Launch Date:

December, 6 2013

Objectives and Challenges:

During the holiday season, parents will do almost anything to preserve their children’s belief in Santa, but convincing tech savvy youngsters is becoming more challenging every year. The agency’s objective was to create a video app to help parents keep the magic of Santa alive for kids with video evidence that he exists.

Insights, Concept & Execution:

To do this, the agency partnered with Make-A-Wish® Canada to launch Kringl™, a mobile video app that creates believable videos of Santa in action, right in your home. The free app was available in the Apple iTunes store and Google Play, and was shared in over 150 countries. Everyone who downloaded Kringl was given the opportunity to donate to Make-A-Wish Canada through the app, raising support and awareness for their cause, and keeping the magic of Kris Kringle alive for kids around the world.

Each clip of Santa was filmed on a green screen to create a series of unique Christmas scenes for parents to choose from. During filming, we captured a range of lighting situations to give users the ability to match their lighting conditions at home, all from within the app. No detail was overlooked, giving the user the ability to scale their Santa scene and use in-app guidelines to get the perspective just right and maximize the believability of each video. Sound design also played an important role in creating an authentic Christmas scene.

They ensured the sounds captured by the user worked seamlessly with the prerecorded sounds in the app, to give the best results possible. The final output produced undeniable proof that Santa exists. To make it easy to share, each video was formatted for YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and email. Final videos each generated a unique link that was hosted on the Kringl YouTube channel, where examples of other videos were displayed.

Results & Impact:

Kringl was downloaded over 110,000 times in less than 3 weeks, and was enjoyed by children in over 150 countries. More than 2 videos per second where being created on Christmas Eve, and over 35 million earned media impressions were generated. Kringl was featured in the Apple iTunes store and covered by traditional media and industry publications alike. Kringl was also named Top 12 agency holiday campaigns by Advertising Age, was the featured app on FWA on Christmas Day, and was showcased on USA Today and Fast Company, all with no paid media support. Most importantly, Make-A-Wish Canada received global exposure and support, and parents everywhere had the perfect way to rekindle the magic of Santa Claus on Christmas morning.