naughty and nice list, and design gifts for children. Unfortunately, like so many others, he finds the technology isn’t quite advanced enough yet for what he’s asking for, without more thoughtful and creative prompts.
Here Be Monsters
This year, Vancouver-based agency Here Be Monsters is giving its clients nothing for the holidays.
Rather than feed into the unwanted gifts that clutter offices and homes this time of year, and after reflecting on how inflation has pushed up the cost of living in Canada, the agency instead created a brand called Nothing, a gift basket for clients that include an empty wine bottle, jam jar and boxes without chocolate and nuts.
Every dollar that Here Be Monsters didn’t spend on artisan gifts was instead doubled in a donation to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank.
“Fresh fruit, veggies, meat or proteins and a bit of dessert means so much more to a family than a box of overpriced cashews means to a marketing director. At least, that’s what we believe,” Here Be Monsters creative director Tony Hird says.
Labour
Toronto-based communications agency Labour is providing a twist on the typical holiday card by adding the element of a scavenger hunt.
Labour’s holiday card concept, “As Said on TV,” takes on the idea that some of the most memorable holiday moments are often found airing on TV or streaming online. So it created six holiday card designs featuring iconic holiday scenes.
The cards reference holiday episodes from such popular series as Friends, The Office, How I Met Your Mother, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Glee and Bob’s Burgers. The cards will also be accompanied by a gift card for a streaming service, and a timestamp for a specific episode, to track down the scene referenced on the card. The agency will host contents on its Instagram beginning next week, and those who comment with the correct quote referenced in the card’s timestamp could win a subscription to a streaming service for one year.
Pigeon
Pigeon sent out an advent calendar of sorts for clients to count down the final 12 working days during the holidays.
The agency built a website where a surprise waited for clients behind each door. The surprises include everything from links to cocktail recipes to printable holiday cards to advice for decorating and organizing the table for a holiday dinner.
Scratch
Working against this year’s AI trend, Scratch crafted glitter-filled DIY holiday cards for clients this year. Scratch built a website with a series of short videos each showing how different staff members crafted their own card.
The cards were accompanied by a donation made on behalf of each of Scratch’s clients to the World Wildlife Foundation Canada and Nosara Animal Care.
TRGR Advertising
Calgary-based agency TRGR Advertising has found a solution to all the unwanted chocolate that can accumulate throughout the holidays.
The TRGR Chocolate Guarantee promises that if you’re not satisfied with any of the chocolates you receive during the holidays, you can mail it to TRGR partner and managing director Geoff Hardwicke to bravely shoulder the load for the rest of the industry.
To kickstart this effort, TRGR mailed boxes of chocolate with its own branding, and an explanation inside to send the box back with any chocolates you don’t want, knowing Hardwicke is guaranteed to eat it instead, no matter if the chocolate is defective, bland or even just a bit off.
