The main objective was to have the target audience feel good about IBM. The Greeting card is an opportunity to wish happy holidays to the target and thank them for their participation in building a smarter planet.

The first challenge was to choose an agnostic creative approach that could work for all the regions of the world. There are many cultural taboos - including showing nothing seasonal, religious, language based, or anything with local customs.

At the same time, the artwork had to feel global, but the message should feel personal.

Drawing upon the IBM Smarter Planet campaign, we wanted to illustrate a happy planet, alive with technology and data. But how do we make a planet, instrumented with devices, filled with technology and data, feel human?

By making it by hand.

We used the craft of cut paper illustration to bring a human element to every aspect of the work. A tiny rocket ship made out of paper and everything filmed one-frame at a time with stop motion photography allows the viewer to feel the presence of the artist, and the joy of humanity, in all its imperfection.

The 2012-2013 IBM greeting card has been leveraged by 70 countries all around the world, from North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, to Asia Pacific and Oceania. Countries were not required to use this as their local greeting card. So by choosing to share this card with their clients and colleagues in their local country, it means 70 countries that all agreed on the same thing. The United Nations rarely has this outcome.