Brand: OfficeMax
Execution: Online, Viral
Target: Bored White Collar Workers
Rating: ****
Reviewer: David Vinjamuri

Description:
A viral campaign in its second year, Elf Yourself from OfficeMax allows users to upload photos of friends and loved ones, crop them and then watch the results in a fun animation.

What Works:
One of the most successful viral campaigns in recent memory, Elf Yourself has reached Good Morning America as well as households across the nation.  From a execution standpoint, Elf Yourself works because it allow users to become part of the promotion and because the details work:  it’s easy to use and the results are extremely amusing.  The campaign does not work hard to be promotional, but does give some equity back to the OfficeMax brand.  The first year of the campaign generated over 36 million visits and this year promises to be stronger.

What Doesn’t:
The linkage to the OfficeMax brand is weak – because the elves really have nothing to do with OfficeMax.  In fact, Elf Yourself could have been created by virtually any brand.  On the other hand, this advertising blog finds it hard to imagine how an execution as clever as this could be tied more directly to the OfficeMax brand.

Branding Bottom Line:
Elf Yourself is fantastic – who did that again?

This entry was posted on Monday, December 10th, 2007 at 3:25 pm and is filed under OfficeMax. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.