The realities of ElfYourself
Articles about the viral hit have been everywhere over the past month and a half. This weekend alone, I read four different articles throwing out statistics like “There were 123 million elves created this year, up from 11 million last year” “40% of all visitors to Elf Yourself were 55 or older” and “Users spent a combined average of 2,600 years on the site.”
I am not here to criticize the fact that it was a great viral campaign, it was. Credit is due to Office Max and their agency, Toy, for creating such a simple and fun website that everyone is STILL talking about. What has bothered me is that most of the articles I read didn’t mention if the campaign actually boosted Office Max’s sales or brand recognition.
Until now!! Advertising Age came out with an article asking the important question….
How much help did the OfficeMax brand get from its silly little helpers?
“That’s always the danger with this kind of advertisement… They’re cute, they’re funny, but they’re not necessarily related to the brand.”
In terms of brand recognition, Office Max is a winner “Of the 20 most common search terms in the four weeks of December, six of them included the words “Office Max,” indicating that brand awareness had carried through.”
Now I wait to see if their profits reflect all of these statistics.
Some recent Elfyourself articles:
