Office Max "Elfs" into viral stratosphere

Do you remember those "Elf Yourself" advertisements on television, online and in newspapers during the holiday season? If you logged on to learn how to "elf yourself" you weren't alone. The results are in from the Office Max campaign and show that traffic to the holiday site quadrupled over 2006!

by Kristina Knight

More than that, though, "Elf Yourself" caught on virally. News commentators from several morning news shows and thousands of blogs spread the word about "elfing", making a huge viral splash for the office supply retailer.

The site was live from November 20, 2007 through January 2, 2008 and received 193 million visits. Users built more than 123 million elves and spend more than 2,600 years on the site. That isn't a typo - in six weeks users did spend more than 2,600 years on the website!

By comparison from December 1, 2006 through January 7, 2007 the elfing website attracted 36 million users who made more than 11 million elves. Users spent about 600 years on-site during the 2006 tracking period.

"There was already a digital audience anticipating [Elf Yourself's] return - we received millions of hits to a dead site before launch," said a company spokesperson. "From there, it started to spread online and the more people it reached the faster it spread. As its popularity grew, bloggers, radio stations and TV stations started including Elf Yourself in their programs/sites, and it continued to spread even faster."