Christmas AR ideas for brands: 7 campaigns for packaging, advent calendars, cards and stores

Every December our inbox fills up with the same kind of request: “We have a Christmas campaign coming, can we add something magical to it?” Over the years we have made augmented reality (AR) wine labels, calendars, cards and whole decoration sets, for our clients and for ourselves. Some of these projects are still being scanned years later. Others were forgotten by New Year.

This year there is one more reason to plan carefully. 8th Wall, where many brands built their Christmas AR, no longer lets anyone publish new projects. If your agency built last year’s campaign there, this year’s has to be built somewhere else.

So in this blog I share the Christmas ideas that work best in my experience, real examples from big brands and from our own projects, and how to get it all done in time if it’s already November.

1. An AR advent calendar

The advent calendar is the best Christmas AR format I know, because it has something most campaigns can only dream of: people come back to it every day for 24 days.

The best-known example is Cadbury Heroes. Cadbury wanted to win back teenagers who felt “too old” for advent calendars, so each day, along with the chocolate, the calendar unlocked a new AR selfie filter. According to the Design Business Association awards, Cadbury sold 570,000 calendars, 44% above target, and people shared 98,000 photos and videos from the experience. In 2023, Lindt did something similar in Ireland with its Lindt Teddy calendar: you scan a QR code on the back, point the phone at the front and follow a story that unfolds over 24 days.

You don’t need to be Cadbury to do this. Our own client, the Latvian forestry company Riga Forests, turned its corporate wall calendar into an AR calendar with short animal videos for every month. It stays on the wall for a whole year. You can see it in the AR calendar case study.

What you need: 24 short videos or animations (or 12 for a wall calendar), a design where each door or page is easy to recognize, and a clear “scan here” instruction on the box.

2. Christmas packaging that comes alive

Limited-edition Christmas packaging is already designed to stand out on the shelf. AR gives it a second life at home, when the box is on the kitchen table and the family is together.

What works well on pack:

• A character that jumps out of the box: a 3D Santa, a mascot or your product’s story, placed on the table.
• A video on the lid or label: a short animation that plays right on top of the printed design.
• A small game: something the kids want to play twice.

We did this outside Christmas for MO Saaremaa yoghurts, where scanning the lid sets off a meteorite crash with the Northern Lights behind it (case study). The same idea works for a Christmas edition, and children are the ones who make the whole family scan.

What you need: a 3D model or video, the packaging artwork, and a decision on the trigger. A QR code that opens the experience in the browser (no app) works for 3D. Video on top of the printed design runs in the Overlyapp mobile app.

Have a project in mind?

Our team builds custom AR for brands and agencies end to end, from 3D content to publishing and analytics. Send us a message →

3. AR wine and spirits labels for gifting

A bottle is the most common Christmas gift in business, which is exactly why nobody remembers who sent it. An AR label fixes that.

A few years ago we sent our clients and partners a bottle from a local winery with a personalized label. When you scanned it, 3D versions of our team, dressed as little Santas, jumped out of the bottle and danced. It was meant as a small thank-you, but people started posting it on Instagram and Facebook, and it turned into one of our best brand awareness campaigns. The full story is in the AR wine label case study.

For wine and spirits brands, there is another advantage: a bottle can stay in a home for months, sometimes years. A label that still does something when it’s finally opened keeps working long after the campaign.

What you need: label artwork, a 3D animation or video, and a printer who can do a short run of custom labels. If you are a drinks brand, also check the age-gate and alcohol advertising rules in your market.

4. Corporate Christmas cards with a personal video

The corporate Christmas card is probably the easiest AR project on this list, and in my opinion the most underrated one.

The printed card looks normal. When scanned, the photo turns into a short video: the CEO saying thank you, the team waving from the office, or a behind-the-scenes look at the year. It takes very little production, and a personal video gets a much warmer reaction than a signature.

We wrote a step-by-step guide for this: how to make an AR Christmas card in less than an hour. It’s written for individuals, but the process for a company card is exactly the same.

What you need: one short video, a card design where the photo is the trigger, and the scan instructions inside the card.

5. AR decorations and gift sets

For agencies, this is a product idea in its own right. A few years ago the creative agencies Skudras Metropole and Don’t Panic Design made a handcrafted set of Christmas decorations. Each one, when scanned, brought a guest into the room: Santa, musicians, even a stand-up comedian. They sold it as a gift set to corporate clients and the public, in English and Latvian, and it found owners in Europe and in North America. You can read about it in the AR Christmas decorations case study.

What I like about this idea is that the AR is the product. It’s a gift nobody else has, and it gets used at the Christmas party, when everybody is in the mood to try it.

What you need: a physical object with a printed image (an ornament, a card, a tag), recorded or animated content for each piece, and a maker for the physical pieces.

6. In-store and window displays

Christmas is when foot traffic peaks, and AR gives people a reason to stop at your window or your shelf.

Coach is a good example from 2023: in five stores, including Boston, Atlanta, Miami and Austin, visitors could try on Coach products virtually, surrounded by holiday-themed effects, until January 1. That was a custom try-on built by a specialist studio, the kind of project that suits a big retail budget.

A simpler version works for almost any store: a QR code on the window, the shelf or a hang tag that places a life-size 3D product or character in front of the shopper. No app, no download, and it works the same in the store and at home when the shopper scans the receipt or the bag.

What you need: a 3D model, a QR code on your own domain, and a clear call to scan. “Scan to meet Santa” works better than “Scan for an AR experience”.

Have a project in mind?

Our team builds custom AR for brands and agencies end to end, from 3D content to publishing and analytics. Send us a message →

7. “See it under the tree” on your product pages

This is the quiet one, but for e-commerce brands it may be the most profitable. In December, people buy things they have never seen in person, often as gifts for someone else’s home. Will this lamp fit on Mom’s side table? How big is this toy, really?

A “view in your room” button on the product page answers that question in seconds. The shopper taps it and the product appears at real size on their floor or table, in the phone browser. It’s the same 3D model you can reuse on your packaging and in your store, so one asset works across the whole campaign. I covered the details in the complete guide to AR for eCommerce.

What you need: an optimized 3D model of each product and an embed on the product page. On Shopify, this is a plugin.

Is it too late for Christmas AR? No, and here’s why

If you are reading this in November, you are right on time. Almost every Christmas campaign we have worked on started in October or November, and every one of them launched before the holidays.

The reason is simple: AR doesn’t need a new product. You can add it to the packaging, labels, cards and calendars you already have. The printed design becomes the trigger, or you add a small sticker with a QR code. The AR content itself, a video or a 3D animation, usually takes days.

Here is how fast each idea can go live:

• Existing packaging and products: right away. The design you already print can be the trigger, so nothing needs to be reprinted.
• Christmas cards: about a week, including printing.
• QR codes on windows, shelves, stickers, hang tags and receipts: a few days. The QR code is just a link, so you can print it first and finish the content after.
• “View in your room” on product pages: as soon as the 3D models are ready.
• New advent calendars, wine labels, gift sets and packaging: printing is the tightest step, so book your printer first and make the content in parallel. It is absolutely doable. We have had a calendar and packaging printed in late December and still got them to the customers before the end of the year. For one client, the calendar was printed by the client’s own printer, and we only delivered the AR.

My advice: talk to your printer and to us in the same week, and let the content and the print run side by side. That is how a Christmas campaign gets done in a few weeks.

Before you start: four things I’d check

1. Use a QR code on your own domain. Point it to something like yourbrand.com/christmas, which then redirects to the AR experience. If you ever change platforms, you change one redirect, and the printed pieces keep working. This is exactly the lesson brands are learning now from the 8th Wall shutdown.
2. Make the trigger easy to scan. Contrast, detail and no shiny foil on the trigger area. Our guide on how to create an AR marker covers this.
3. Write the instructions on the product. “Scan the QR code, point your phone at the box” is enough. If the experience needs the Overlyapp mobile app, say so and include the download link. We have copy-and-paste instructions you can use.
4. Decide what you will measure. Scans, time spent in the experience and clicks on your shop link. Set it up before the first box ships, because Christmas campaigns don’t get a second chance.

Where Overlyapp fits

Overlyapp has two ways to bring Christmas content to life:

• WebAR, no app needed: a QR code or link opens your 3D model in the phone browser and places it on a floor, a table or a wall. This works for characters, products and “view in your room” on product pages, including a Shopify embed.
• The Overlyapp mobile app: it recognizes printed images such as labels, packaging, cards, calendars and decorations, and plays video or shows 3D on top of them.

For brands and agencies, our team builds the whole project: the 3D content or video, optimization for phones, publishing, QR codes and scan analytics. We agree on the price after we understand what you need. If you prefer to do it yourself, the same editor is available on the Pro plan, with a free trial.

FAQ

What is the easiest Christmas AR project for a brand?

A corporate Christmas card with a personal video. It needs one short video and a printed card, and it can be done in about a week.

Do customers need an app for Christmas AR?

For 3D characters and products placed in the room, no. A QR code opens the experience in the phone browser. For video playing on top of a printed label, card or calendar, they need the free Overlyapp mobile app.

Is it too late to start a Christmas AR campaign in November?

No. Most Christmas campaigns start in October or November. AR can be added to packaging you already have, and content takes days. Printing is the tightest step for new calendars, labels or packs, and we have printed both in late December and still delivered before the end of the year.

Can I reuse my Christmas AR next year?

Yes, if the QR code points to your own domain. You change the content behind the link, and the printed pieces from last year start showing the new experience.

What happens to Christmas AR campaigns that were built on 8th Wall?

Nothing new can be published on 8th Wall anymore, and existing experiences stop working on February 28, 2027. This year’s Christmas campaigns need a new platform.

I hope this list gives you a few ideas for this Christmas, and maybe a plan for the next one. If you have a Christmas campaign coming and you’re not sure which idea fits, send us a message and tell me what you’re working on. We’ll find the fastest way to get it ready for this Christmas. You can also leave a comment below or get in touch with me on LinkedIn.