• by Sara Guaglione , December 1, 2016

For a new spin on the classic holiday gift guide, Quartz has launched a feature in the format of a digital advent calendar, with each day unlocking a story exploring the global, economic and personal aspects of holiday gift exchanges.

Produced by the Special Projects team at Quartz, which focuses on “high concept, ambitious journalistic features,” according to Special Projects editor Lauren Alix Brown, the “25 Days of Exchange” feature is sponsored by Shinola Detroit and Hugo Boss The Scent.

Unlike a print gift guide, which would be “limited to just a special edition magazine,” the “25 Days of Exchange” is a “more creative take on the traditional gift guide,” Brown told Publishers Daily, adding that the team is able to “play with format and product” and “explore new ways of doing journalism.”

Readers can sign up to receive a daily SMS text notifications -- the first time Quartz is using this feature -- to alert them that a new story has gone live on the landing page for “25 Days of Exchange.” Quartz will also send a text to readers with an animated GIF that relates to the article of the day, like a little gift in your text messaging app, Brown said.

When each story goes live, a square representing one of the 25 days of Christmas is filled in with the corresponding GIF. Today's story for December 1 ranks the world’s “most aggressive” Christmas shoppers and eaters.

“We want to inspire readers to think about the notion of gift-giving and the interesting stories behind that,” Brown said.

Quartz writers investigated their own cultural traditions for the project as well. For example, one story explores the gift-giving traditions of Christmas in Poland that withstood decades of communist rule. Another describes the tradition behind the balikbayan box, which expats fill with products like Spam, peaches and Fita biscuits and send back to the Philippines. One of the stories also looks into the economics of being Santa.

The highly visual and interactive feature signals to readers that “we put a lot of time thinking about this issue and we want you to spend some time with it too,” Brown said.

Readers are often “barraged with thousands of headlines and pieces of media all day,” she added, so “a little flourish of fanciness in design signals to readers that... this is something important.”

This is the third Special Project from Quartz. In October, Quartz published “Map of the Internet,” which delved into the regulation, privacy and growth of our online world. In September, “The Perfect Company” profiled ten companies that excel in a specific department or practice.

The main goal, Brown said, is to “surprise and delight readers” with these projects.