• Data insights: Kids are more and more informed and connected to their devices. Do they believe in Christmas the way we did twenty or thirty years ago? How can that be measured? How can that information be obtained without carrying out a straightforward survey that asks kids if they believe or not (a survey of that sort would, by definition, undermine belief in Santa Claus if it existed)

• Innovation No innovation. We used a lie detector test in the least intrusive way possible.

• Originality Lie detector tests are used to find out whether or not someone is telling the truth; what is measured is not the truth per se, but whether the person speaking believes he or she is telling the truth. What we wanted to know was what kids feel when they tell us their wild stories about Santa Claus. Were they telling us what they truly believe, or lying to try to fool us?

• Data journey Results fell into one of three categories: “lie,” “truth,” and “no answer.” We asked two hundred kids the question and recorded on site in a word document the name of each child and his/her response.

• Implementation We set up a recording studio that also served as a Gesell chamber in one area of the shopping mall. We decorated it for Christmas and set up a lie detector test. When kids came by, we hooked them up to the lie detector test and began chatting. We video recorded most of the interviews. We wrote down the answers to the key question: Who is Santa Claus?

• Data integration The data obtained was very clear to those who were physically present at the experiment. It was equally clear to those who saw the results on video.

• Data enhanced consumer experience Parents verified in real time what their children believe about Christmas and Santa Claus. The children enjoyed themselves and let their imaginations run wild.

• Data driven behaviour change Thousands of comments on the social networks spoke of how even today children continue to have dreams and to make up stories.

• Business impact Despite a serious recession in Argentina, traffic in the mall increased by 24% compared to the previous Christmas, and sales by 18%. The impact on the brand image was significant, as is evident from the very positive reaction to the content in the social networks (1.36 million impressions, 1.8 million views, US$15 million in earned media, 800,000 social media interactions)

The entire action was related to data collection. We wanted to measure to what extent children still believe in Santa Claus. And, though it is not possible to measure level of belief in something, it is possible to measure when someone thinks what they are saying is true or not. So we used the lie detector test to measure if kids think they are telling the truth when they talk about Santa Claus.

• Data gathering While each kid was hooked up to a lie detector test, we spoke to them about an array of topics—which allowed us to discover when they were lying to us. We then asked all the kids “Who is Santa Claus?” The lie detector test showed us in no uncertain terms when children believed that what they were saying was true and when they thought they were lying.

• Data interpretation When a child told us that s/he had seen Santa Claus with his/her own eyes, spoken to him, and so forth, the lie detector test indicated that that child actually believed that s/he was telling the truth, which meant that the child actually believed in Santa Claus.

• Targeting The core target was the parents of the children who participated in the experiment, that is, ABC1 men and women with small children from Buenos Aires and its northern suburbs. Later, with the expansion of the event on the social networks and in the mass media, the target was all families in Buenos Aires and Greater Buenos Aires.

Situation Argentina was in the middle of a serious recession, and a dramatic drop in sales was feared. Christmas is a key time of year for Unicenter, a mall with a long-standing Christmas tradition. Children always used to ask their parents to take them to Unicenetr to get their photo taken with Santa Claus. But, in 2016, when kids are so informed and connected to their devices, we wondered if they still believed in Santa Claus and in Christmas.

• Brief We needed to stand out from our competition, rival shopping malls, but due to market factors we could not engage in an aggressive marketing strategy that would increase traffic and sales.

• Objectives By means of visits to Santa Claus, increase the traffic of persons in the mall compared to the previous year, despite the recession; or, if that proved impossible, at least minimize the drop in sales.