Elf Yourself
Elf yourself early logo
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Type of site
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Christmas |
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| Available in | English |
| Owner | Office Depot |
| Created by |
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| Editor |
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| Website | Elf Yourself website |
| Alexa rank | 509,743 |
| Registration | none |
| Launched | December 2006 |
| Current status | Holiday season only |
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Content license
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free for users |
Elf Yourself is an American interactive viral website where visitors can upload images of themselves or their friends, see them as dancing elves, and have the option to post the created video to other sites or save it as a personalized mini-film. The video and website were created by Evolution Bureau (EVB), in collaboration with New York company for Office Max's holiday season advertising campaign. The Elf Yourself website and advertising campaign first launched for the Christmas holiday season in early December 2006, and has returned each subsequent season. According to ClickZ, visiting the site "has become an annual tradition that people look forward to".
After being contracted by OfficeMax to create multiple websites for their holiday campaign, "Toy." contracted with Evolution Bureau to create a suitable holiday-themed website and application. Evolution Bureau then developed the Elf Yourself application for use with the OfficeMax holiday marketing campaign. The original release featured only one elf, portrayed by Danielle Bárcena, and received 200 hits a second. In later releases, additional elves were added to the application and viewers could upload different images for each elf. Still later, social media applications were added, included those allowing viewers to save and/or download the films they had created through visiting the website.
The project began in July 2006, when Mark Andeer and Bob Thacker, OfficeMax's senior vice-president for advertising and marketing, contacted "Toy." to create 20 humorous, holiday-themed web sites. "Toy." Evolution Bureau, who in turned created Elf Yourself, the site which proved to be the most successful of the 20, receiving attention from CNN and NBC's Today Show. Thacker explained that his budget for creation of all 20 sites was less than the cost of one 30-second television commercial.
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