It's the most wonderful time of the year, except for agency people who've been feeling the annual pressure to come up with something fun for their agency holiday card. How did they do this year? Check out some of the more notable efforts below.
We'll be updating this post over the coming days. So, email us your card, and if it's any good, we'll try to include it.
—Second batch of cards added…
•Britton Marketing & Design Group
This agency created a parody book of Goodnight Moon, called Goodnight Marketers, and sent it to friends, colleagues, peers and clients. There's also a digital version here.
•CooperKatz
Here's our first It's a Wonderful Life spoof of the season. CooperKatz & Company takes a look at what the world would be like if Ralph Katz and Andy Cooper had never started CooperKatz.
•Cossette Vancouver
Swipe left on centuries of lame-ass tradition, and try Bltzn instead.
•Karmarama
This agency made its Christmas cards by recycling all the discarded, crumpled paper on which the creatives had written their bad ideas.
•LivingSocial
LivingSocial interviewed D.C. locals about the best gifts they've ever given or received.
•Nail
Nail Communications created the Honest Advent Calendar, featuring little gifts for each day that might come in really handy. The agency gave the calendar to clients and media but also to some Facebook followers who had the best answers to this question: "We hope your holidays are wonderful. But we're not idiots. We know they won't be—at least not all the time. So we've created the world's first honest advent calendar. Want one? Tell us your most ridiculous/sad/heartwarming holiday problem."
•redpepper
For the 25th anniversary of Home Alone, redpepper recreated one of its favorite scenes—"with a nerdy, tech-y twist. We thought about how we could take Kevin's homemade security system and turn it into an office party anyone in the neighborhood could interact with. So we did just that." Read more at rdppr.it/holidaython.
•Sanders\Wingo
Yes, coming up with a great holiday card is stressful. And according to this agency, it can be a real horror show. One of this year's funnier entries.
—Original post below…
•Anomaly
If Santa was a woman, could she do the job? A social experiment by Anomaly.
•BBDO Toronto
Stress-relieving coloring books for adults are all the rage, but BBDO Toronto went a step further. The agency created a coloring tablecloth featuring a holiday design. "As a bonus, we included washable markers, allowing the tablecloth to be washed and used again," the agency says. "A new holiday tradition, perhaps?"
•Cossette Chicago
This agency's holiday video was allegedly "written over a long weekend by a modestly paid group of writers, who holed up at a fishing cabin within spitting distance of the North Pole to fully immerse themselves in the holiday." This is what they came up with.
•DDB Chicago
"The Drunk History of DDB."
•Havas Chicago
For its #ilovegrandma campaign, Havas Chicago turned its River North lobby into four separate "grandma's kitchens," each representing a different ethnicity: African American, Asian, Caucasian and Latina. The grandmas are friends and family of Havas, and the kitchens are equipped with ovens supplied by Kenmore, a Havas client. The grandmas will be serving up free cookies made from classic family recipes to the public from the Havas lobby at 36 E. Grand from 11am-3pm, Dec. 15-18, 21-22.
•J. Walter Thompson
Santa Had Help. This mobile website allows gift givers, receivers or anyone else to meet the elves who made this year's gifts. You scan the barcode on a gift by using the phone's built in camera, and seconds later, one of 150 unique videos plays that corresponds to the specific gift in hand. The videos feature various male and female elves at their workstations in Santa's workshop in the North Pole.
•MKG
MKG introduces PRISTINE BALLS! A good call in this snowless December in NYC.
•McKinney
McKinney introduces JöLLY, he first wearable that tracks happiness. The JöLLY Tracker is a wearable that monitors just how much you smile. And if you're not smiling enough, it gives you an electric shock to the face. Enjoy!
•Northlich
Insecure Christmas trees get the Dove treatment in this "Real Beauty Sketches" spoof.
•Ogilvy & Mather New York
Ogilvy is celebrating the season by posing for wonderfully tacky stock holiday photos."The photos feature Ogilvy staff in some of the most clichéd holiday moments we've all had to endure in advertising: from the painful office party to the little girl sitting on Santa's lap," the agency says. The whole series is available for purchase on Getty Images, with proceeds donated to the World Childhood Foundation."
•Plan B
Donald Trump actually doesn't want to replace Barack Obama. He wants to replace that useless, lazy slob Santa Claus!
•Publicis Groupe
Publicis CEO Maurice Lévy offers "skippable" holiday greetings in series of fake ads.
•R&R Partners
Dress up a snowman like R&R employees!
•Ray Agency
Ever try to catch a turkey? It's not as easy as it looks.
•Rethink
Rethink presents The Ornament That Saved Christmas. This festive DIY combines a candy cane, old headphones and a genius hack of a smartphone's headphone jack to make it fun to unplug this holiday season with an accompanying site of animated ornaments.
•SapientNitro
SapientNitro came up with "SpeakEmoji," the world's first voice-to-emoji translator. "SpeakEmoji translates grown-up speak into cool emoji messages to help adults engage with their festive little "digital natives." If kids won't come to Christmas, maybe we can take Christmas to the kids."
•SheKnows
Dogs and cats recreate holiday movies in this video from SheKnows. Choice spoofs include A Pugmas Story, Love Catually and Frozen Dogs.
•Sid Lee
Sid Lee gives you The Christmatizer. The agency created a Chrome plugin that automatically replaces pre-roll ads with various Sid Lee holiday videos, which you can check out below.
•SS+K
Check out the agency's Merry Auction, where they're selling off "bespoke human-crafted gifts from everyone in the office." Proceeds go to charity.
•Team One
Team One created a 360-degree video that will really mellow you out during this stressful season. "Headphones suggested. Parka optional."
•The VIA Agency
VIA filmed a lovely, emotional spot for Preble Street, a homelessness charity in Portland, Maine. It's running on TV and in cinemas.
•Vladimir Jones
Check out this agency's Mule Log, yet another Yule Log spoof in a year that's seen several of them from marketers, too.
•Will Creative
Will sent a mysterious survey to clients asking them to identify their holiday vice (cookies, wine, eggnog, etc.). But instead of sending them their vice as a gift, the Will employees spared them the temptation by consuming it for them in 130 personalized videos.
•Winsper
This Boston agency produced a three-part satire of the agency life themed to the classic story of The Grinch.
•Wunderman NY
Greed vs. Good 2015. In partnership with EdgeDNA, Wunderman Chicago and Badass Brooklyn Animal Rescue, Wunderman NY created a socially controlled freezer, where the temperature rose and fell based on the use of two hashtags: #MeltfortheMoney and #FreezeforGood. Inside the freezer was a snowman stuffed with $4,500 cash. That money would either be donated to Badass Brooklyn Animal Rescue or won by one of the greedy #MeltfortheMoney tweeters. (Spoiler: The #FreezeforGood tweeters won.)
