Etsy Invites Givers to Indulge in the Pleasure of Custom Gifting

For Etsy’s holiday campaign, 72andSunny gives us “Gift Like You Mean It,” a campaign about the emotional impact of well-chosen custom gifts.

Covid co-stars in two spots out of three. “Nana” is about the melancholy of not being able to spend the holidays with your family, and notably grandchildren. 

And “Shiori” is about the frustration of having a name that people struggle with … especially when you have to repeat it through a mask or via Zoom.

“New Guy” is about being the new Serious Love Interest in a family gathering. Frankly, we’re surprised it wasn’t about the anxiety of being in a house full of people (including the elderly!) who don’t seem worried about close proximity, as infection rates continue to climb. This ad feels like a strange refugee from The Time Before.

In each spot, some measure of the emotional turbulence is eased with a custom gift from Etsy. These moments aren’t over-the-top, and don’t promise to be panaceas—a stuffed grandson for Nana is far inferior to the human model, we imagine, and Shiori’s name won’t be easier for others to pronounce just because they can read from her neck. But there’s comfort in the idea that your feelings were anticipated and acknowledged in a deeply personal way, as demonstrated by New Guy’s gift—an embroidery of himself and his boyfriend, signaling acceptance from the family.

Two other ads round the work out, but act more as surveys of all the unique stuff you can get on Etsy. There are also Spanish variants.

We can practically see the keyword buckets for the programmatic campaigns! 

The ads will appear on digital channels in the U.S. Etsy will also roll a holiday campaign out in the U.K., as well as in Germany for the first time. 

CREDITS

Company: Etsy
Creative Agency: 72andSunny New York
Production: Somesuch
Director: Vincent Haycock
Editorial: Final Cut
Editor: Darren Baldwin & Patrick Colman 
Post Production: Ethos Studios
Music and Sound Design: Squeak E. Clean Studios