Holiday eCards – the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

It's that time of year again when we are inundated with the the good, the bad, and the ugly Holiday eCards.  Here are some I've received in reverse order….

The "Ugly" – creating negative brand perception with a holiday eCard so unimaginative and uninspired that it turns people off.  I’ve received a lot of these this year so maybe the cost-cutting started with creative departments.  I’ll spare you the pain of seeing all of them and use MS&L’s card as the poster child for “ugly” marketing.  Clearly they get paid by the word, but do people really want to read about arcane renaming updates in a holiday card.  I expect a top tier global PR firm to be savvier than this.

 

The "Bad" – wasting the time and money to produce a boring holiday eCard.  The companies in this group at least put some effort into their cards, but clearly not enough to make them enjoyable.  They want to do a nice card but just don’t put enough creative energy into making it a positive brand experience for the recipient.  The card from lead-gen firm Madison Logic exemplifies a “bad” card with no music and some scrolling images of the staff…yawn!  Check out the screen shot below, or if for some masochistic reason, you want to see the “live” card then click here.

The "Good" – using imagination and creativity to make a holiday eCard that entertains the recipients and conveys a good impression of your company.  My favorite in this group is the one from The Loomis Agency which uses sock puppets singing a parody of The Carol of Bells.  PMSI created a cool card by mixing holiday tunes and a sketch artist drawing Santa. Check it out here.   And Eisenberg Associates offers up a simple but fun game in their card.