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Isobel Aesop Bulletproof

Agency Christmas Round-up: Games, apps, cards and charity projects

By Rebecca Stewart | Trends Editor

Southpaw

|

RAPP article

December 19, 2014 | 13 min read

With Christmas just around the corner The Drum has pulled together a selection of work from agencies celebrating the festive season.

From clever eCards to secret Santa apps – we've been impressed by this year's seasonal offerings from adland.

Scroll down to take a look at what agencies have come up with to get us in the Christmas spirit.

Isobel

Just like John Lewis' festive ads Isobel's Christmas cards have have become a celebrated event in the adland calendar.

Each year the entire company dresses up and creates extraordinary tableaux that are then photographed and used as the agency's annual Christmas card.

This year, each staff member spent three hours having skull caps expertly fitted by prosthetic make-up artists, before spending six hours channeling their inner zen in front of the camera to create the ultimate scene of peace and goodwill.

Jelly London

For this year’s Christmas card Jelly decided to do something a little different.

Instead of the clichéd images associated with the Christmas period, the agency asked artists Joe Waldron and Paul Imrie to create a unique tribute to London, looking especially wondrous for Christmas.

OgilvyOne

OgilvyOne commissioned award-winning artist John Afflick to create an oil painting showing a modern British family at Christmas painted in a traditional style.

Each detail in the painting represents one of OgilvyOne's clients and their products. For example, the Land Rover parked in the drive, a Dove decoration on the Christmas tree and a child playing with a mini Castrol truck.

The agency is sending out the card to all of its clients and the line inside reads: "It wouldn't be Christmas without you."

Southpaw

Southpaw Christmas Cubs from Southpaw on Vimeo.

Of course Christmas is all about the kids, but this year Southpaw went the extra mile and let children take over the office for a day.

Soundtracked by a rock and roll cover of The Pogues, the marketing communication agency's festive video is full of mischief.

Coley Porter Bell

CPB Xmas card 2014 from Coley Porter Bell on Vimeo.

This year Coley Porter Bell decided to follow in the footsteps of the Obamas, the Windsors and the Kardashians by releasing an official 'family' Christmas portrait.

The brand design consultancy revealed that it was also going to hire a photographer, but the retouching costs were prohibitive - so the video features animated versions of the agency's staff instead.

Maxus

This year's season’s greetings card from Maxus was centered around the theme of celebration.

The media agency decided to celebrate 2014 as a year for wins such as L’Oréal, NBC Universal and Vodafone, and it invited all of its offices, clients and suppliers to get involved by sharing their best moments from 2014 using the hashtag #holidayslambook on Instagram.

Rapp

Rapp UK is is helping Kids Company reap the benefits of unwanted Secret Santa gifts.

Thanks to the Secret Santa Exchange office workers nationwide have been given the chance to swap their unwanted presents and make a valuable donation to the children’s charity all in one place.

Bulletproof

Bulletproof Xmas - 2014 from Bulletproof on Vimeo.

Instead of creating a Christmas card, brand and packaging design agency Bulletproof created this colourful festive video featuring the team.

Hats off to the human Christmas tree!

Aesop

Aesop is giving the gift of reading this Christmas by donating books to Kids Company.

The agency aims to donate a total of 600 books to the charity for every person who signs up online.

Each book donated to the charity will include the names of all those who’ve clicked with over 450 donations made so far.

Collective

Whilst trying to embrace new technology for Collective’s Christmas card, Santa mistakenly found himself on Tinder.

The agency is now encouraging Tinder users to launch the app and swipe right when they come across the big man’s profile to help him escape before Christmas Eve.

Those who do might be in with the chance of meeting St Nick and bagging an early Christmas present.

Publicis Groupe

Publicis Groupe shunned the traditional Christmas card this year, opting instead to make a donation to Make-A-Wish kids.

The network made a video game featuring chief executive Maurice Lévy to encourage donations to the charity throughout the festive season.

We are social

This Christmas global social media agency We Are Social created #SecretSantaSacrifice - an initiative urging thousands of people spending £5 on an awkward novelty Secret Santa to ditch the gift and donate the money to Age UK instead.

Ogilvy Paris

Ogilvy Paris' Christmas greeting will resonate with anyone who’s struggled their way through a particularly difficult round of focus groups – where even an idea as splendid as Christmas might barely limp its way across the testing finish line.

Anomaly

Forget Christmas cards featuring idyllic glittering winter landscapes, this year Anomaly released a 'sexy' Jesus calendar.

The provocative and humorous project was shot by Oli Kellett with creative directorion from Alex Holder.

Havas

This holiday season Havas delivered warm wishes to those most in need by donating warm blankets on behalf of its 16,000 employees to the International Red Cross.

TBWA\Toronto

Instead of making ads to keep their clients happy this Christmas, TBWA\Toronto made toys for their clients’ kids.

Each child was sent a toy design kit and invited to create the best toy possible –TBWA\Toronto then brought these ideas to life with the help of MakeLab.

Once the toys were complete, special packaging unique to each toy was crafted before they were delivered to their creators.

Material

In honour of the time-old traditions of office parties and ad agency Christmas cards Material combined the two for its 2014 festive offering – Get App & Dance.

The dance off and gaming app features famous moves including the moonwalk, the Macarena and the Single Ladies dance, which will help Christmas parties across ad land go off with a bang.

RKCR/Y&R

RKCR/Y&R has decided to create a customised Christmas wrapping paper using Instagram in lieu of a holiday card this year.

In order to obtain your bespoke festive paper you need to submit a photo on Instagram using the hashtag #RKCRINSTAWRAP along with the address you want the wrapping paper sent to and voilà.

23red

23red's holiday card urges recipients to 'start a resolution', with an image that changes from Father Christmas to Che Guevara once opened.

RPM

RPM has designed this fact-filled advent calendar to celebrate Christmas.

A piece of festive trivia lies behind each window in the 'Did you Snow' countdown chart.

BrandOpus

BrandOpus kept it simple this year with a classy and traditional Christmas decoration wishing clients a wonderful Christmas.

Joint

Joint London created not one, but two, websites to celebrate Christmas 2014.

The first ‘Designer Santa’ lets users reboot the traditional look of Mr Claus thanks to some top fashion designers.

The second ‘Gift Rap’ offers the chance to win a selection of gifts, ranging from a fluffy penguin to an iPhone 6.

With a little help from LA-based freestyle rapper A-F-R-O prizes mentioned in the rap can be won just by sharing the ‘Gift Rap’ video via social media.

Love

Manchester-based Love has created a Christmas game challenging people to tell Christmas tales using only four letter words.

FOUR. WORD. XMAS. LOVE. is meant to be about sharing seasonal confessions and wishes and, of course, whittling away those last few hours in the office before the holidays.

Digital Annexe

Digital Annexe's tongue-in-cheek Christmas campaign promises to bring “all of your Christmases at once" with a series of apps designed to improve the festive season.

From ‘Buy Now’ to help with panic buying, to ‘3D Printing’ where you can "capture the spirit of Lapland in cheap plastic”, will leave users wishing that the apps were real.

WCRS

WCRS' Christmas offering has given bitcoins a distinctly festive flavour, and put a twist on a seasonal tradition.

The London-based agency has created 'Bitmas Pudding', a digital mobile game in which users eat their way through a Christmas pudding to see what’s hidden inside it.

Players are given the opportunity to win numerous prizes including a whole Bitcoin worth over £230, and in the spirit of goodwill, winners are given the option to donate their winnings to St Mungo’s Broadway charity if they so wish.

Conch

This year Conch created a simple recipe for a happier, relaxing and more indulgent Christmas.

The agency used cooks aporons to carry it's festive message, which were folded strategically to reveal a cheeky negative message which transformed into something much more positive as the package was unwrapped.

A simple solution to any budding Scrooges out there.

Equator

To get clients in the Christmas spirit the Glasgow branch of digital agency Equator has come up with 'Ping-Pong Merrily-On-High' – a competition inviting Twitter users to enter an online draw to win an M&S Christmas hamper.

The twist? Each time a tweet is submitted with the hashtag #EQTRXMAS, a real ping-pong ball is fired in the Equator office, the winners are selected randomly via the balls that make it into the net.

Sugar Creative

Cardiff design agency Sugar Creative has produced an augmented reality Christmas campaign inviting users to come and join the Sugar Creative team in a virtual living room, aptly decorated for the festive season.

Isobel Aesop Bulletproof

Content created with:

Southpaw

We are a creative agency that uses the science of emotion to help build brands. We use neuroscience and effectiveness research methods in order to deliver creativity that will have high emotional impact on behalf of our clients. We call this creativity that moves people and we do this for brands such as Honda, Diageo, Molson Coors and PZ Cussons. Our parent company is the globally recognised and awarded agency network, Hakuhodo Inc, giving us the ability to operate with global scale, delivering best in class technology as well as building revenue generating IP for clients. We put an enormous value on the power of relationships, which to us means commitment, clear objectives and a sense of fun, bringing an average client tenure of 8 years.

Find out more

OgilvyOne Worldwide

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Ogilvy Paris

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RAPP

RAPP is a global, data-driven creative community that builds direct, meaningful and high-value relationships between brands and people. At RAPP, with our unrivalled depth of expertise in first-party data, we’ve been observing and cataloguing real people’s lives for 50 years. In today’s world the balance of power has shifted, and customers are in control, which is why we put people and their preferences at the heart of the brand experience. With a talent base of more than 1,600 professionals in 18 offices, we help brands grow the value of real people by understanding what really matters and creating experiences that are right for real people, with real needs, in real time, creating marketing that matters. Our expertise in data and marketing sciences allows us to deliver our clients actionable human insight - an incredible understanding of genuine motivations, observed transactions and actual interactions. Our process reflects how real people think; we balance the left brain and the right, and we do our best work when we bring Precision and Empathy into balance. Building on our data foundation, RAPP delivers a range of capability across social, digital, customer experience and technology.

RAPP is proud to employ talented people across the US, the UK, Argentina, France, Germany, China, Singapore, Australia, Mexico, Bangkok and Dubai, and we actively foster an inclusive workplace where diversity and individual differences are valued and leveraged to achieve our vision.

RAPP is part of Omnicom Precision Marketing Group, a division of the DAS Group of Companies.

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Aesop

Aesop - A creative agency powered by narrative thinking 

A lot of agencies talk about storytelling. And, at face value, it’s what all advertising agencies are doing. But for us storytelling isn’t an outcome, it’s a process.

Stories are the most powerful form of communication. They shape people; they shape culture. The most powerful stories have a clear underlying narrative structure, with a conflict at their very heart.

We use narrative thinking to unlock powerful creative strategies that create impact for brands in culture. Impact that turns your brand into a commercial success story.

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Isobel

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we are social

We are a global socially-led creative agency with unrivaled social media expertise.

With 1,300 people in 19 offices spanning four continents, we deliver a global perspective to our clients in a time when social media is shaping culture.

We make ideas worth talking about.

We understand social behaviours within online communities, cultures and subcultures.

We help our clients reach the right people in a strategic, relevant and effective way.

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Bulletproof

Bulletproof is a brand agency with studios in London, New York, Singapore, Amsterdam, Sydney, Shanghai and Melbourne. Proudly independent, we exist to vanquish mediocrity and build the most successful brands of the future.

Working in partnership with clients of all sizes, from Mondelēz International, The HEINEKEN Company and Diageo, to Soapsmith, WhiteClaw, Booking.com and the Football Association of Wales, we create bulletproof brands that deliver real commercial results.

You can check out our work on our Instagram @bulletproofintl, find us on LinkedIn @bulletproof or visit our website, www.wearebulletproof.com

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Sugar Creative

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Anomaly

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Coley Porter Bell

Seduce the subconscious, and convince the conscious. We leverage neuroscience to create Beautifully Persuasive brands that grow. 

Services: 

Brand Strategy Brand Identity Innovation and Naming Branded Environment Packaging (structural and graphic) Digital Branding and Branded Content

Coley Porter Bell is a global full-service branding agency. Part of the Ogilvy & Mather group, we have 36 years experience of bringing fresh thinking to brands based on a deep understanding of consumers and markets. 

We're big fans of neuroscience. It helps us see how most of our decisions are made, in an instinctive, rapid-response way called 'system 1'. It's in system 1 that 90% of the information influencing us is visual. Later, we rationalise our decisions in our 'system 2' brain - or the reflective, logical part. 

We believe that as brand owners, strategists and designers, we need to create brands that can both seduce the subconscious (system 1) and convince the conscious (system 2). 

At Coley Porter Bell, we leverage neuroscience to think differently, more visually. Our Visual Planning process addresses both systems in the brain, helping us to create brand strategies and identities that add real value, create loyalty and ultimately grow your brand and bottom line. 

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Publicis Worldwide

Publicis Worldwide is a global creative agency network enabling our clients to Lead The Change in their own marketing and business transformation. We do this through a combination of strategy, creativity, and technology. With over 16,000 employees in 110 countries, clients include Adidas Sports, Axa, Carrefour, Cartier, Citi, Emirates, Diesel, Heineken, L'Oréal, Nestlé, Orange, P&G, P&O Ferries Holdings, Renault, Sanofi, UBS, and Walmart.

Publicis Worldwide is part of Publicis Communications, the creative agency network solution hub within Publicis Groupe.

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Havas

Havas SA is a French multinational advertising and public relations company, headquartered in Paris, France. Havas operates in more than 100 countries.

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TBWA\Toronto

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Material UK

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RKCR/Y&R

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LOVE

LOVE is a design-led agency with storytelling at the heart of our approach - we believe that design sits at the very core of true brand success. LOVE develop visionary solutions that drive conversation and engagement for leading global brands across multiple consumer touch points.

Working with a wholly integrated approach across advertising, branding, design, digital and experiential, LOVE finds the most interesting stories to tell in the most interesting ways.

Recent LOVE brands include Johnnie Walker, Nike, Guinness, Adidas, Tanqueray, Levi Strauss & Co. and the design of the world's fastest selling album cover for One Direction.

Since it was founded in 2001, the 40 strong agency has won over 250 awards, including recognition by D&AD, Creative Review, Design Week and Clio. LOVE has offices in Manchester and London.

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Sugar Creative

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Digital Annexe

We are a Full Service Digital Marketing Agency, combining analytics & insights to create results-driven creative solutions. We believe in ‘Impact. Made simple.’

In a fast-paced world where marketing, communications and products are all jostling for your attention; when existing and potential customers are having new conversations across more new channels; we understand the importance of clarity.

That’s why we work with new technologies, to understand how they can work for our clients and their customers. That’s why analytics and insights guide our thinking.

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Equator

Equator is the ideas company for a connected world.

We believe in the power of innovative ideas, meaningful connections and big numbers to truly transform Connected World Brands. Our unique model brings experts together to create remarkable connected ideas that consistently deliver big number returns for clients across all sectors. We are proud to have grown to be the UK's second largest independent Integrated Agency,

Connect with us if you want to find out more - we'd love to hear from you.

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Digital Annexe

We are a Full Service Digital Marketing Agency, combining analytics & insights to create results-driven creative solutions. We believe in ‘Impact. Made simple.’

In a fast-paced world where marketing, communications and products are all jostling for your attention; when existing and potential customers are having new conversations across more new channels; we understand the importance of clarity.

That’s why we work with new technologies, to understand how they can work for our clients and their customers. That’s why analytics and insights guide our thinking.

Find out more

WCRS

WCRS is a creative agency combining over 30 years of brand building expertise with the ability to execute ideas in any channel.

The resulting talent base is an eclectic mix of specialists working seamlessly together to execute brand ideas everywhere from TV to Twitter, online to mobile, games to music downloads.

Our mission has always been to create work people care about. And this is now more important than ever.

In a digital age people avoid what they don’t like and amplify what they do. So our aim is to create engagement in whatever form it takes. To create things that people love, choose to interact with and even spend money on.

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