It requires clear ideas and realistic expectations, both in terms of timing and results. Yet, some brands seem to forget this, drawing up endless and unrealistic wish lists, expecting someone to magically turn them into reality. That is hard to do, especially when the initial ideas are fuzzy.

Santa Claus has always represented the figure we ask things from, the one who can only respond by granting wishes. But no one has ever truly given him a voice, interpreting what he might actually think or say. We wanted to change that because it is exactly what we do every day: we give a voice, we open a channel for dialogue. We did it with an icon everyone knows instead of a brief, but the principle remains the same.

The campaign’s tone of voice isironic, and its key tool is provocation.

The result?

Letters sent back to sender, toy sacks left completely empty, and a Santa Claus who has had enough, venting his frustration over a “live” phone call, leading up to the invitation to rely on an agency that “doesn’t sell smoke. It was a provocation that met with great interest and attention from everyone who stopped by our booth during the three days in Bologna. Above all, there was no shortage of smiles: no one could resist picking up the receiver to listen to the rants of a Santa exhausted by impossible demands.

The provocation was a calculated risk.

The tone of voice is consistent with our brand and, above all, instrumental in conveying, through irony, the message we truly want to send across. Which is: communication is serious business, and it must be treated as such. It takes awareness, responsibility, and strategy to do it, and to do it well.

Agencies do not have a magic wand: if there is no value, if there is no substance, you cannot communicate anything that truly makes sense.