After Apple touted the iPhone's Siri voice recognition feature in a TV commercial with Santa Claus, Google today released this video featuring Santa (who can be tracked in Google Earth), a few Googlers and a list of search tips for Santa, including using Google Voice to search his Google phone. And if you haven't tried Google's "Let it snow" Easter egg, click here.

Forget Rudolph — Siri is Santa's go-to helper, according to the new holiday commercial from Apple, which is offering (again) a 12 Days of Christmas iTunes daily giveaway from Dec. 26 through Jan. 6 in select markets including Europe, the UK, and Canada, but not the U.S.

As we watch for innovative holiday campaigns this season, the Sears Cheer Tree caught our eye. It's an online interactive mosaic built with user submitted photos of their favorite holiday decorating style tips and traditions. In return for sharing, consumers can unlock special holiday shopping deals secreted within the mosaic. 

The campaign was designed by Attention, working with Hashtag Art, which organizes user-generated content by tags to create a visual mosaic, or as they put it: “consumers BECOME the advertisement.” Hashtagart’s proprietary technology and suite of apps leverage consumers to spread a brand's message. 

The app begins as a blank canvas, and contributors tweet or Facebook-post a message and their profile image instantly generates a tile for the mosaic.Continue reading...

Santa has been busy these past few decades, touting Philips Norelco shavers among other holiday advertising campaigns, and he’s back after a brief hiatus with his new ride, the SensoTouch 3D.

“This new commercial (above) combines the best of the old and the new as Santa navigates the fast and slippery slopes with the look of the same shaver for decades, but now with new technology, an upgraded product that is thinner, waterproof, works in the shower, with foam, or dry, a product virtually transformed,” Jacopo D’Alessandris, VP, Head of Marketing North America for Philips Consumer Lifestyle told brandchannel.Continue reading...

Coca-Cola's global holiday campaign will once again revolve around music, with British pop star Natasha Bedingfield. Now available on iTunes, her 2011 holiday anthem, "Shake Up Christmas" (a tune popularized last Christmas by the Grammy Award-winning band Train), has been recorded in six languages.

Additionally, Coca-Cola is introducing new television spots, online and mobile experiences, in-store promotions and packaging. A mobile app lets fans create and share personalized Christmas greetings by cropping a photo into a dance performance to ‘Shake Up Christmas,’ as well as a Facebook gaming application, customized Christmas wallpaper and ringtones.

Watch more of the campaign below — an extension of the global marketing platform "Open Happiness" — below. is set to launch this month in over 90 countries across the globe.Continue reading...

You might not want to think about the holidays just yet, but major retailers have been laying out and executing battle plans since the final cash register drawers closed on 2010.

The main investment for many large retailers, according to Bloomberg, is online. “Last holiday season, online sales reached a record $32.6 billion, up 12 percent over the previous year,” according to market researcher ComScore Inc., Bloomberg reports.

Even though the overall economy is struggling, that dollar amount is expected to go up at the end of this year. Bloomberg points out that some “budget-conscious shoppers” are now making their purchases online, where prices can easily be compared and free delivery can get products directly to their end destinations.

“Many brick-and-mortar retailers have had their ‘a-ha’ moment as Amazon continues to grow and the Internet is getting more viable,” said Mick Mountz, chief executive officer of Kiva Systems Inc., which builds warehouse robots that help orders get fulfilled quickly, according to Bloomberg.Continue reading...

We here at brandchannel wish you a happy and safe holiday season — we'll be back here on January 3rd, checking in on Twitter and Facebook until then. We also invite you to check out some smart predictions for the year ahead from our colleagues at Interbrand. Happy New Year!

The airline that stole Christmas!

British Airways' 13,500 cabin crew members voted in an overwhelming majority yesterday to stop work on Tuesday December 22, until January 2, as a part of a dispute over working conditions.

The vote was supported by 92.5 percent of British Airways' cabin crew employees and members of the trade union Unite, who are protesting the airline’s cost cutting measures. British Airways is trimming the number of staff on board flights, instituting pay freezes, and issuing unfavorable contracts for new staff.Continue reading...