From Ad Agency Insider, November 2000:

Tis the Season: Tips for Innovative Holiday cards with Seasonal Flair that Sells Your Creative and Lets Clients Know you Care

Forget about fancy formats and paper; go for good, solid copy.  David E. Rohr, owner and creative director of Rohr & Partners, Inc. (4 employees) in Penfield, N.Y. claims this is the key to the ninth-hour card.  "A lot of agencies spend a lot of time and money articulating the same message over and over.  I didn't want my card to be the same as everyone else's," he explains. 

"We're constantly telling our clients to not be so white bread about everything and be more provocative.  So I took my own advice and created cards that are provocative and reflect our personality. His bare bones cards printed on a laser printer with little to no graphics include the following: "Seven reasons for Bill Clinton to join Rohr & Partners once he leaves office", A guide to casting someone as "Mary"  for your next Christmas pageant," and "Rejected holiday headlines." In case you were wondering, here's why Bill Clinton should join Rohr & Partners: Reason 6-"We enjoy golf, cigars and lavish Christmas galas, too." Reason 7-"And, no foolin', we promise to start an internship program." If you'd like to see more of Rohr's holiday cards visit www.Persuasive1.com

Tip: Rohr had several suggestions to making a low budget card successful.

• Put one person in charge of the holiday card.  "Let that person be the holiday card hero," says Rohr.  "And let them have fun with it."
• Reflect the personality of the owner, creative director or agency "if you have a creative director who's done a lot of outstanding work, let the card reflect his personality," suggests Rohr.  "I wrote our past holiday cards and I let my personality show through." Rohr says the cards have been responsible for helping to secure new business.
• Don't worry about being offensive.  "Everyone is getting beautifully done cards, but yours will be the one people remember," explains Rohr.

(Note: Those portions of this article relating to other advertising firms have been deleted for your reading convenience.)