Legal Marketing Association Awards Blakes LLP’s Holiday Card First Place

As mentioned last month, the Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP holiday card “Blakes Gives Thanks”, which was filmed, edited and produced by Pixelcarve, has been getting a lot of industry attention. Today, the LMA’s announced the Your Honour award winners and they gave Blakes the top spot for Promotional/Collateral Piece Winners — Holiday Cards.

Summary

Blakes wanted to send a unique and memorable holiday greeting to clients that conveyed a message of gratitude. This was accomplished with a short video that captured the spirit of the season as well as the culture of the firm. Blakes also leveraged social media to spread the message and track results.

The upbeat holiday video features an introduction of a typical day which sets up the theme (and features a Blakes partner and her children), and then leads into clips submitted by people from various Blakes offices about what they are thankful for.

From a marketing perspective, the team wanted the eCard/video to be creative, thoughtful, unique, memorable and engaging. Realizing that eCards had become standard among law firms, Blakes sought a new way that lawyers could effectively connect with their wide network of contacts and clients around the globe. The email portion of the card was customizable with a personal message from the sender, and led to the short video message. Following the video there was an invitation to share the message via social media. The entire experience was flawlessly branded as well as completely bilingual (English and French).

Following the distribution of the “Blakes Gives Thanks” eCard/video in mid-Dec. 2011, the firm received over 8,000 views on YouTube, and all our social media properties saw an increase in followers, dialogue and reach. In addition, the video message elicited more direct replies and good wishes to lawyers than any eCard sent in previous years.

The core objective of our holiday eCard was to maintain and strengthen client relationships, and the total budget for this project was comparable to eCard development and significantly less than sending traditional printed cards.

What the judges say:

Classy. Nice results tracking of the card. Good messaging, unique look.

The video was produced in both English & French and has since been viewed by almost 11,000 people.

Pixelcarve is also pleased to announce the release of the Director’s Cut, which features all new scenes including an introduction not seen in the final video.

Let us know what you think!