Doom & Dickson: HOW CHRISTMAS CAME TO BE

Credits & Description:

Category: Traffic & Brand Building

Advertiser: DOOM & DICKSON

Product/Service: SELF PROMOTION

Agency: DOOM&DICKSON

Date of First Appearance: Dec 20 2010

Entrant Company: DOOM&DICKSON, Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS

Creative Director: Jaap Sinke (Doom & Dickson)

Copy writer: Maarten van Kempen (Doom & Dickson)

Art Director: Daniel Ashkol (Doom & Dickson)

Client Service Director: Frieda Ulsamer de Waard (Doom & Dickson)

Project Manager: Sarah Giliam (Doom & Dickson)

Producer: Jauko Hartveldt (Can Do Anything)

Illustrator: Bart Bus

Illustrator: Adri van Geldere (The Reps)

Media placement: Christmas Gift - Clients And Prospects - 20 December 2011



Describe the brief/objective of the direct campaign.

The philosophy of our Amsterdam-based agency is ‘to tell stories worth sharing’. That’s why ten years ago we came up with two fictitious ad men, the ‘founding fathers’ of our company. Jack Doom, grandmaster in the area of creativity and Bill Dickson, pioneer in the field of effectiveness.



Every once in a while we feature them in a creative campaign to raise the top of mind awareness of the agency within the target audience of existing clients, prospective clients and industry colleagues. This time we grabbed momentum around Christmas which was the perfect time to reach out to our business contacts.



Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective with reference to the projected response rates and desired outcome.

We set out to develop a campaign around the concept of Jack & Bill that would generate excitement & buzz. So instead of sending holiday cards we came up with a Christmas book; a ‘replica’ of the ‘original copy’ which was discovered in a basement of a New York apartment building.



The book, richly illustrated in 50’s style with the narrative written in rhyme, gives the reader the inside story of the origination of the Christmas tradition. Eventually it turns out Jack & Bill created Christmas as an ‘event’ to help their first client, a forester, selling his Nordmann trees.



Explain why the creative execution was relevant to the product or service.

Jack Doom & Bill Dickson’s ‘wisdom and knowledge’ cast a long shadow over our agency and advertising in general, they are the embodiment of ‘storytelling’. We emphasize the mark these two gentlemen left by claiming their fame for the greatest story of all time; Christmas.



The new version of the origination of Christmas is truly a ‘story worth sharing’. The hardcover book rendered in 50’s graphic style is a quality item, something you’ll show to other people and in comparison to a holiday card won’t throw away that easily. This all helped to generate the free publicity we aimed for.



Describe the results in as much detail as possible with particular reference to the RESPONSE of the target audience including deliverability statistics, response rates, click throughs, sales cost per response, relationships built and overall return on investment.

Within a week the campaign managed to create high impact and reach within the relatively small advertising industry focussed around the Amsterdam region (our agency home base). We have sent the book to 400 clients and prospects. Another 150 books were ordered via a vintage-looking ad placed in the leading Dutch marketing magazine. The ad encouraged people to cut out and send back an old-fashioned coupon in order to attain a free copy. Soon, also Dutch advertising blogs started to report about the campaign. All in all leading to hundreds of positive responses and even a few new business contacts.