Klick Health’s annual holiday video has become an expression of the agency’s ethos, a key recruiting tool—and this year, a charming testimony to kindness in 2020.
The newly released animated video centers on a white-coated physician, who's shown coming and going in a neighborhood, and also helping others along the way. She delivers groceries, returns a lost dog, and stops to give money and talk to a homeless man—all while no one is watching.
Except the children in the neighborhood actually are watching her and her unheralded good deeds. They hatch a surprise plan of their own, revealed in the end as decorating her brownstone home with bright lights and holiday decorations.
“If we’ve learned anything from this year, it’s that kindness is also contagious,” the screen reads.
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Klick began creating annual holiday videos 10 years ago as a way to wish clients well, but also give them a peek behind the scenes at the energy and culture of the agency, Glen Zujew, Klick’s chief people officer, said.
It’s grown to millions of views annually—the 2019 video topped more than 6 million and received a Webby Award. Klick job candidates almost always mention the holiday videos, which are now an important recruiting tool.
“Essence of character is a thing we look for, and one of them is kindness. We believe that it’s something that can separate us and something we feel strongly about,” Zujew said.
One of the kindness messages from the video—inspiring kindness in children—will be extended externally through a donation to Sesame Workshop. Klick will donate $1 for each view of the YouTube video, up to $10,000, to the workshop for its educational and philanthropic efforts for preschool children and families.
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Klick also hid some creative “Easter eggs” in the video. The agency sent coloring book pages of the brownstone house to employees and asked them to have their children draw in holiday decorations. That artwork inspired the final decorations on the house in the video, Chief Creative Officer Rich Levy said.
Other hidden elements include the animated characters, which resemble some of Klick's employees. Previous holiday videos have always included Klick staffers—Levy was a Santa actor in last year’s video, for instance.
“So while we didn’t get to shoot Klick employees this year, they’re all represented in the video,” Levy said.