Nov

Merry and bright: A blueprint for creating your AEC firm’s 2024 holiday card

November 5, 2024

For architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) marketing teams, wrapping up a successful holiday card campaign feels like a sip of hot cup of cocoa on a snowy, blustery day — a comforting relief! However, developing a holiday card concept, securing firmwide support, and executing the plan can feel more like that after-shave scene in Home Alone. You know the one.

via GIPHY

While you may be tempted to send a quick email with an AI-generated image of elves, a wreath, and some mistletoe, that isn’t the personal touch your clients and business partners will melt over. Holiday cards give AEC firms the chance to express their gratitude for the support and collaboration received throughout the year. They can also communicate your company’s values. You don’t have to overcomplicate it but don’t phone it in.

Identify your audience and build your send list

Before diving into your card’s specifics, it’s essential to identify your audience and update your customer relationship management system (CRM). First, are you sending the card exclusively to clients, business partners, and potential clients or all three? Choosing an audience will help narrow down your message.

If you’re as busy as most AEC marketing teams, you probably don’t get too many opportunities throughout the year to tend to your email list like a devoted gardener. Assuming that you’re sending your card via email, as most firms do nowadays, you’ll need to develop your recipient list. Whether you have outdated contacts or you’ve forgotten to add new clients to your list, use the holiday card campaign as an opportunity to tend to your garden. Roll up your sleeves and pull some weeds. Even if you opt to send cards by snail mail, you’ll still have to do the work of updating your mailing list.

Your email marketing campaign will only be as good as your list. Natural attrition due to turnover can be as high as 20% to 30%. Review your delivery rates, open rates, bounces, unsubscribes, and spam complaints, and clean up your CRM. This will improve your sender score and reduce the chances of your email ending up in the spam folder.

Determine your tone and message

After you’ve cleaned up your email list and understand your audience, decide what your message will be. It’s easier said than done when you are at a large firm with 12 opinionated principals. It might help to appoint a holiday card committee and keep only a select few cooks in your proverbial holiday treat-baking kitchen. Here are a few things your committee should consider at the project onset:

Will you recognize one specific holiday (Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa) over the others or remain neutral in your celebration?

This tells your design team whether they can include specific imagery and visual elements, like gifts, reindeer, or a menorah. It will also help them determine the color scheme. Red and green may not be a good fit if you’re trying to stay neutral.

What’s your tone?

Will your card be fun and light-hearted or sentimental and elegant? Whatever you decide, make sure your message is not tone-deaf to current events.

Do you include a team picture?

If so, you must give your team time for professional photography and photo edits. This takes a lot of coordination, but the result is very inclusive, demonstrating how you value each team member.

Are you including some of your 2024 wins?

Including project wins doesn’t have to be braggadocious. It can reflect your dedication to improving the built environment and even give credit to those who contributed to those wins.

Are you telling a story about your company or demonstrating your values?

The holidays are for giving. Demonstrating generosity of spirit is a wonderful way to authentically connect with your audience and reinforce your company values.

Visuals that sleigh

Your visuals should complement, not compete, with your message. Communicating early and often with your design team will help bring your vision for a memorable holiday card to life.

Your holiday card design brief should include the following specifics:

Print or digital? Graphic or video? Animated or live-action?

It’s important to note expectations in terms of printed card, static e-card, or a more ambitious holiday video/animation so the designer can determine the project lead time. This is also a great place to establish if the card is a standalone piece or if it’s an email that drives to a landing page or any other action.

Don’t forget nuances like file size for digital elements and trim/bleed for printed elements. If you’re doing a printed card, you will want to confirm your printer’s delivery schedule and whether the printer will handle mailing and postage. Don’t forget to include these additional costs and markups in your project budget.

Brand guidelines and notes on company culture

If you’re working with a new creative designer, be sure to send them your brand guidelines. Just because it’s a fun project doesn’t mean you can break all the rules. You’re not Kevin McCallister.

Including your value proposition(s), company culture callouts, core values and community involvement gives additional context for the overall feel of your brand. These are NOT intended as talking points to include in the messaging. They’re just company culture elements that help paint a picture in the graphic designer’s mind.

Tone vs. subject matter

Your copy may give creative designers an idea of the big picture, but including descriptive adjectives for the overall sentiment the visuals should evoke in your design brief adds the color designers need to bring your vision to life.

These shouldn’t be prescriptive like “blue” or “red” but more evocative like “refreshing,” “credible,” “playful” and “sophisticated.” Here’s an example for reference of how tone can vastly change your imagery:

Examples to inspire your team of elves

If you’re looking for inspiration, these are excellent examples of holiday campaigns that made the nice list.

The firm: KFA Architecture Los Angeles

The tone: Sentimental

The holiday card: KFA 2023 “Peace Lanterns” Video shows all the firm’s staff coming together to create something original, visually interesting, and clever. Focused on themes of peace and unity, you will see KFA staff and their families decorating the 100 globe paper lanterns to create a glowing peace symbol captured from 150 feet above. Each lantern was decorated with words and messages of inspiration and peace. As a drone camera pans away from the peace sign over to the Los Angeles skyline, the video ends with the message: “Wishing you joy and peace this holiday season.”

How they did it: A small group from the firm’s management team spent time scouting the production location and designing a template to ensure the garden stakes were all properly placed and aligned to form a 60-foot-wide peace symbol. The production team visited the production location in the park several times to do drone video tests at various heights and times of day. What really makes this holiday card stand out is the original music they created specifically for this project and the inclusion of their staff and family members. The music was composed, scored, recorded, and mixed by one of KFA’s project managers, who was also the principal vocalist and played several of the instruments heard in the recording.

The firm: Robins & Morton

The tone: Whimsical and fun

The holiday card: The Kris Kringle gingerbread clinic for elves is quite possibly the most interactive, creative holiday campaign we’ve seen in recent years. Robins & Morton produced an animated video demonstrating how their firm helped Santa with a special project to build a gingerbread clinic for his elves. Most impressive, they prepared a building manual and wall templates to accompany the video.

How they did it: The team built a landing page on their website for the animated video and all the additional campaign elements, including PDFs containing instructions for recipients to build their own gingerbread clinic – complete with the scope, estimate, specifications, and drawings. They even created a Spotify musical playlist and a unique Snapchat filter. They thought of everything and undoubtedly dedicated a significant amount of time and resources to bring their vision to life. I’m trying to play it cool, but this campaign literally made me shout, “Well, frost my cookies!”

The firm: Studio RED Architects in Houston, Texas

The tone: Sincere

The holiday card: Although this Studio RED Architects’ holiday client appreciation video is a decade old, its message of gratitude and generosity is timeless.

How they did it: The video is simple yet sweet. They included music, light animation, a group photo, and a sincere message. More importantly, they’ve shared their company’s values by making a donation to the Salvation Army in celebration of the holidays.

The firm: Rogers-O’Brien Construction

The tone: Elegant and creative

The holiday card: The happy holidays from Rogers-O’Brien video features President and CEO Justin McAfee sitting before a Christmas tree, sharing a heartfelt holiday poem. From that opening scene, it transitions into a showcase of current projects brought to life through RO’s in-house 3D printer. The video highlights the firm’s creativity and dedication to quality craftsmanship. Set against a charming holiday town, the 3D-printed models evoke a sense of nostalgia and peace.

How they did it: Beyond showcasing the firm’s work, RO’s holiday video expresses gratitude to clients and employees, celebrating collaboration and shared success. Each featured project was selected to represent a region of Texas and a market sector RO serves. They even focused on clients they have repeatedly partnered with or hope to work with again. The underlying message reminds clients of their collective purpose: “Building a Better Texas.”

You can find more inspiration from the Reputation Ink team’s past holiday cards. Be warned, our brand has edge, and some of the concepts landed us on Santa’s naughty list. YOLO.

Don’t get your tinsel in a tangle

Now that you have some ideas to get your gears turning, it’s time to plan your next steps. Below is a sample schedule to keep your team focused and help you deliver your campaign on time. We wouldn’t want your office to look as frenzied as Santa’s workshop T-minus two days to Christmas!

Creative kickoff meeting: [XX/XX/XX]
First, look at concept(s): No later than [Week of XX/XX] (X weeks before delivery date)
Revisions as needed: [Weeks of XX/XX-XX/XX] (X weeks of back-and-forth, this phase is always a big variable based on client responsiveness)
Client approval on creative: [Week of XX/XX]
Thanksgiving week: [Week of XX/XX] (assume nothing gets done this week due to PTO)
Time needed for final production: build out emails or finalize animations/video or print and mail: [Weeks of XX/XX-XX/XX] (X weeks before the delivery date, varies based on production required)
Delivered to inboxes via (email platform)/Mailed: [Week of 12/XX]

Of course, dates will vary depending on the card format (video, print element, email image). When developing your timeline, finalizing the format is key. Then confirm your target send/mail date to build out your schedule.

Dot your I’s and cross your trees

Before you hit send on your holiday card campaign or drop the envelopes in the outgoing mail slot (for those who prefer snail mail), have your holiday card committee review the design and copy. When appropriate, include a personal touch, like your CEO’s signature or a personalized tin of cookies.

Regardless of the format you choose or the card’s tone, remain true to your brand and you’ll be golden. These are just our two cents. Keep the change, ya filthy animal!