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

British Royal Mint Commissions £12,000 Christmas Pudding

Royal Mint Commissions £12,000 Christmas Pudding

Putting a silver coin into the Christmas pudding is a long standing tradition amongst British families. The coin is thought to bring good luck and wealth for the following year to the person who finds it. That luck would begin with not choking on the coin while enjoying the dessert.

This year the British Royal Mint has commissioned actress, writer and now cake-entrepreneur Jane Asher (yes, the same Jane Asher who was engaged to Paul McCartney in the 1960s) to create an extravagant and regal Christmas pudding, based on a 200 year old secret family recipe containing festive spices, dried fruits and blanched almonds.

The most expensive ingredient in the dessert is 35 rare silver and coins, including five 2013 uncirculated £5 Sovereign Gold coins each worth £1,900 and thirty Silver Sixpences.

[via PSFK]

UK

London Creative Shop Designs Wrapping Paper Inspired by Cold & Flu Viruses

WCRS Wrap-up Project

With cases of homelessness in the UK increasing by 31% in the last two years, London creative agency WCRS looks to raise awareness of the issue with The Wrap-Up Project.

With the onset of winter, people living on the street become even more vulnerable to sickness. With that in mind, the agency has created a series of colourful Christmas wrapping papers which feature graphical representations of the viruses for the common cold, influenza and pneumonia as snowflakes.

The papers are available on ebay in packs of 3 (£8), 5 (£12.50) or 10 (£24), with all proceeds supporting the work of London charity St Mungo’s, which helps people transition to a new life off the streets.

[via Design Taxi]

UK

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

Budweiser UK Launches Knitbot, a Twitter-Powered Sweater Knitting Machine

Budweiser Knitbot

It looks like this year big brands have discovered the lowly holiday sweater, and have made it a part of their marketing campaigns leading up to Christmas. First out was Coke Zero’s Sweater Generator contest, where fans could create a mockup of a holiday sweater using the online tool. The 100 sweaters with the most votes will be produced and awarded to their creators just in time for the holidays.

Budweiser UK has launched a seasonal sweater-themed promotion in support of designated drivers. The brand is using Knitbot, a Twitter-powered knitting machine that responds to tweets that include the hashtag #jumpers4des.

The Knitbot will work around-the-clock for 10 days (November 26 to December 10) creating the red sweaters that include images of the Budweiser’s iconic Clydesdale horses. On December 11, designated drivers in the UK can apply on the Budweiser UK Facebook page for a chance to win one of the creations.

[via PopSop]

UK

Coke Zero’s Ugly Holiday Sweater Generator Will Leave You in Stitches

Coke Zero - Ugly Sweater Generator

The ugly Christmas sweater has become as much a part of the modern holiday season as secret Santas, awkward office party passes and those reindeer antlers that people put on their cars.

What started as an ironic statement about ’80s holiday fashion has since gone mainstream now with dozens of online sites and trendy boutiques offering up the best of the worst ugly holiday sweaters.

Coca-Cola and it’s agency Droga5 have jumped all over the trend and have launched the Coke Zero Sweater Generator. Customize your sweater by choosing the color, patterns and decorative elements.

Whether you decorate your sweater with porpoises, snow cobras, dinosaurs or roasted turkeys, you’ll want to share your creation with your friends. The top 100 vote getters by December 1 will actually have their sweater produced just in time for the holidays.

[via Ad Age]

USA

Baileys Christmas Ad Features Modern Spin on Classic Nutcracker Story

Baileys Nutcracker

Experiencing a live performance Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite have become a Christmas holiday tradition for audiences around the world.

Agency BBH London and Baileys have pulled together a ‘A List’ of talent to create a condensed stylized take on the classic tale. Leading the production is ‘Three Little Pigs‘ director Ringan Ledwidge, ‘Black Swan’ choreographer Benjamin Millepied, composer, pianist and producer, Nicholas Britell, costume designer Rosa Dias and set designer Sarah Greenwood. The dancers are Royal Ballet Dancers Steven McRae as the Nutcracker, Thiago Soares as the Mouse King and Iana Salenko as Clara, the heroine of the story.

The retelling begins with the group of girls heading out through a snowy forest for a girl’s night out at Candyland. After enjoying a complimentary Baileys, a suave Nutcracker steps forward for a dance. Soon they’ve attracted the attention of a tattooed Mouse King, who steps forward and makes a grab for Clara. Before you can say “pirouette” there’s a full-scale dance-battle going on between the two. Clara ends it all with a spinning round kick to the face of the Mouse King, before heading off for more fun (and Bailey’s) with the girls.

Appropriately enough the full 2 minute ad debuted during the UK TV premiere of ‘Black Swan‘.

Baileys Christmas Nutcracker

The making of our Baileys Christmas Nutcracker

[via Creativity]

UK

BMW Switzerland Recruits Backseat Singers to Create the World’s Fastest Christmas Song

BMW Switzerland - Fastest Christmas Carol

So, just how do you create the world’s fastest Christmas Song?

BMW Switzerland and their agency Draftfcb, Zurich first recruited a group the brave singers of Zurich A Cappella, and suited them with safety gear and strapped them into a new BMW M135i. Then set them loose on the Circuit de l’Anneau du Rhin with Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters pro driver Martin Tomczyk at the wheel.

Between squealing tires and screaming passengers the group did manage to get through a few verses of Jingle Bells before their adventure was over.

Not satisfied withe simply terrorizing vocalists, BMW Switzerland recruited illustrator, Gavin Patterson to create artwork for the ‘World’s Fastest Christmas Card‘ while riding shotgun with BMW precision driver Urs Inauen. The resulting art required labels to help identify Santa and his presents among the marker scribbles.

World’s Fastest Christmas Song

World’s Fastest Christmas Card

[via Ads of the World]

Switzerland

Brazilian Telecom Company Connects Kids to Santa with a Magical Payphone

Oi Magical Payphone

I still do a ‘double-take’ when I notice a payphone on the street. It seems almost inconceivable (and yes, I said that like Vizzini in ‘The Princess Bride’) that this used to be the only way we had to get in touch with someone when we were out-and-about.

Brazilian telecom provider ttp://www.oi.com.br” title=”Oi” target=”_blank”>Oi, and their agency NBS created a Magical Payphone with a direct connection to Santa at the North Pole. Actually, Santa was played by two actors from Retiro dos Artistas (an institution that takes care of retired artists), who could watch the children’s reactions via a remote camera

But chatting with Saint Nick was only the start of the fun for these kids. As they spoke with Santa, lost elves wandered by, and gifts seemed to appear out of nowhere (thanks to sneaky members of the production crew). But there was more, Santa asked the kids to find the star on the pay phone, once pressed it triggered a 3D projection, snowflakes and a Christmas choir.

[via Ads of the World]

Brazil

Kingsford Surprises Social Media ‘Nice Guy’ with Charcoal for Christmas

Kingsford Christmas charcoal

As a kid, there being a few years when I probably should have been given a lump of coal in my Christmas stocking, but somehow I always managed to eek out a place on the ‘nice list’ at the last minute.

But, these are modern times and being naughty online can easily be tracked. Kingsford partnered with social media monitoring tool Sysomos (disclosure: Sysomos is a Delvinia vendor), to find the nicest person on social media. Sysomos engineers created a script that could analyze which users tweeted “please”, “thank you” and “thanks”, didn’t curse and scored well on “positive sentiment”.

In the end, Clifford Brown of Waukesha, Wisc was the selected as Mr. Social Media Nice Guy, and was rewarded with a year’s supply of Kingsford charcoal, a Kingsford kettle grill and other grilling accessories.

Now Kingsford is moving onto phase 2 of the campaign, and are asking Twitter users to tweet #benicegetcoal, nominating themselves or someone else for a chance to win their own Kingsford grill and year supply of charcoal. More details at www.Grilling.com/BeNiceGetCoal.

USA

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/nicest-person-in-social-media-gets-coal-for-christmas-1737909.htm