Instead of mailing out another holiday card destined for a desk drawer, R&R Partners decided to build one that talks back. Meet Nick Jolly: a fully immersive, AI-powered holiday character created by the Las Vegas-based agency as part greeting, part interactive experiment, and part proof-of-concept for where AI-driven brand experiences are headed.
Nick isn’t just a festive mascot. He’s a custom-built AI personality, brought to life through a carefully trained system prompt, real-time visual animation, and near-instant speech response. In short, he’s a living case study in how human creativity and AI can work together when the ideas come first and the tech follows.
Built entirely from scratch, Nick was designed with intention from the start. The team mapped his purpose, values, personality, interests, and emotional intelligence before writing a single line of code. Then they layered in technology: text-to-speech, generative AI, and custom digital design, all working together to create a seamless, responsive character.
He’s not your typical holiday cheerleader either. Nick is tattooed, benches 450 pounds (525 if holiday ham is involved), owns nine motorcycles, and delivers festive banter without a trace of holiday-card cliché. Take a look below:
“AI is evolving fast, and we want our clients to see the possibilities firsthand,” said Matt Mason, Chief Strategy Officer and Partner at R&R Partners. “Nick Jolly is a friendly introduction to what we’ve been building behind the scenes. We set out to show what’s possible, and even we were surprised by how much personality came through.”
The launch kicks off this week with a full takeover of the R&R Partners website, a dedicated microsite, and a holiday email sent to clients, prospects, and community partners. While playful on the surface, Nick Jolly also serves as a soft introduction to R&R’s proprietary AI offering, slated to roll out officially in 2026.
2025 has been a defining year for AI, not as a replacement for creativity, but as an amplifier. R&R has spent the year investing in how emerging tools can enhance brand storytelling rather than flatten it. Nick Jolly is the result of that thinking in action.
R&R’s digital experience team created a custom environment for Nick to live in, designing an interactive landing page that blends story, voice, and visual presence into one smooth experience. The result is a holiday greeting that doubles as a roadmap for how brands might express personality, humor, and humanity through AI in the near future.
“Nick started as a playful holiday idea, but quickly became a creative testbed,” added Garrett Griffith, Director of AI and Automation at R&R Partners. “Every detail was built intentionally. This is about showing how AI can carry a brand’s personality, history, and humor without feeling automated.”
Nick Jolly launches the week of December 15, proving that sometimes the best holiday message isn’t a card at all, it’s a conversation.
CREDITS:
AGENCY: R&R partners
- Garrett Griffith, Director of AI & Automation
- Kari Jaspersohn, VP, Marketing
- Destin Cox, Design Director
- Luke Strong, Junior Copywriter
- Macey Carson, Junior Art Director
- Ryan Lord, Experiential Design Director
- Dan Freeman, Director, Digital Development
- Ashlyn Hadaway, Digital Operations Manager
- Jeremy Fishman, VP, Experiential Design
- Jacqueline Meason, VP, Brand & Culture
- Danielle Jones, Sr. Project Manager
- Rylee McIver, Marketing Coordinator
- Matt Mason, Chief Strategy Officer
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