• by Larissa Faw , December 14, 2020

With the pandemic overshadowing 2020 so completely it’s no surprise that many holiday initiatives by agencies this year acknowledge or address COVID-19 and the past 12 challenging months.

Although RPA typically takes a more traditional approach to the holiday card, preferring not to participate in the usual ad agency “holiday card Olympics” that take place around this time, with agencies one-upping each other with clever videos, songs, sites, and apps, this year the agency decided to recognize the season.

“It was because this year was so different (to say the least) that we decided to take a different approach and offer recipients an experience, rather than a card,” explain Yama Rahyar and Bang Pham, both Creative Directors at RPA. “Our thought process started with the constraints of the moment: We couldn’t film anything and we couldn’t get together physically to do anything. But we wanted to provide people with some joy, and do it in a “People First” way that allowed the recipient to define what the perfect gift would be for their circumstances and state of mind.”

The resulting quiz lets people match themselves with one of three gifts — Kindle, BevMo and Headspace — based on their personal responses. “You tell the quiz where the moment finds you, we’ll use fancy algorithms (in reality, some pretty simple lines of code) to match you with your gift,” they say. “We ran into a funny situation during testing where we found that most people ended up with Headspace. But it became apparent that’s just where so many of us are at right now, and not a bug in the quiz.”

OKRP is supporting its BlackShopFriday.com initiative encouraging Chicagoans to shop at Black businesses on Black Friday by curating gifts from local Black shops to share with select clients and agency friends.

Curiosity is sending “Just Curious,” a card game designed to  encourage conversations among friends and family.

There are approximately 150 cards in the game, including wild cards, and various reflection topics that encourage players to answer probing questions like "who was the one person who helped you through 2020?" and "what's your go-to karaoke song?" The agency designed an array of questions, ranging from funny and awkward to reflective and engaging. Points are given based on the intensity level of the question. The game can be played virtually or in-person, and includes stickers to coat the box with every time you play.
While the initial batch went to clients, Curiosity is also selling the game online at curiosity.fun for $20 plus shipping.

There was never any doubt the Cincinnati-based agency would recognize the holidays with its annual gift, says marketing manager Susanna Max. “In fact, it was a priority now more than ever.  With so much "no" happening in 2020, the holiday experience needed to be a yes!  We knew it had to happen to bring people together and create connections over what is likely to be a very different holiday season.”

Colle McVoy is releasing Twas Twenty Twenty, a digital picture-find game that highlights good, bad and bizarre moments over the past year. The agency is making a donation for each time the game is played.

Fuse Creative is counting down until Christmas by transforming its Instagram feed into an Advent calendar. The aptly titled Ad Vent Calendar publishes a new post every day leading up to Dec. 25th.

Klick Health’s 2020 holiday video “When Nobody's Watching” is benefiting Sesame Workshop with the agency donating $1 to every view of the two-minute film up to 10,000.

The company is also adding Sesame Workshop onto its Klick It Forward platform, which rewards Klick team members with charitable dollars to donate to charities of their choice.

The animated video follows an exhausted frontline physician from season to season during the COVID-19 pandemic through the eyes of neighborhood children, sheltering at home during the pandemic. After bearing witness to her kindness through their windows all year, they hatch a secret plan to decorate the front of her house and surprise her for the holidays.

Nail Communications is having some fun with The Santa-tizer, a disposable sanitary sheet that puts a protective layer between your child and Santa. Interested consumers can purchase the limited-edition sheets at Santa-tizers.com and when the inventory is down to the last two Santa-tizers, Nail will auction them off on their Facebook and LinkedIn pages. Proceeds will go to the Rhode Island Foundation’s COVID-19 Fund.