Virtual Yule

Pour out the eggnog, tote up your wish list — and rev up your mouse. This holiday, eBay hopes consumers will log on to “the world’s largest Secret Santa gift exchange” to shop for friends, family and co-workers, and perhaps at the same time lend support to its three partner charities.

The exchange, which kicked off Nov. 13 and runs through Jan. 15, 2004, is “our way of bringing an offline tradition to our online community,” says Gary Briggs, eBay’s VP-consumer marketing. The premise is simple: A group leader pulls together a cadre of participants — far-flung family members, virtual “chat” buddies or other group members. Each member compiles hints as to the gifts he or she might like to receive and logs these in at www.ebay.com/secretsanta. Then eBay recreates the tradition of “pulling names from a hat” and provides the wish list of the recipient to each player. They then search eBay for the perfect gift.

“From sports to everyday activities like shopping and banking, from dating to just making new friends, people are moving traditionally real-world activities to the Internet in huge numbers,” says Julie Haddon, eBay’s director of promotions. “Secret Santa is also one of those tried and true traditions that translates well to the Web.”

The eBay gift exchange promotion will occur both online and offline. It has partnered with the U.S. Postal Service, which will display eBay Secret Santa posters touting the new gift-giving approach to folks mailing holiday packages in thousands of post offices in Boston, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

Infinity Broadcasting has signed on as the broad-cast/radio partner to the program. Eleven stations will promote Secret Santa with giveaways during key drive-time periods during a two-week period in the Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C. markets.

In the online world, Web site eVite, which provides free downloadable invitations, will promote Secret Santa until Dec. 12 on its homepage and holiday pages, incorporating the eBay promotion on its confirmation pages, host view templates, host update e-mails, branded guest template, guest e-mail reminder and printed maps/directions. “eVite is also creating dedicated invitations participants can use to set up their own Secret Santa parties,” Haddon adds.

From Nov. 13 through Dec. 18, eBay is giving away 100 $25 gift certificates to boost participation. Powered by eBay’s PayPal program, the gift certificates are open to U.S. residents 18 and over.

To further spread the holiday cheer, eBay has included in the Secret Santa campaign an option that lets groups or individuals make contributions to the national chapters of Toys for Tots, Second Harvest and UNICEF. (The Web site had established denominations from $25 and up for contributors to click.) It is also hosting Secret Santa parties in Chicago, San Francisco and Atlanta at which influential guests can buy toys on eBay for the local Toys for Tots chapters.

Hark, the many celebs sing!

Amazon.com counts down the days till Christmas with 60 celebrities delivering exclusive content. Celebs including Bruce Springsteen, Michael J. Fox, Tom Brokaw and Sopranos exec. producer David Chase offer up unreleased songs, video and artwork — one each day from November 1 through January 1.

The Holiday A-List campaign is designed to drive site traffic, but also gives artists a venue to showcase new work and plug their own merchandise. Artists donated all content to Amazon and many will e-mail their fan lists to tout the site.

“Amazon.com offered a compelling way for us to share an exclusive sneak peek of our new single, ‘Bad Day,’ with music fans worldwide,” says Michael Stipe, lead singer of R.E.M., in a statement.

Amazon.com features Holiday A-List on its home page but won’t run additional media support. Celebs will post info on their own sites. “This is an organic effort not just to create content but to let fans know about it,” says an Amazon.com spokesperson. “This is a great discovery tool to introduce our customers to artists they may not know.” Amazon.com handles the effort in-house.