Elf Yourself – this year’s viral hit

image I’m sure you’ve seen this by now. Office Max has re-released its popular Elf Yourself microsite where you can upload photos of up to four people to generate a personalised dancing elves online message. Give it a try, it’s great fun. For the more miserable amongst you, also from Office Max is the Scrooge Yourself microsite.

Hats off to Office Max for enjoying so much success from these two microsites. According to Hitwise, Elf Yourself received 0.12% of all web traffic in the week ending 8th December. That’s one heck of a lot of visitors!

The roots of successful viral marketing lie in the quality of the idea and the creative execution. Office Max, a US retailer of office supplies, has resisted the urge most marketers feel to put their brand centre stage. Instead, they’ve produced some really lovely creative that’s subtly branded, yet still deposits the viewer on a compelling offers page that should in turn generate sales revenue for the promoter. Last year’s Elf Yourself microsite got a whopping 36 million hits in just five weeks. This year’s microsite seems even more popular. Well done Office Max!