Happy Holidays and Hondadays to those who celebrate!

As an agency, we’re contractually obligated to send out a holiday email, but because we’re us, we thought we’d take this opportunity to show you what we submitted to compel Santa to put us on his Nice Business List™—yeah, it’s a thing. It’s like the one industry list that doesn’t cost thousands of dollars to get on. (That dig might put us dangerously on the precipice of the naughty list.) (Worth it.)

Here’s a glimpse at the data we provided him with (along with an overflowing basket of holiday treats which was technically against the rules but you know us and rules):

• This year both of our founders’ names were misspelled approximately 758 times even though their names are IN THE EMAIL ADDRESS—and neither of them ever lit anything on fire. Talk about jolly old saints!

• We had an ad placement in the Sunday New York Times. Bonus points because it dissed fall which is by far nowhere near as superior as your season, big man!

• Like you, our company is extremely jolly. It’s like, our whole thing. Jolly recognizes jolly—right, Santa?

• We heard a rumor that you wish people left you ice cream and cookies instead of milk and cookies which is very convenient because in Q4 we landed the second largest ice cream maker in the U.S. as a client. We got you!

• We helped a Fortune 500 company launch four national campaigns. Granted, it took us all of 2021 and we know that you do all of your work in a single night. But still!

• We produced a whopping 14 episodes of our brainstorming game show, Can They Brand That?—so imagine wrangling another 5 reindeer on top of your current crew. It was sorta like that.

• Our founders were guests on 8 different podcasts, singing about humor loud and clear for all to hear. (You have hohoho, we have hahaha.)

• We were written up by Adweek for work we did this fall. (Think of it like if the toy industry had an industry publication that only mentioned the top workshops.)

• We operated the business from two different cities (Chicago and Nashville) and somehow didn’t miss a beat. Imagine if your elves had to build toys REMOTELY!!

• In 7 years of operation, over 7 holiday seasons, we have never used the “sleigh/slay” pun. Ever.

We think it was maybe that last one that really won us the gig. And Santa, we know you get these emails (he and Gary are thick as thieves), so thanks again for putting us on the list. And to everyone else who made it this far in our thinly veiled brag-fest: thank you for your support and sense of humor. If ever the world needs levity, it’s now, and we’re proud to play a small part in that.

—The Obedient fam