OfficeMax, EVB and Toy Win Three ad:tech Awards
(Chicago/San Francisco/New York--April 17, 2008) OfficeMax, EVB and Toy are pleased to announce the ElfYourself™ campaign danced its way to the top of the Eleventh Annual ad:tech Awards Ceremony this week.
The 2007 viral holiday phenomenon was recognized for three awards including the “Best Word of Mouth Marketing Campaign,” People’s Choice Award for “Best User Defined Experience,” and the night’s greatest honor, “Best of Show.”
In 2006, ElfYourself.com captured 36 million users in support of OfficeMax’s online holiday initiative, and in 2007, ongoing consumer demand restored the campaign for a second consecutive season with added features. After six weeks of being live, the 2007 holiday site attracted a booming number of visitors and hit the bull’s eye of viral success – it seeped into pop culture. Its popularity began on personal blogs, spread to industry blogs and social networks, Flickr, Digg and Facebook, and soon to mainstream media, USA Today and New York Times. Then, Broadcasters at several stations, TODAY Show, Good Morning America and CNN American Morning, created their own dancing holiday greeting for viewers.
When the holidays concluded and the elves were gone, ElfYourself.com had attracted over 193 million site visits reaching one in ten Americans (Nielsen Online) and ranking as the No.1 fastest growing web property in December 2007 (Alexa). At its peak, users were creating 60 elves per second and spent a combined 2,600 years on the site. The site was used by millions across the globe to create messages, promote events, send holiday party invitations and dress-up pets for the holidays, which eventually surpassed traditional e-greeting sites.
Ad agency, Toy NY, and digital content marketing firm, EVB San Francisco, created ElfYourself.com which invited 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. EVB and Toy attribute its phenomenal viral success to the following characteristics:
1) Simplicity: make it quick & easy;
2) Participation: get people involved;
3) Personalization: let people make it their own;
4) Unexpected: surprise people;
5) Humor/Entertainment: evoke an emotion;
6) Distribution: use ALL media to tell a story;
7) Communities: make the consumer your marketer;
8) Portability: weave your content into their digital life.
“ElfYourself.com is a viral phenomenon of which opened the doors to the new possibilities of viral marketing,” said Daniel Stein, CEO and cofounder of EVB. “Winning three ad:tech awards is a true honor, and a sign that digital is shaping the new generation of marketing. At EVB, we realize the incredible possibilities of digital content and strive to perfect this approach to captivate, engage and entertain consumers across all media.”
About OfficeMax
OfficeMax Incorporated (NYSE: OMX) is a leader in both business-to-business office products solutions and retail office products. The OfficeMax mission is simple. We help our customers do their best work. The company provides office supplies and paper, in-store print and document services through OfficeMax ImPressTM, technology products and solutions, and furniture to consumers and to large, medium and small businesses. OfficeMax customers are served by more than 36,000 associates through direct sales, catalogs, e-commerce and more than 900 stores. To find the nearest OfficeMax, call 1-877-OFFICEMAX. For more information, visit
http://www.officemax.com.
About EVB, Inc
EVB (http://www.evb.com) is a leading digital content marketing agency that specializes in idea-driven, multi-platform marketing campaigns that act to engage and persuade the modern consumer in any medium. EVB is about engagement, not disruption, speaking to consumers on their terms. EVB's consumer-centric approach blends strategy with entertainment and interactivity to develop pioneering marketing campaigns that generate brand awareness, deepen consumer relationships and instill long-term brand loyalty. EVB was founded in 2000 by industry veterans, Daniel Stein and Jason Zada. The company directs marketing and digital media initiatives for brands such as adidas, Kellogg's, Wrigley, Microsoft, MTV and Office Max. In September 2006, EVB joined the Omnicom Group (NYSE: OMC), a global leader in advertising, marketing and corporate communications.
About Toy NY:
Based in New York, Toy (
www.toyny.com) is an independent full service advertising agency catering to the demanding needs of a changing landscape. Founded by former management from Fallon New York, Toy prides itself on being the new improvement of the old agency model. Clients include OfficeMax, Google, YouTube and Macy’s, to name a few. Toy created ElfYourself.com, the viral holiday campaign for OfficeMax that became a cultural phenomenon, attracted one in ten Americans and ranked a top 1,000 website in over 50 countries. Toy isn’t just a name. It’s a standard for the ideas it creates. Toy believes today’s brands need to do more than hold consumers’ attention. They need to engage the imagination. And feel as exciting as a brand new toy.
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