As an alternative, the brand wants to “inspire people to rethink how they approach holiday cards and gifts,” according to Bree Casart, Shutterfly’s chief customer officer. The season provides a “unique opportunity for sharing and receiving those personal glimpses into our lives and connecting in a meaningful way.”
To pack an emotional punch, while avoiding the generic, Shutterfly is promoting a new holiday card collection and gift guide, where consumers can add their own images to coffee mugs, fleece blankets, pillows, puzzles, water bottles and wall art.
As an added element of the campaign, the creative team opened a parody e-commerce store on Shopify called Meaningless Stuff, offering 28 intentionally silly items—based on props from the commercial shoot—for sale at nominal prices.
Consumers, obviously getting the joke, have responded by snapping up merchandise like portable foot spas (“like a spa, only smaller and sadder,” per its ad) and goofy ties (“let your dad know he’s someone you know”).
“It was kind of a Trojan horse exercise,” Weiss said. “We ran paid 6-second social ads giving the truth behind these meaningless gifts.”
Timing is everything
As an early holiday advertiser, Shutterfly is getting a jump on the inevitable fourth-quarter rush from brands in every category. There’s also the presidential campaign to consider, with its massive billion-dollar media buys in the coming weeks.
“Campaigns are launching earlier in general, but this year, it’s either get in front of the election or wait until after, which might be too late for some brands,” Weiss said.
Timing was also key for Weiss and partners Reina (chief creative officer, formerly McCann North America), chief strategy officer Leddy, and CEO Gonda (both of Droga5) in hanging out their own shingle.
Weiss, whose recent executive gig was at the 10,000-employee-strong DDB network, sees “tremendous opportunity” in the current environment, even given the ongoing push-pull between agencies and their clients, who demand more of everything—assets, ideas, strategy—while tightening their budgets.