Just last night I was going over Christmas card designs, helping my boyfriend pick the greetings he’ll be sending to all his clients this year.  I’ve always liked holiday cards, and the booming digital era has brought a wave of creativity to the season.  So it certainly brought a smile to my face when I saw the annual email from Animoto, divulging news of fresh themes for this holiday.

It’s a marketing promo, sure. A ton of services toss out seasonal themes to reel back wayward users, for event-planning, photo editors, and anything else borne of the etiquette of obligation.  But Animoto’s always had a penchant for genuine products, and I’ve enjoyed watching the service expand its consumer features, particularly at Christmastime.  I asked Animoto CEO Brad Jefferson how these yearly campaigns have best benefitted the company’s growth.  Turns out, they rely on saps like myself.

“The gesture of sending holiday greetings is a meaningful tradition but cards are expensive and take a lot of time. While Animoto is a great way to share any set of photos or video clips year-round, the value proposition of Animoto is particularly compelling during the holidays since users can create an incredibly thoughtful and memorable holiday greeting card and share it via email or Facebook within minutes.

“That value proposition has led to solid double-digit growth in key metrics like video creations, views, orders and revenue every December for Animoto. The holiday styles launched today are by far our best ever so we hope to see that growth trend continue.”

That growth, which reached 2 million users earlier this month, has been relatively steady for the past six months, climbing upwards at a pretty even pace.  Check their yearly traffic charts, and unsurprisingly you’ll see spikes during the holiday season.  With online video trends taking off in a myriad of directions, we’ll see more niche services suiting the needs of consumers based on a variety of demographics.

Animoto does well for the holidays, but it’s seemingly looking to stretch some of that success across the year.  The company, which recently celebrated its third birthday, has released a stream of new products over the past year alone.  Professional tools has always been a point of differentiation for Animoto, and developing the feature sets around these tools, including collections of style templates and new subscription services.  What’s interesting, then, about Animoto’s growth, is its foundation in existing users, serving them for a dual progression into the future of greetings, video slide shows, and consumer-driven video content.