Part 2 of Holiday eCard and Viral Roundup

We’ve gathered up a few more holiday cards/virals for your time-wasting pleasure research.  Most are Canadian though I have included one from the US because it is a great example of the integration of online and offline components, plus the use of a couple of social networking tools.  Enjoy!
mighty.ca’s Mighty Mistletoe Videocard
This is the offering from mighty.ca – a videocard featuring each of their staff and how they "pucker-up" under the mistletoe.  It’s a really simply idea, and I found it quite charming.  The enthusiasm and the individualism of each of their employees really shows through and makes me smile every time I choose a staff member.  I found about this through a Facebook link from one of my friends.

Citizens Bank’s Decorate a Gingerbread Card
Another brand that has combined charitable giving with an online holiday activity.  Citizens Bank has created a "decorate your own gingerbread cookie" card.  For every card that is sent, Citizens Bank will donate $1 to the Canadian Association of Food Banks.  I found out about this via a friend’s Facebook link.  I was interested to note that there is both a "share on Facebook" as well as a "bookmark this on del.icio.us" button on this page on Citizens Bank’s website.  Note: I’ve found that my browser doesn’t always resolve their URL for their holiday card.  This is a link to the page on their website that describes it in case the above link doesn’t work for you.

Brainstorm’s North Pole Inc.
This is one of the most integrated, multi-channel campaigns I’ve seen this season.  Brainstorm is an Indianapolis-based strategy, design and new media firm.  They have created ("partnered with" in their parlance) North Pole Inc. (NPI), a corporate version of Santa’s workshop.  There is an NPI blog (with RSS feeds), NPI product catalog and their executive Vice President, Cindy Klaus, sends several Twitter tweets a day.  The story line is quite involved … with all the product launches, sex scandals and legal brouhaha’s you would expect in a corporate environment.  There was also a print/packaging component – Brainstorm sent a set of four truffles (the Kris Kringle collection) to clients and select other recipients (you can see a video of my unboxing of the package – warning, it’s a little goofy).  The enclosed collateral referenced the NPI site.  This is quite a complex endeavour from Brainstorm.  I really appreciate all the integration; the look of the entire promotion is incredible and the writing is very strong.  I found out about this through the print/truffle channel.

iStudio’s Do Not Want Ads
This one is a fun one with a potential of actually getting a gift at the end!  iStudio’s team have each chosen a "not-so-treasured" holiday gift and then assembled a classified page with catchy ads.  When you find a this-is-so-bad-I-must-have-it item, you can leave a comment.  Each iStudio team member will choose the winner of their gift and iStudio will ship it to you.  Deadline is this Friday (Dec 21) Tuesday (Dec 18) (apologies for any confusion on this – we received conflicting data), so if you want to participate, head on over!  I found out about this promotion a couple of ways .. I first saw it on Facebook, but also being passed around Twitter and on a couple of blogs.  I know it depends on who you read, but this is the one I saw the most publicized.  (Note, I had a hard time taking the screen shot for this because the website took over my cursor.)

So, a few more fun ideas and activities for the holidays.  I’ve got a couple more that I’ll post at the end of the week as we all head into the holiday weekend.  If you see any others, let me know!