“2020 was a year of really grown-up stuff. A global pandemic. Schools closed. Jobs lost. And with COVID-19 case-rates surging with the onset of winter, there was a distinct possibility that the holiday reprieve kids were looking forward to would be cancelled along with everything else.

Our objective: 
T-Mobile wanted to help. As a customer-obsessed brand that knows a thing or two about creating meaningful connections, we wanted to be there for people, inspiring holiday connections and celebrations during a difficult season. Sure, we wanted to create an engaging brand experience for the holidays. But really, there was no more important objective than simply helping maintain connection and bringing merriment to the welcome end of 2020. 

In other words: our KPI was to be good for goodness’ sake.”
 
Santa Calling was a virtual North Pole experience inviting all of America’s kids to experience a video call from Santa. Whether your carrier was T-Mobile, Verizon or AT&T, you could sign-up for a call from Santa from the safety of your home—for free. And because we wanted everyone to be able to connect with Santa, we made sure that we had a diverse cast of St. Nicks who spoke different languages, including ASL.

In lieu of the usual photo with Santa, each session was turned into a video memory for families to share and treasure, especially during a year with less social gathering. Sharing compilations of these videos on T-Mobile social channels (with parents’ permission, of course) meant the joy spread far and wide on organic social.



13TH ANNUAL SHORTY AWARD WINNER:
Gold Honor in Family & Parenting
Audience Honor in Kids & Lifestyle, Family & Parenting




As one of the primary designer’s on Decoded Advertising’s team for T-Mobile’s Santa Calling campaign, I worked in myriad ways to help bring Santa to families across the country. Over the course of the project, we took the elements that make Santa visits beloved every year, and reimagined them through the lens of connectivity that could span even COVID.

From the project’s onset, I created 15+ design concepts for the potential look of Santa Calling... before it was even called Santa Calling! I quickly jumped from creating moodboards, to sketching patterns and graphics for potential landing pages so the team could hone in on an overarching aesthetic.

After lots of iterating, we moved away from other names and landed on the cozy, T-Mobile pink-tinged and hand-illustrated style seen below (and echoded in early sketches).


I was responsible for creating the type direction for the campaign, for practical applications like the landing page and more flashy fare like the logotype. 

I began with plenty of sketching and iteration, leaning into a vintage-feeling serif that paid homage to brush lettering styles. This was eventually refined into the final calligraphic logotype. 

I also pursued many different treatments for the text speech bubble sub-head, created storyboards for animated social media posts, and designed the final backdrop for Santa’s “North Pole Office” Zoom background, amongst other backdrops and photoshoot elements. 








Thousands of children experienced the magic of Santa Claus (and got the gifts on their wishlist) during a year that was otherwise bereft of the experiences of childhood. 
– 2,059,138 organic impressions, 65,683 organic engagements across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

– 3 million people reached (Online coverage had a potential reach of 2,963,280 + Broadcast coverage had a potential audience of 368,204), with pick up from People, Fox News, and LifeHacker.

– Santa’s schedule filled up fast, with every daily slot taken in under 2 hours.

Social engagement exceeded T-Mobile’s 2020 cultural moment benchmarks:

 – Organic video view rates beat benchmark by 2x on Instagram and over 1x on Facebook generating 130K+ organic views and 1.2M+ organic impressions across platforms.

– CTR rose above benchmark by 1x on Facebook.



© 2025 Claire Tomkiw