Christmas cards

Now that I'm home I'm enjoying slowly getting my head back into business mode again. I'm doing my best to catch up with all things 'recent' both digitally and culturally speaking. Junk emails, forwards, links and general inbox clutter aside there are always a few nice Christmas gems to be had like this seasonal idea by friends over at Work Club.

For my time at Crispin, Porter + Bogusky I always felt that one of the most impressive things about their campaign work was the frequency with which it sought to bring about a physical world consumer reaction. Their ambition is always to engage consumers with an appealing idea first and foremost knowing that the 'message takeout' and ultimately 'product purchase' will likely follow second.

It's for this reason that campaigns like Army on Everest remain among my all time favorites. They represent shining examples of how to use digital media alongside traditional media in ways that maximise the power of both channels equally. In Army on Everest the TV ad did a superb job of making a life in the British Army seem at the very least 'cool and exhilarating' (and in so doing did all that could be hoped for from this channel). Crucially however at the same time the ad dramatised the vital online component of the campaign- namely a richly engaging website where sufficiently interested members of the public could immediately go to follow the event and interact with the soldiers climbing Everest in real time. Naturally through this deeper DIY process of engaging with 'the idea' one can only imagine that users developed a higher propensity than they would otherwise have done for 'product purchase' which in this case is application.

With all that in mind I like Work Club's Christmas videos because they engage me with an appealing seasonal idea 'the spirit of giving' whilst also, in a small way, offering a physical world resolution i.e. in the course of normal behaviour (shopping at Borough market) by namedropping I'll/you'll get some extra tasty free stuff...I'd argue this is always going to be more satisfying than a crappy online animation or game. Naturally the tone and subtlety of the humour are also spot on. I hope it helps lead to increased 'product purchase' for all concerned.