Santa would be gleaming of joy after he has finished reading this blog. Guess what, nearly one in 10 Americans (26.4 million people to be precise) this season visited OfficeMax s ElfYourself. It is a holiday site that allows users to paste images of their faces onto dancing elves. The number of visitors went up ten times more than last year, which was also the site’s first year of existence. Anne Bologna, founding partner and president of Toy, New York, the mastermind agency behind the elf idea, says that it is a digital phenomenon.
But the big question is: Did OfficeMax really benefit with a surrogate ad campaign like this? Director Hitwise Research, an internet-tracking agency, Heather Dougherty says, “The danger with such ads is that they are cute and funny but not related to the brand.” However, Office Max came out to be a winner. As per Dougherty, “Office Max” was one of the 20 most searched terms in December.
“This is just what we wanted to achieve,” exclaims Bob Thacker, senior VP-marketing and advertising at OfficeMax. He goes on to add, “We wanted to be talked about and look what a little bit of image warming did to our brand.” And the best is yet to come. This little elfish participation affair cost less than a TV ad which is usually priced between $300,000 and half a million dollars.
Via AdAGE
Tags: Advertising, Advertising & Promotion, Advertising Design