The Christmas Spirit Tree was created and designed to work best as a mobile web experience. Visitors to the Tree were invited to share a Christmas message via mobile device, triggering a magical light display to take over the tree right before their eyes.

On smartphones and web-enabled devices, Christmas messages were shared via Twitter or Facebook directly from our mobile campaign site. These messages were then displayed in near real-time on two big-screen digital maps installed in the base of the tree.However, knowing that smart phone adoption in Canada is still growing (about 40% as of December 2011), we needed to find a way of letting non-smart phone users (the majority of our target) participate as well. So we also created text shortcodes that could be sent from any mobile device that would also trigger the lighting animations to take over the tree.Combined, this gave nearly every single person that visited the tree the ability to share their Christmas messages and experience the magic of Christmas first hand.

Results:In just over two weeks: •20% of all visitors to ChristmasSpiritTree.ca were from a mobile device.•Average of 5 SMS sent per user.•20 million earned impressions•Mentioned on more than 1,400 blogs and news outlets, including Global News, PSFK, and MSNBCs Today Show.•1.8+ million minutes watched online•Averaged 7+ minutes spent on site

The core of the experience is a 30 feet tall Christmas tree, wrapped in 3,000 individually programmable LED lights. Using proprietary lighting software, we transformed online Christmas messages into data that was then visualised as different colours and intensities of lights on the tree – so as Canada’s online spirit grew stronger and stronger, the lights on the tree shone brighter and brighter.

On location, people were invited to share Christmas messages via mobile site or text message and watch a spiral of blue and flashing lights magically shoot up the tree right before their eyes. What’s more, seven additional light animations were programmed that, when triggered by sharing a specific Christmas keyword, each caused a unique light display to take over the tree.

From the launch event, as a direct result of the coupons, Canadian Tire earned more than $500,000 in incremental revenue.

What’s more, in just over 2 weeks, Christmas Spirit Tree also received:• 20m earned impressions• 1.8m+ minutes of content consumed online (1,275 days)• Average of 7+ minutes spent on the site• Mentions on more than 1,400 blogs and news outlets, including Global News, PSFK, and MSNBCs Today Show.• Site visits from 170 different countries