Did You Elf Yourself?

 

If you work in marketing, you undoubtedly have heard about the amazing success of Office Max’s Elf Yourself online viral campaign. In fact, even if you DON’T work in marketing, there’s a very good chance you know about this effort, which ran over the holidays. That’s because an astounding 110 million people experienced the elf effect themselves during the campaign’s run (If by some strange circumstance you have no idea what Elf Yourself is—you just came out of a two-month coma, or you spent the last six weeks in a Tibetan monastery, for example—it consisted of a site that allowed people to upload photos of themselves and loved ones and place the pictures on the bodies of dancing elves, then send a link to anyone who would find this interesting. The best way to describe the result is that it was very cute).

  

Elfers even set up their own Flickr page to proudly display their photos, and dozens of them uploaded their handiwork to YouTube. Tons more blogged about it and put their Elf selves on their blogs. Good Morning America even ran a story on it. All that makes Elf Yourself the most successful viral campaign in the history of the internet, by a long shot. At least if you measure success by pure numbers. And we are talking huge numbers here, with an ROI that must certainly be off the charts. Whether it has had any real impact on Office Max’s business in an entirely different matter, which we will address in the next post.  

  On a side note, if you google Elf Yourself, the paid search ad that appears on the results page is for Toy, the agency that created the campaign. That’s smart.   

But exactly what made Elf Yourself so popular, and so wildly viral? Here is a good article from AdWeek that includes a decent analysis. At Attention Shoppers! we also have a pretty good idea why people had an irresistible urge to turn themselves, their family members and even their pets into dancing elves:

 

1. It was quick and easy—the interface and photo upload user experience was very well done
2. The end result, for many people, was something they had never experienced before, and technically and creatively it was excellent—it made people smile
3. It was a very singular campaign—the folks at Toy and Office Max who were in charge of the project didn’t overcomplicate the experience
4. It was all about personalization. As we are quickly learning, personalization is one of the keys to viral and WOM success. People love making themselves the center of attention, and the internet makes that easier than ever
5. And, very importantly, Elf Yourself launched during the time of the year when people most want to share greetings with others.

  So keep all this in mind when your clients demand the nearly impossible and ask you to create something like Elf Yourself for them. Because they will.

Product Sites Take Center Stage

In a post last month, I talked about how most CPG companies were not getting as much value out of their product sites as they might, simply because they are not making the sites as valuable to consumers as they could. However, some forward-thinking CPG companies are focusing more attention—and dollars—on their product sites. And consumers are rewarding them for their efforts.

Check out this recent article from Adweek. It says, among other interesting things, that CPG sites created by companies such as Kraft, General Mills and Betty Crocker are actually increasing the number of unique visitors at twice the rate of the internet as a whole. 

As far as pure numbers go, Kraft is doing the best job of them all. In the third quarter of 2007, over 10 million unique visitors headed to the content rich site, kraftfoods.com. The major draw of the site is the large database of recipes and how-to videos. To keep visitors coming back, the site is frequently updated (check out the current Football Party Center before you plan your Super Bowl party, and you might be inspired to whip up the featured Cheesy Football—a life-size football made from Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Kraft Cheddar Cheese, Kraft Parmesan Cheese and Miracle Whip—YUM!).  

Also in the third quarter of 2007, the site My Coke Rewards increased traffic an astounding 13,000%, drawing 8.6 visitors to the site. Since this is a loyalty program, the value prop is different than most other product sites. But Coke does a great job of providing value—and a deep brand experience—once you’re on the site. 

Of course, if you really want to get the most out of your product sites, you need to optimize them for search. And, ideally, buy all the right search terms. But that’s a topic for another time.

Junk Food Terrorists

Virtually any CPG advertiser would love it if consumers cared so much about their product that they actually formed an advocacy group around said product. But that doesn’t happen very often (And when it does it usually isn’t very serious—such as “The Friends of Spam”).   

But, of course, you can easily create a FAKE group of people who are fanatical about your product (I have actually done so myself). This is what Cheetos has done. Kind of. But the people in the Orange Underground are not crazy about eating Cheetos, they are crazy about pranking people using Cheetos (I had never heard of this before—does it actually happen? If not, what brilliant insight led to it? Perhaps it’s just a clever ploy to get folks to buy more Cheetos—one of the pranks is filling a car with the tasty orange morsels—growing up in rural Minnesota we would call this a serious waster of food). They call this “performing random acts of Cheetos”. In any case, here is a funny write-up about the multi-media campaign (it also includes TV) courtesy of the amusing folks at AdRants.  

The Orange Underground effort is brought to you by Goodby Silverstein, recently named AdWeek Advertising Agency of the Year, and certainly one of the most successful of the general shops at adapting to the new digital reality. I could be wrong, but I doubt that this work will ultimately be counted among their best at the end of 2008—although I think the site itself is well-done. At this point, it doesn’t seem to be taking off virally, but perhaps it is too early to tell. It just seems to me that the value proposition/entertainment payoff is not strong enough. And I would be surprised if tons of young men (I assume that’s the target here) upload videos of their “Random acts of Cheetos” to the MySpace page. We’ll see. The campaign ends on April Fools Day, when, I imagine, there will be a huge Cheeto prank played out on a national scale.

A Surprising Reason Clients are Spending More Money Online

I recently happened upon this very interesting article from Advertising Age. Essentially, it says that most clients are going to spend an increasing percent of their advertising budget in the online space (Huzzah!). But I was surprised at exactly WHAT clients were hoping to get out of those increased hard-earned dollars.  

You would think that engagement would be a major reason clients are turning to our awesome channel. And you would be dead wrong–at least according to this study, undertaken by research firm “Advertiser Perceptions” (is it just me, or does this company seriously need a new name?). In fact, engagement is listed as a top-five reason for spending money online by less than half of the respondents.  

So what is the major objective these advertisers are trying to accomplish online? It’s REACH! The same thing most of them are trying to accomplish with their significantly larger TV budgets.   

I don’t know whether to be happy or bummed about this. The good news is, of course, that a bunch more clients—including lots of CPG advertisers, I would guess—are going to spend a bunch more money online. Because they have finally realized that that’s where their consumers are hanging out. The bad news is that they probably will want to allocate most of that cash to billboard-style banner ads. Very 1999.  And not at all taking advantage of all the net has to offer.  

Oh well, once we get them in the habit of spending more money in the online space, we’ll have the opportunity to show them just how powerful engagement can be. Even more powerful than the medium that they rated most effective for engagement, which would be magazines. Huh? Wow, we have a LOT of work to do, people.

Bare Breasts for a Good Cause

What could possibly cause scores of women to take pictures of their bare breasts and upload them to a website for all the world to see? Well, any number of things, I suppose, but what we’re talking about today is a controversial new site launched by Schick, the manufacturer of women’s razors, in Canada.   

The site is called, quite simply, The Booby Wall—you’ll find it here. The effort is part of a larger campaign to raise awareness that breast cancer can be successfully treated if it is detected early enough. According to the folks at Schick and ReThink, the charity the Booby Wall supports, many women, particularly young ones, are intimidated and confused about how to do a breast self-examination.  The site gives them simple instructions on how to do so.  

Many of the uploaded pictures include dedications to women who died from breast cancer. Others are dedicated to loved ones who beat the disease. But the most powerful and poignant photos are of cancer survivors themselves.  

Of course, not everyone thinks that the Booby Wall is a good idea. Take a look at the comments on the bottom of this article. While I can understand the critics, for my money this is a bold, brave move for Schick. It has lots of people talking about breast cancer and self-exams, and that’s a good thing. I only wish that the connection to Schick could be just a little more evident. It seems like you could exchange the Schick logo with that of virtually any brand aimed at women.  As companies  move more money into cause marketing campaigns such as this, ROI will undoubtedly become increasingly important.  

Special thanks to MaryGrace Whalen of Digitas for sending this my way. 

It’s An Animated World (Wide Web)

One of the most exciting—and daunting–aspects about bringing to life online experiences today is the sheer number of creative possibilities that exist. Take, for example, the world of animation. The cost of cutting-edge processing power and software these days is such that high-quality animation can come from virtually anywhere talent and ideas exist—from huge animation studios in Los Angeles to a couple of geniuses working in an apartment in Sweden.  Attention Shoppers! took a quick world tour to see a few examples of how CPG companies are using animation to engage consumers and get them to buy stuff.  

First stop: the UK. Growing up in a large family, Mister Potato head was omnipresent in our home for a decade, which is why this work for McCain potato products, featuring a charming potato parade, brought a feeling of nostalgia to me. Will it do the same for the target consumers, which I imagine are Moms? I’m not so sure. In any case, I like the charming animation.   

Next, a hop over the channel to France. Loyal readers of Attention Shoppers! know that I have a soft spot in my heart for the French. I spent a few years working there, and always marveled at the way that ordinary people considered advertising professionals just one step down from film-makers and rock stars, as opposed to the way ad folks are seen in the US—namely, one step up from used car dealers. Part of the reason is that the French often treat advertising as art. Sometimes strange art. And Orangina, the soft drink, has always been part of that world. Check out this latest campaign that features wild animals and plants as sexy pinups. Becuase Orangina is NATURALLY pulpy, I guess. Once again, the illustration and animation are top-notch.  

And finally, a quick stop in Singapore. “The Adventures of Hearty Beef Bowl”, a site extolling the virtues of a fast-food chain, makes me want to run out for a quick lunch of noodles and meat. This is the kind of concept that is very difficult to explain to a client. You really don’t know how great it is going to be until it’s executed. Which calls for a leap of faith, and, in most cases, a proven track record. 

Special thanks to the web site www.thefwa.com (The Favourite Website Awards) from which these animation examples were plucked. It’s a site eminently worth book marking, as you attempt to keep up with the unending ways of making the most outrageous ideas an animated reality.