Zady.com Teams with Vespa for Last-Minute Christmas Gift Delivery Service

Zady Partners with Vespa for Operation Santa

UPS may have had some hiccups getting packages delivered before Christmas, but Zady.com wasn’t taking any chances with its customers in the Manhattan and Brooklyn area.

The online store teamed up with American Vespa to launch “Operation Santa”, a free delivery service using scooter-riding couriers dressed like Santa Claus.

[via Fashion Times]

USA

Kmart’s Revisits Popular ‘Ship my Pants’ Ad with a Holiday Twist

Kmart - Ship My Trousers

Back in April, DraftFCB brought new attention (and over 20 million YouTube views) to Kmart with the double-entendre filled ‘Ship my Pants‘ TV commercial. That was followed shortly by the similarly themed ‘Big Gas Savings’ ad and the more recent Joe Boxer tie-in ad ‘Show Your Joe’.

With the holidays in full swing, Draft FCB has brought back ‘Ship My Pants’, but with a Charles Dickens twist as ‘Ship My Trousers’. The same actors from the original commercial are now dressed in period costume as characters from Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

[via Agency Spy]

USA

Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam Hosts Awkward Virtual Holiday Dinners via Skype

Weiden + Kennedy Virtual Holiday PartyThe folks at the Amsterdam offices of ad agency Wieden + Kennedy have taken the experience of the awkward holiday dinner to a whole new level thanks to technology.

They’ve created a Virtual Holiday Dinner Party by attaching small flat screen monitors to the top of five robotic life-size dolls dolls seated around an elaborate holiday table setting. People from around the world attend the virtual dinner party as guests via Skype with their face appearing on the screens mounted on top each doll. Facial-tracking software follows your face and rotating the doll’s body and the guest’s view of the party.

This is the second year that the agency has hosted the Virtual Holiday Dinner, and spaces can be reserved for one of the 20 half-hour sessions happening on Dec 15, 16 and 19.

To liven up the conversation, guests can choose from one of three dinner conversation themes that come complete with on-screen scripts. ‘The Business as Usual Dinner’ puts the guests in the middle of an agency client holiday sit down (oh, the hilarious awkwardness), while ‘The Resolutions Dinner’ features a series disturbing resolutions for the new year, and ‘The Overly Friendly Holiday Dinner’ will surely have you wishing for the holidays to be over as soon as possible.

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Canadian Tire Lights Up Toronto’s Union Station With Christmas Spirit Tree

Canadian Tire - Christmas Spirit TreeBefore the days of WalMart, Home Depot and other big box stores most of us watched our parents buy strands of Christmas lights from Canadian Tire to gracefully outline the silhouettes of our houses. Times have changed, but Canadian Tire is still there to supply us with illuminated Christmas spirit; and in 2011 the iconic Canadian brand is helping to light up the Grand Hall of Toronto’s Union Station thanks to the power of mobile and social media.

The Canadian Tire Christmas Spirit Tree is a state-of-the-art 30 foot tall installation consisting of 3000 LED lights powered by the positive messages of Christmas spirit being exchanged on Facebook, Twitter and posts to ChristmasSpiritTree.ca. The white lights represent social networks like Facebook and Twitter, red lights represent posts on blogs and forums, green lights represent news articles and blue lights represent the messages posted at the ChristmasTreeSpirit.ca website.

But apparently it’s even cooler than that. Our favorite (we use it at Delvinia) social media monitoring platform, Sysomos, is used to track a number of holiday keywords including “reindeer” and “elf”. The light bulbs then react to the data, shining brighter or dimmer according to the sentiment of the messages.

The Canadian Tire Christmas Spirit Tree is on display in-person at Toronto’s Union Station and on a live video stream at ChristmasTreeSpirit.ca from December 12-26 from 6am to midnight. There are floor mat ads and column advertising in the lower GO concourse directing commuters upstairs to the Grand Hall to view the tree in person.

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Swedish Retailer Has Customers Suffering for Savings with Xmas Carol Torture Challenge

Pause Xmas Carol TortureI’ve never worked in retail, so I can’t imagine how people that work in stores keep it together from listening to Christmas carols played over and over and over again during the holiday season.

Swedish electronics retailer Pause and Geneva Sound Systems is putting their customers to that very challenge. Visit the X-Mas Carol Torture site and start listening to the cheery sounds of Jingle Bells on permanent repeat. The longer you can listen the more you can save (up to 25%) on purchases at the store. To keep you from simply walking away or stuffing cotton into your ears while you listen, you must click on Santa Claus when he randomly says his Ho Ho Ho’s. My personal best is a paltry 3:09. The discount will be sent to your email or directly to your mobile phone.

The visitors who can manage to listen for the longest are eligible to win one of three Geneva sound systems. But that won’t be easy, the top contender as of today somehow managed to listen for an incredible 2 hours, 32 minutes and 16 seconds.

But things could be worse though, at least they are not streaming Justin Bieber’s ‘Under the Mistletoe’.

The site was created by Stockholm agency Åkestam Holst.

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The Swedish Post Brings 1910 Christmas Cards to Life

Swedish Post - Christmas on WheelsThe Swedish Post is celebrating the holidays by bringing Christmas Cards to life in a large barn outside the town of Kalmar. Visitors to the Christmas Cards on Wheels website can watch a live video feed from a camera that travels on a track through a series of set pieces designed to mimic the artwork of Swedish artist Jenny Nyström.

Nyström’s Christmas illustrations were featured on the very first Swedish Christmas card and showed piano playing pigs, elves decorating trees and dropping cards from a balloon.

As the camera travels through the barn visitors can capture still images that can then be used to create a real Christmas postcard that can be delivered to friends and family by… you guessed it, the Swedish Post. Visitors can also interact with the props by taking control of the camera for a lap, allowing them to open the top of piano, change the colour of the Christmas tree lights and control the fire in the elves hot air balloon.

However, with a popular site like this there’s bound to be glitches and the video feed can be choppy or unavailable at peak times. The live video feed is available between 9am and 9pm (local Swedish time).

The project was created by Akestam Holst. The Stockholm-based agency has done other work for the Swedish Post including ‘Sweden’s Safest Hands’. The campaign challenged users to safely deliver packages on their smartphones. The first user to arrive at the secret destination would win the content of the package.

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‘You’re Never Too Old to Sit on Santa’ Musical Breaks Out at New Jersey Mall

Improv Everywhere Mall Santa MusicalNew York performance art group Improv Everywhere is back with another one of their Spontaneoud Musicals. This time the theme is the holidays and the theme that you’re never too old to sit on Santa’s lap.

Other performances have been staged in food courts, grocery stores and even a social media conference.

While some Improv Everywhere’s projects are unauthorized the Mall Santa Musical was performed with the cooperation of the mall. The musical was perfomed a few times during that day duirng the breaks of the ‘real’ mall Santa. As you can imagine, there is a significant amount of preparation and rehearsal involved in Improv Eveywhere’s performances and they’ve posted some behind-the-scenes pictures and video on their website.

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