British wireless and mobile provider O2 is running a holiday campaign complete with personalized messages from Santa on YouTube. Using the hashtag #02santa, followers can tweet Santa a message they’d like him to read, and he will create and post a personal video on his YouTube channel in response. The aim is for followers to then share the video via social platforms, tweeting the personal message or emailing a link to the video.
The campaign ran from December 12 until midday today in the UK, and all videos will be posted in time for Christmas.
Alex Pearmain, head of social media at O2, said that the company wanted to “get consumers involved” and to “deliver a bit of entertainment during the festive period.”
Jo Carr, a founder and managing partner of Hope & Glory, the agency behind the campaign, told Advertising Age that “It’s less about the metrics and more about the surprise and delight. We’ve had lots of lovely comments by parents who’ve made films. This is ticking the box of being relevant to our key customers.”
Engagement has been strong, and by day two of the campaign Santa had already created 400 personal messages “in response to thousands of tweets received,” according to Advertising Age. Santa’s messages were for both children and adults, and some were in languages other than English. On YouTube, O2 Santa’s channel already had 12,388 video views as of December 15.
Check out an O2 Santa message below:
[iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/5f4Vc-uyHSs” frameborder=”0″]
