inputs/outputs

Santa is great marketing because it’s great story telling. And it’s intricate story, too. All the way up to the reindeer, and the one reindeer that was left out, to the elves, to Mrs. Claus, etc. If Christmas is a system, the users are kids, parents, and marketers, each with different access roles, and each with a different goal in mind. Kids want presents, parents want the best prices and easiest distribution, and marketers want to sell the presents with the most sensible distribution.

I had thought it might be cool to create a website where kids could upload their Christmas wish lists, and share them over a social network. Parents could see the top-ranked gifts, and which gifts took priority, marketers could see who to market to, etc. In my search for competitors, I found santaspeaking.com and I noticed a few things that made me realize that the internet can be an excellent tool for enhancing the magic of Christmas, but it can also destroy it.

First of all, there’s a Santa blog. Talk about destroying the mystique. Santa has time to write a blog? What about the presents? He’s the CEO of a major enterprise here. Also, there’s a reindeer web cam. And when you click on it, not only is there no snow on the ground in the pictures, it also links to the actual farm that the images come from. In Canada.

So they damage the spirit/magic for the children. They have a “letters to Santa” section as well, but it’s got a tiny contact form, so you can really only include a line of text. That’s silly. We all know that wish lists are what goes to Santa’s inbox. If you’re going to set up a contact form for Santa, you’d be foolish not to include a huge text area for a list of desired Christmas gifts. The “north pole weather report” is simply a feed to weather.com.  And the worst part of all:  there is a For Parents section on the site which explains that the “Santas” used on the site aren’t authentic (but are given background checks).  They have this on the main menu, as if the “for parents” sticker will keep the kids from clicking there.

I can’t see any parents encouraging their children to use this site over the good old pen-and-paper letter to Santa in the mailbox, nor can I see child taken away by the site.

The point of any Christmas/Santa website should be to enhance the magic of Christmas for the users, help parents with their shopping, and help marketers with their distribution (demand planning).  The commerce side should be separate from the magic side, naturally.  Otherwise, it’s useless.  This means creating more usability for the children who want to communicate with Santa, easier access to lists for the parents, and the most desired toys for certain markets so there are enough shipped items in stores.