It's Mother Bucking Christmas with W+K Amsterdam

Like us, you’ve probably received a fair few electronic greeting cards in your inboxes this past week or so, but Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam's festive effort is a definite cracker. Once again the agency has lived up to its reputation as a pioneer in innovation and executed an original idea to engage friends and clients with a fun, festive campaign for charity.

Mother Bucker saw staff ride a 'Badass Santa' rodeo ride for as long as they could with their recorded time ultimately deciding how much money would be donated to a chosen charity. Emails were sent out from the agency HQ with unique numbers relating to the riders and the winner would decide which charity the winning donation went to.

MD Clay Mills explains the thinking behind the idea: “We're in the business of getting people to buy things but a lot of people can't. Using our creativity to help those less fortunate is just the right thing to do. We wanted to get people to compete for a good cause. Badass Santa was a fresh, insane challenge to pit people against.”

The charity donation formula was worked out by adding a zero to the end of the winning rider’s time on Badass Santa – crowned champion Mother Bucker.

“The Mother Bucker who managed to stay on Santa's lap the longest was Luis Ortiz, Heineken account exec, who rode Santa's lap for a grand total of 2.22 minutes, which equates to a 2230 Euro donation," says Heloise Hooton, head of PR & Innovation at Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam. "We increased that to 3000 Euros, thanks to a Shirtless Bonus incurred during Ortiz's partially naked champion's encore ride. He was Mother Bucker number 29, a number which two lucky people received.”

The agency will therefore be donating 1,500 Euros to Human Rights Watch (selected by David Campbell, global content director, Coca-Cola), and 1,500 Euros to Planète Enfant en France (chosen by Jose-Manuel Albesa, Chief Brand Officer, Puig).

Last year, ECDs Mark Bernath and Eric Quennoy and their creative team held an interactive festive dinner with friends and clients via Skype demonstrating its digital prowess but this year, with the charity incentive, it has spread its Christmas cheer with added value.

“Both were developed internally but this is the first year they asked The Kennedys (the W+K Amsterdam apprenticeship programme) to take on the brief,” explains Judd Caraway, father of The Kennedys. “I think the festive dinner was a bit more personal, although virtual, in its attempt to recreate a holiday dinner. This year's event was really about getting the entire office involved while simultaneously getting friends and clients to participate via the live stream and charity side of it. Oh yeah, and having a bit of a fun.”

The agency added even more joy to the project by implementing a Christmas jumper theme and Caraway says it definitely helped people get into character. All the action was broadcast via online stream provider UStream and linked to the W+K Amsterdam Facebook page. Check out the video above to cop some of the Mother Bucking good time they all had.