There's
an old saying - when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
In
2006, Office Max launched their "elf yourself" holiday campaign. As I noted at the time, while engagement with
the dancing elves was high, most people who forwarded the email could not name
the company that sponsored it. Worse
yet, the company reported a decline of $7 million in sales while the promotion
was running. So it was a good example of
how high engagement can be meaningless when it comes to generating sales.
But
the promotion exceeded engagement goals with 36 million visits in 5 weeks, so
Office Max turned the promotion into a yearly event. Not surprisingly they also continued to see
revenue declines. A merger with Office
Depot has not helped, so this October they announced a pivot, and a deal with
CompuCom that will move them from a traditional business products retailer to a
business services company.
So
imagine my surprise when I saw that they were continuing the Elf Yourself
promotion. To what end? Will it increase
sales? Or will it just be another toy
for people to play with?
It
appears that Office Max believes the latter, so they are attempting to monetize
the app. The new mobile version allows
people to elf themselves by adding faces of 5 friends, who will then dance
together to a variety of tunes. But,
only one song is free. The rest require
an in-app payment of 99 cents for each song, there are a total of 19, so that's
$6.
With
over 1billion customized elves since the campaign began they might be on to
something. (Martin, 2017)
So
what do you think? Have you elfed
yourself in the past? Did you buy stuff
from Office Max/Office Depot after you did?
Will you elf yourself this year?
Will you pay for additional songs?
How much money are you spending on online apps? What types of apps are you buying? And most importantly, will you buy something from Office Depot this
holiday season?
Martin,
C. (2017, November 23) ElfYourself Back
For The Holidays, Now With Augmented Reality.
mediapost.com. Retrieved November 29, 2017, from
11 comments:
Personally I have elfed myself in the past. It was a phenomenon when I was in elementary and middle school. However, I don’t remember OfficeMax/Depot being behind it until reading this blogpost. Therefore, this shows that they definitely didn’t do a great job branding the viral tool. As a young child at the time, I didn’t buy something immediately from Office Depot. But I do recall my yearly back-to-school visits in August with my family to Office Depot. It is very unlikely that I will be elfing myself this year. Maybe I might check it out to see how it has changed over the years. I think there’s a small percentage of people who would definitely pay for additional songs. This demographic would probably be in the 75K+ income range who have extra change to send funny emails to their friends. Personally, I am uncomfortable with paying for a service that has been free in the past.
Currently, I am spending $9.99 on Spotify and $9.99 on Netflix. I’ve recently spent $7.99 on a video app and $2.99 on an editing video app. I enjoy creating moments and taking photos so these apps are used often.
Unfortunately, I now buy my supplies from Amazon and will not be buying from Office Depot this holiday season.
Hi class!
What a surprise that Office Max/Office Depot chose to continue the Elf Yourself promotion. Are they paying to endorse the promotion? I tried to find research but could not find anything. If so, what a terrible decision on the company’s behalf.
I “elfed myself” when I was in middle school but really have not heard about it since. Thus, I will not be “elfing myself” this year, and to be honest, I truly do not know anyone who would “elf himself or herself” at this point. The idea is funny at first but seems to be rather outdated at this point. In total, I spend $4.99 a month on mobile apps for music and music only.
I have never been to Office Max/Office Depot, and I do not plan on going. I would say that I am brand-loyal to Staples, and even at Staples, I only visit the store at the beginning of each semester.
Best,
Grace
Hello Class,
I elf myself before just for fun. I did it because my friends did it, and it was kind of like a popular thing to do at that time. But I don’ t think to continue a already failed once champaign would be a good idea.
First, the champaign was proven to be a failure even it has brought up high engagement. “People forwarded the email without knowing who the sponsor was”. I think people will not do this time, neither, unless Office Depot change the way of presenting.
When I googled “Elf Yourself” office depot, the website comes out is this one:
https://www.elfyourself.com/.
The whole website is mainly the creation of the animation. I did not find the sponsor because my attention was draw by the options listed to create the animation. Moreover, when I finished a animation, after downloading it, the website actually did not forward me to Office Depot’s online store website. I think this might be one of the reasons people do not who sponsor the “Elf Yourself”.
Second, I think it would be a very bad idea to monetize the app. There are many Phone App that has the same feature as “Elf yourself”—FOR FREE. I see little possibility people would pay 99 cents for one more songs. I will not paying for additional songs. I spend most money on photoshop apps normally.
I have never elf myself but it sounds like a fun idea.
I have not I have never been to office depot because I just always went to staples and have not seen very many commercials about office depot. Part of the reason I never had to buy office supply items in bulk. Saying that I guess the name suggests if you want to purchase large quantities of office supplies you should go to office depot. I can honestly say I never been inside an office depot.
I currently have the Wall Street Journal app. I spend money on it because I already have the online subscription other than that I do not have any paid apps.
I currently buy most things from Amazon. I was talking to a tech guy from apple today and he was trying to sell me additional memory and he actually sent me a link to amazon to purchase the RAM for about $50 and the instruction how to install hardware.
I have been tempted in the past to participate in the campaign but it seemed a little too kitschy for me. It's doubtful that I'll do it this year. It seems Office Max/Office Depot is at a crossroads with its brand direction. If it's serious about becoming an enterprise services provider, is "elfYourself" the best way to connect with them? While over 1BN elves have been customized, I wonder what the conversion rates have been for actual sales. I personally pay an annual subscription rate for knowledge based apps, and make in-app purchases for some of my favorite games to kill time during my daily commute. I am fairly loyal to Staples and will visit that store instead of Office Max/Office Depot. I'm in need of a 2018 desk calendar refill pack now that I think of it...
Hi class,
I’m one of those people who have seen the “elfe yourself” campaign but had no idea it had anything to do with Office Max/ Depot. Therefore, it did not make me buy anything from the company.
When it comes to app purchases, I usually by adds on for photo or video editing applications. So I don’t see myself paying for a dancing Elfe with my face on it. I think the success of the “Elfeyourslfe” app was due to that it was a free gig. Now that it cost money I would be surprised if it stays as popular as it was. Furthermore, I see this attempt to monetize the app as a depressed try to get extra revenue this holiday season. If it has any impact on my holiday shopping I would avoid Office Depot / Max.
Adam N.
I think that "elf yourself" campaign is a good communication strategy that attracts a lot of people to try it for fun, and people may even come back and try it over and over again. This is an effective way to engage your potential consumers and bring fun to them through an interactive experience. Also, holding the campaign every year makes it feel like a tradition that becomes an integral part of the Christmas.People find it is a routine to "elf yourself" on holiday seasons.
It creates a personal and shared experience to users. People can share their photos or videos with each other, and more people get to know the campaign and brand.
Siqi
Hi Class,
According to sensor tower, the average person spends 35 dollars a year on apps for their phones alone. I also recall reading an article of a man who spend thousands on candy crush. I personally don't even recall this elf yourself at all. Even though I am going to this year, just so I can see what its all about. Its still a fail in my eyes as well when it comes to marketing for Office Depot. However, since people are willing to spend up to 35 dollars on apps, why not make it cost money? Seems like a new revenue stream for Office depot too me.
Personally, I even refuse to buy Netflix, Hulu or even play games on my phone. I wont even pay for Pandora or Spotify. I guess I'm stingy compared to the rest of the class. I do buy things off of amazon on my phone, but even that is very rare(I wont even pay for prime). So no way am I going to pay for extra songs!
http://fortune.com/2016/03/29/spend-on-iphone-apps/
Respectfully,
Jimmy Lam
Hello,
I have elfed myself when I was in middle school. During that time I think it was a trend, and seems like everyone is doing it. I didn't go to Home Depot after seeing this because I didn't know it was part of Home Depot. However, even though I know, I won't go there. The only time I would go to Home Depot is if I need to some projects, and I need some tools. The most recent one time I went to Home Depot was my father asked me to buy a piece of wood board.
I don't think I will elf myself this year, and I am not going to pay for the songs. I already had a membership with iTunes, and I am paying monthly for the songs, I don't want to spend extra money on the songs.
I don't like to spend a lot of money on online apps, the only time I do is if I need some professional editing and photography apps. There are some apps good, but still, if the price is over 5 dollars, that's not okay.
I am not going to buy things from Home Depot during the holiday season. I have Amazon premier membership, and if I want to buy something, I will go to Amazon first. My gift ideas always don't relate to what Home Depot has.
Erin
I've elfed myself and never knew where it came from! Its a really cute idea but I definitely agree, if its not tying back to the brand its pointless. They could start by making the actual elves in the video hold up office max signs and dance with them and put up a big logo. Maybe also include promotions where after making the video you can share to Facebook with an automatic caption generated saying something like “Office Max making shopping easy for the holiday season makes us want to dance!” Or something like that. Maybe that would boost sales or at least awareness. Branding this very clearly is going to be key in success of the whole thing.
Alex
Hi Class,
Office Max’s campaign “elf yourself” is a good communication strategy. Yet, it does not translates to sales because it is not authentic. During the holidays it is done by almost every company. Nowadays, with social media you do not have to pay for the elf video. I remember that last year that starbucks did a simmilar campaign with snapchat and it was quite popular. I would personally not pay to have this feature. I go to Office Max whenever I have to buy office or school supply only. I can see why Office Max sales are not increasing. I would only pay for the song if it is a really cool holiday jingle and if I can use it with more features on my phone (ringtone). Office Max really has a dissadvantage with this campaign because of the other social media platforms that will most likely have the elf yourself strategy. I do not see this campaign translate to sales, but maybe in brand engagement.
Post a Comment