Make-A-Wish Canada is an organization that grants wishes to terminally ill children. For the Christmas period in 2013, Make-A-Wish broadened its focus to include all children.

A universal truth about children – as unfortunate as it is – is that kids today stop believing in Santa Claus at increasingly younger ages. As a result, parents will do almost anything to preserve their children's belief in Santa – even donning the red and white suit themselves. After uncovering this insight, the agency figured there had to be an easier way to keep the magic of Christmas alive.

With zero dollars in paid media support, the objectives were to create undeniable proof that Santa exists, as well as 10,000 app downloads and one million earned media impressions.

Kringl, the Proof of Santa Video app, was released as a free app three weeks before Christmas day. The app uses pre-recorded scenes of Santa in action, combined with footage from the user's home to bring the custom scenes to life. Each video clip of Santa was filmed on a green screen to create a series of unique scenes to choose from. Knowing that the app's success would hinge on believability, the agency filmed a range of footage in different lighting situations to give the user the ability to match the video with their lighting conditions in their own home. Users could also scale Santa up and down in size to fit precisely with the surrounding environment. Finally, everyone who downloaded Kringl was given the opportunity to donate to Make-A-Wish Canada through the app, raising support and awareness for the cause and keeping the magic of Kris Kringle alive for kids around the world.

To make it easy to share, each video was formatted for YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and email. A unique link for every individual video created was generated and hosted on the Kringl YouTube channel, where examples of other videos were displayed. To ensure users got the best results possible, a website dedicated to FAQs and helpful hints was created along with links to download the app in both the App Store and Google Play.

Without the advantage of paid media support, the app's popularity spread predominantly by word of mouth. The story of the app was picked up by national and international news outlets, blogs and industry publications that praised its innovation and simplicity.

In less than three weeks, the Kringl app was downloaded over 110,000 times and Kringl videos were enjoyed by children in over 150 countries. During the app's peak activity on Christmas Eve, more than two videos per second were created. And, by Christmas day, Kringl had generated over 35 million media impressions – all with no paid media support.

The app earned a 4+ star rating in both the iTunes app store and on Google Play.

Through the app, Make-A-Wish Canada received an unexpected level of global awareness and increased support to grant more wishes to terminally ill children. Most importantly, parents everywhere were able to grant their children's wish, to see evidence of Santa Claus on Christmas morning making a visit to their very own living rooms.