Chestnuts roasting on the open fire … eCards filling your cluttered inbox. Facebook apps make your profile all aglow … Merry Christmas to you (apologies to Mel Tormé and Robert Wells).
Yup, it’s that time of year, when clients and agencies alike show off their creative chops and sometimes cheeky spirit with fun holiday messages. Sometimes it’s an eCard, sometimes it’s a video, sometimes it’s a cool website … but the best Christmas gift would be it going viral.
We take a look at some of the promotions that we’ve been sent this year or discovered. Part of what is interesting to me about these is how they came to my attention … only a few came through email, several came through Facebook or other social networking links.
Virgin Mobile Canada’s Go Jesus
Funky video from Virgin Mobile Canada showing how things *could* have gone down on Christmas Eve.
I think it’s pretty funny and definitely fits in with Virgin’s brand. Feels like it goes on a smidge too long .. but if you’re into this kind of dancing and music, you probably won’t notice. This was sent to me directly via email.
Delvinia’s Holiday Song Search
Holiday Song Search is the holiday card from Delvinia. It’s a set of visual riddles that are the song titles for Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year’s songs – a bit of a rif on the now-defunct Virgin Digital’s "Exercise Your Music Muscle". Answers will be revealed on Dec 21. Neat idea and cute illustrations, but some of the visual riddles seem a little obvious. I do like that they have desktop wallpapers of the whole card. They have also placed a number of social media "share it" buttons on the site. This was sent to me directly via email.
BC Hydro’s Holiday Card
BC Hydro has coupled their charitable giving for the season with a charming animated holiday card. Visitors can drop a coin into a pinball-version of old-tyme illustrated winter scene. For every coin dropped, BC Hydro will donate 25 cents to the BC Children’s Hospital. I found out about this through a friend’s link on Facebook. 
In the next post or two, we’ll review mighty.ca’s MightyMistleToe, Citizens Bank’s Gingerbread Card, Brainstorm’s North Pole Inc. and iStudio’s Do Not Want Ads. In the meantime, if you have a favourite holiday promo , leave a comment or send us a note.
Image Courtesy of Violentz