OfficeMax ElfYourself: A Case Study In Viral Marketing
I'm sure you've all heard of, if not tried, OfficeMax's ElfYourself program - but did you know how successful it was? Since it provides only one data point, we shouldn't take it as proof that viral marketing works, but it still provides an interesting and relevant case study.
As reported by AdAge and Media Post, the site drew 26.4 million people during the holiday season, more than tenfold from last year (the equivalent of 2,614 years spent on the site or, in elf-units, 123 million elves!) By December the site ranked #55 among all websites, growing more than 500% in market share from October to December. And it has "hit the bull's eye of viral success--it has seeped into pop culture."
There are two follow-up questions, of course - how much did it help the brand and how can it be replicated? The first is clear - "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." According to Office Max, that is what they were looking for (differentiating the brand through humor & humanization), not sales. So it's definitely a winner for them and all for less than the cost of an average TV ad!
The second question is not as easy to answer but here are a few pointers - make it personal ("personalization drives purchase behavior and affinity"), don't discount older audiences (40% of all visitors to ElfYourself were 55 or older), and offer fun (respect the consumer - "if you're going to crash the party, bring some champagne with you.") Three more to round up the list - Keep it simple, Give people a reason to pass it on, and finally, incorporate it into the rest of your media campaigns (OfficeMax also used the character in-store, in print and online).
Posted by Universal Ad
As reported by AdAge and Media Post, the site drew 26.4 million people during the holiday season, more than tenfold from last year (the equivalent of 2,614 years spent on the site or, in elf-units, 123 million elves!) By December the site ranked #55 among all websites, growing more than 500% in market share from October to December. And it has "hit the bull's eye of viral success--it has seeped into pop culture."
There are two follow-up questions, of course - how much did it help the brand and how can it be replicated? The first is clear - "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." According to Office Max, that is what they were looking for (differentiating the brand through humor & humanization), not sales. So it's definitely a winner for them and all for less than the cost of an average TV ad!
The second question is not as easy to answer but here are a few pointers - make it personal ("personalization drives purchase behavior and affinity"), don't discount older audiences (40% of all visitors to ElfYourself were 55 or older), and offer fun (respect the consumer - "if you're going to crash the party, bring some champagne with you.") Three more to round up the list - Keep it simple, Give people a reason to pass it on, and finally, incorporate it into the rest of your media campaigns (OfficeMax also used the character in-store, in print and online).
Posted by Universal Ad
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