An Advent-ive Countdown to Christmas

At ad agencies, holiday gifts for clients and vendors can go to the extreme. Marketing firms often use the occasion as an opportunity to show off their creativity (even when it comes to their bad ideas). One even made fun of the whole agencies-going-overboard tradition with a humorous mock movie trailer titled The Holiday Card.

At CLM, we kept our focus on delighting our clients in a real way. After all, we strive to do that every day here anyway.

When coming up with ideas, I thought of an advent calendar. Perfect, really, because it already has the word “ad” in it. And it would allow us to offer a festive dose of surprise and delight on a daily basis all month long. Sort of like the 12 days of Christmas, just double the fun, and with less birdlife.

The advent calendars were a true labor of love that took many hands and hours to bring to life. We stained and spray-painted a wooden advent tree, added a Christmas tree design on the back, custom made vinyl silver letters, and tied it all together with iridescent cellophane and an ornament shaped gift card. The real trick, though, was tracking down the small gifts inside. Joelle and I spent several hours scouring Cost Plus and local businesses downtown with tiny boxes in hand, seeing what exactly we could fit inside.

From chocolates to mini Etch-A-Sketches to Idaho-shaped ornaments, the gifts spanned the gamut of pint-sized fun. Repeatedly, our clients expressed their delight. Holiday cheer came in small packages this year.

Jessica Holmes | Dec 28, 2018