Who: BMO, with FCB for creative and strategy; 456 Studios for post production; Grayson Matthews and the Candy Cane Carolers for music; and UM for media.
What: "Business Carols," the newest holiday campaign to come out of BMO’s annual “Wrap the Good” program, launched in 2021. This year’s initiative is an album of holiday songs with customized lyrics promoting underrepresented Canadian businesses.
What: "Business Carols," the newest holiday campaign to come out of BMO’s annual “Wrap the Good” program, launched in 2021. This year’s initiative is an album of holiday songs with customized lyrics promoting underrepresented Canadian businesses.
When & Where: The album debuted on Spotify on Dec. 4, and is available across North America. It is being supported by digital ads on BMO's channels, as well as promotion on holiday-themed radio stations and YouTube playlists. The songs will also provide the soundtrack for BMO’s gift-wrapping station at the Toronto Eaton Centre, where carollers will be singing the songs in person.
All of the advertising drives to the dedicated hub BMOWrapTheGood.com, where visitors can shop from the featured businesses, or create a wish list to share on their social channels.
Why: The holiday season is a key sales period for Canada’s private sector businesses, but those owned and operated by underrepresented communities often face challenges such as absence from popular shopping areas, and lack of access to financing or loans.
Wrap the Good” is a way for BMO to demonstrate its support for SMBs by creating visibility and gathering products from the small businesses into an easily accessible gift guide.
How: Each of the eight songs in the holiday album are popular classics, commercialized to feature a different business and details about their products. For instance, the lyrics for Toronto-based home retailer Spark Candles (sung to the tune of “Deck the Halls”) have been changed to “Deck your halls with Spark Candles, fa la la la fragrant scents so fine.”
“You can’t escape holiday music. It’s everywhere,” said FCB’s associate creative directors, Caleb McMullen and Hussein Rumaithi, in a release. “Many of these songs are well over 100 years old. What better way to spotlight underrepresented businesses than to write them into the lyrics of overexposed holiday songs shoppers already know and love.”
A 60-second video hosted on YouTube features footage of the carollers recording the songs in studio, while an enthusiastic announcer notifies the listeners of a new holiday album they won’t want to miss—“An eight-song treasury of the world’s most famous holiday songs rewritten to support underrepresented businesses.”
FCB said the creative is inspired by advertising used to promote popular record/CD clubs. “Unlike any holiday collection before or ever, ‘BMO Business Carols’ is all your favourite holiday songs you’ve heard year after year, like you’ve never heard them before,” says the announcer.
And we quote: "We’re bringing a new holiday experience to shoppers by revitalizing nostalgic songs as a reminder of a more mindful way to give. In doing so, we aim to make the holidays brighter for all." — Jennifer Carli, head of enterprise. "brand, social and content, BMO
