Office Max “Elfs” Themselves into a Media Frenzy

By Amanda Ferrante, Assistant Editor

In attempts to put itself “on the radar as a holiday gift-giving destination,” Office Max invested barely six figures, spending about the same as three 30-second TV spots.

The office superstore made huge waves this time last year, and is bringing back the alternative marketing effort this holiday season, inviting visitors to “Start the Elfamorphosis (and shop for great Christmas and Holiday gifts). The impact was, and is anticipated to once again be, elfin’ crazy. The cheerful campaign ended up banking $2.5 million in media exposure in just five weeks last holiday season. No bah-humbugs here- this was a hit.

OfficeMax's ElfYourself.com allows visitors to upload up to four photos and record a synchronized message through a special toll-free phone number. The faces are then attached to an animated elf body, the voice is processed to sound elf-like, and the result is dancing and talking elves that can be forwarded to family or friends, or posted to personal web sites or blogs.

The Elfin’ Impact in Just Five Weeks

• More than 800 years has been spent on the site
• More than 65 million visitors have created more than 41 milion elves since the site launched in mid-November
• On average, 34 elves are being created per second
• More traffic than Careerbuilder’s successful Monk-e-mail in its first 8 months (9 million)

"We expected ElfYourself.com to do well because of last year's popularity, but the results we're seeing are fantastic," said Ryan Vero, executive vice president and chief merchandising officer for OfficeMax. "People like the option of creating up to four elf characters and the number of site visitors and number of elves created reflect this. It's great to see how people are using ElfYourself.com and ScroogeYourself.com to spread holiday cheer electronically, especially during a shopping season that can be hectic and stressful. The idea is to get people to smile and I believe we're doing this."

“The client wanted to create content that just happened to be advertising,” said Anne Bologna, Partner & President at Toy, the New York-based ad agency behind the website, whose clients include Amazon, Disney, and the Oxygen Network. One of the most successful viral campaigns in history was created by Toy and its partner EVB, a digital content agency.

This year, Elfin’ yourself isn’t the only way to have fun on the net. Office Max introduced 20 other unique sites, including Reindeer Arm Wrestling, My Holiday Sweater, and North Pole Dancing, where you can create a dance sequence for Santa, and watch him “Bust a Move.” If you’re not so keen on the holiday scene, Scrooge Yourself and do a dance in the snow.

The simultaneous launch of 20 unique web sites ranks among the most launched at one time by an office supply retailer. "This playful Web content allows us to reach customers in exciting and unexpected ways," adds Vero, "while positioning OfficeMax as a fun destination to find holiday Gifts That Work!"

Related Links:
Office Max: www.officemax.com
Toy Ad Agency: www.toyny.com
EVB: www.evb.com

Tying NetPromoter Scores To Demand:
Reconsidering The Numbers That Matter

By John Gaffney

There’s been a lot of high-level debate recently about the usefulness of customer satisfaction scores. On one side are the NetPromoter fans who believe the extent to which a customer will recommend a product is the highest priority metric. On the other side are a group of authors and analysts that see a hot topic and are looking to cool it.

NetPromoter and the whole concept of customer satisfaction measurement is best viewed through the lens of demand generation. After all, if a company is not creating demand for its products or services, the rest of the debate and the rest of the measurements are just blog fodder. Customer satisfaction is a critical measurement not in predicting demand gen, but in defining it. Customer satisfaction measures the key elements of the customer experience. So measuring customer satisfaction, as NetPromoter does, is important.

Here’s why. Customer satisfaction scores are based on customer experience. A poor customer satisfaction rating, regardless of how a company measures it, means customers have had sub-par experiences. Experiences in the digital world are based on price, service, multichannel interactions, communications, and intangibles. The cold number on a spreadsheet is the result of warm bodies having emotional experiences with a call center, sales rep, retail sales person, or email that carries a brand. The question is not really about the relevance of customer satisfaction. Of course it’s relevant. The question is: What elements of the customer experience are generating demand? Which elements are flat or driving demand down?

On the consumer packaged goods side, customer satisfaction is tied very well to demand gen. Look no further than Coke and Pepsi. Price levers are consistently used to generate demand but they also leave the customer feeling good about getting “a deal.” Communications (media, advertising, promotions) are aimed at generating demand among different key customer groups. Pepsi, for example, is consistently trying to max out demand from the 18-24 age group. It will use celebrities, music promotions and sponsorships to make that customer group feel satisfied with the experience and desire that experience again. In some ways I think demand generation has become demand not for products, but for the products and associated experiences. My Coke Rewards and PepsiStuff are good examples of extending the brand experience to generate more demand for the product and the experience.

Let’s look at one of the other key debate points involved in the NetPromoter debate. Does willingness to recommend a product mean a company is generating demand? The answer to me is obvious. Word of mouth just might be the most effective way to generate demand from new customers that the digital age has produced. But savvy executives will understand that the thing being recommended is not the thing itself. The thing being recommended is most likely the information, experience and community that goes along for the ride. Customers are recommending products and experiences. In turn, the best marketing will create demand for both. Customer satisfaction, regardless of how it’s measured, in both areas, is critical.