I have to laugh to myself when reading the diatribe of sore losers in media planning bleeting on about how 'elfyourself' didn't work. 120 million visitors over a 6 week period and 75 million elves sent on, yeah right.
Advertising is a numbers game no one asks for the 30' spot to interrupt their TV program. Digital has the added advantage of people that engaged with the campaign will mostly on send on to someone that will engage with it to.
I'm sure Office Max are laughing all the way to the bank. In a sector that is low interest and driven by cost per unit having a campaign that warms consumers to their brand is a good thing. Sure some people forget the brand name, but so do most people when asked to recall any advertising campaign.
Elfyourself worked because it's a great concept, easy to engage with and you can share it. The 3 rules of user generated content on rails. I see so many online campaigns that are over complicated, digital creative's porn. Good for awards but they can only dream of being as effective as EYS.
ToyNY who have worked with
OfficeMax have pushed up sales no end. Not surprising when they are all ex Fallon and Crispin Porter + Bogusky. The one other stroke of clever planning is only having these seasonal sites up for the Christmas period, that way each year it's special. The US agencies seem to get viral, they know viral is a result not a media buy.
