Our Thoughts

Merry Christmas 2.0

December 1, 2011 by Evey Burilin

It’s that time of year. The shops are chocca with over-stuffed hanging elves, dancing butt crack santas and fake neon snow. But look beyond the tacky retail festivities and you’ll see a sleigh full of whip-smart Christmas digital ideas from some clever brands. From apps, to ‘virals’ we’ve explored the best and served them up below. Crack open the egg nog and enjoy.

 

AUGMENTED REALITY EXPERIENCES

‘Believe-o-Magic’ by Macy’s

A great brand building idea from retail giant Macy’s which really will surprise the kids. The ability to take photos with different augmented reality characters, customise backgrounds and send on as cards makes this a very shareable execution. The clever thing is the tie in between physical and digital – people have to actually go into the store to experience the augmented reality. While they’re at the store, we expect they’d be enticed to do some shopping…

 

VIDEOS THAT WENT VIRAL

‘The Digital Story of the Nativity’ by Excentric

See how the Christmas story might have happened with the help of Gmail, Google, Facebook, Wikipedia, Twitter, Amazon, Google Maps and Foursquare. As well as being a fun and interesting watch, this video really shows the breadth and power of all the digital tools we have at our fingertips today. A Portugese digital marketing company ‘Excentric’ put this together, and certainly would have benefitted from the exposure. The video has  well over 10 million views.

 

ADDICTIVE ACTIVITIES

‘Elf Yourself’ by Office Max

This one has been around for a couple of years, but it’s still an absolute office favourite. Visit ElfYourself and you’ll get to upload and pictures of friends, frenemies, pets, co-workers, or pretty much anything really. What you can then make them do is pure gold. Choose from several dances such as Funk, Hip Hop and 80s, then sit back to watch your chosen mix of acquaintances all jazzed up in Elf costume and dancing around in the silliest fashion. There’re so many combinations to explore that punters end up in front of Elf Yourself for hours, being exposed to Office Max branding all the while. The other beauty of Elf Yourself is the shareability. You can share videos on Facebook or email the links to yourself then distribute via Twitter or your blog, much like we have done here. Jib Jab is the company behind this idea and you can explore their full range of fun here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

QR CODES – THE FUN WAY TO GIVE PRESENTS

Talking Santa tags from J.C. Penney

This idea from J.C. Penney is a fun way to give gifts, beyond just the standard written ‘to/from’ tag. With each gift bought from the store, the gift sticker or ‘Santa Tag’ is included. The benefits? The person buying the gift gets to add their own personal touch to make a present more meaningful; the receiver gets an interactive present and a bit of a smile; and the company gets an edge over their competitors as the ‘Santa Tag’ adds an extra incentive to put J.C. Penney on the Christmas shopping itinerary.

 

‘Give-A-Toy’ store by eBay

A brilliant way to give a toy to a child in need. The animation in this display brings some real fun and a desire to interact with the store, while the ease of donating via smart phone makes it really accessible. The genius of this feel-good creation is in how it rewards the charity of the giver with some really fun interaction. A great result for the kids, the donators and for both the Give A Toy Store and eBay – who achieved mass brand exposure. Check out the online version here.

 

LOCATION LOCATION

‘Play 4 Xmas Game Giveaway’ by Electronic Arts UK

UK game retailer Electronic Arts used Facebook Places last Christmas to promote their brand and their in-store events leading up to Christmas. Keen gamers just needed to ‘check in’ via Facebook Places at one or more shopping mall gaming events to be in to win up to 10 games a day in the lead up to Christmas. The events were an exciting way to promote new games with fans, and the check in mechanism of the competition meant that hundreds of thousands of prospective buyers were exposed to Electronic Arts and their Christmas events through Facebook news feeds. Getting onto news feeds in such a way is effectively free impressions, and we’d expect they would lead to more ‘likes’ and higher brand awareness amongst  target audiences (friends of existing fans are more likely to be fellow gamers).

 

 

TRADITION THROUGH TABLETS

‘Amazon Santa’ by Amazon

The new Amazon Santa app is made to be used by children on an iPad or Kindle Fire. The idea is to make it easy for kids to create their Christmas wish lists in a visual way, by browsing 500,000 kid-friendly items at the Amazon online store. The plus for parents is that it makes it that bit easier finding the right gift, plus they can keep other relatives in the loop by sharing the list.  Gifts can also be checked off once purchased – so it works like a gift registry – no double ups. The app is a clever move by Amazon to get more people buying from them over Christmas, because once the list is shared, it’s easy for the recipient to purchase the gift there an then online – why would they go anywhere else?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MERRY MOBILE

‘Snowglobe’ by Coca Cola

Over Christmas last year Coca Cola launched an iPhone app where users can create their own virtual snowglobe. Users can input photos of friends and family via Facebook. The ‘fun’ factor is in the ability to shake your iPhone to create swirling snow – just as with a real snow globe – so a nice connection to a sentimental physical item. As well as being an emotional way to connect to their customer base, by prompting people to share their globe creations with friends and family, Coca Cola got their brand out in the social space in front of a large audience through Facebook news feeds. This year, Coca Cola have upgraded the app to enable you to add photos of friends and families to pre-set figures, which you can then choreograph and again share through Facebook. Very much like ElfYourself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Tags: Amazon, Breadth, christmas marketing, Christmas Story, Crank, digital marketing, Digital Tools, Elf Costume, Elfyourself, Fash, Festivities, Funk Hip Hop, google, Google Maps, increase christmas sales, Macy, Marketing Company, Merry Christmas, Office Max, Pure Gold, Retail Giant, Story Of The Nativity, Time Of Year, twitter, Wikipedia

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