Tasty Marketing Treats November 17, 2008
Posted by skmak in Uncategorized.Tags: Change.gov, Election 2008, Elf Yourself, Twitter
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Here are just some of the things I’m reading about this week:
- OfficeMax’s Elf Yourself campaign has started again. Remember, according to Advertising Age, 26.4 million people spent a total of 2,600 years at Elf Yourself last year.
- The New York Times has published an article claiming that President-Elect Obama may have to give up his Blackberry. I’ve said several times on this blog how impressed I am with the way that Obama has used multiple social media tools to communicate with his constituents – from YouTube and Twitter to iPhone applications. For all of us that are Blackberry / iPhone addicts, we all understand how utterly disabling this could be. It will be interesting to see how he handles this first conflict.
- President-Elect Obama has also released his first weekly video address to the nation. These will continue to run at Change.gov and the Obama YouTube channel. Forrester Analyst, Jeremiah Owyang, is quick to point out that Obama has just as many views as the top-rated Fred channel, but far less subscribers. Jeremiah will be tracking progress of Obama’s YouTube success.
- Mom everywhere are still very upset with the Motrin Moms video on Motrin’s official website. Apparently, the video is still there, but as of this morning I couldn’t get to Motrin’s site. This is still one of the hottest discussions on Twitter at the moment at #motrinmoms. The video talks about how uncomfortable and painful it is for moms to carry their babies. Ooops…bad idea, Motrin.
You can be anyone you want to be [with the Internet] October 22, 2008
Posted by skmak in Uncategorized.Tags: Election 2008, Elf Yourself, Make Me Super, viral marketing, Yearbook Yourself
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Yes, folks, you can harness the power of the internet to become whomever you want to be! No, I’m not talking about going to school online, or online dating. Aim higher! Become a superhero!
Based off last year’s successful viral campaign, Elf Yourself by OfficeMax, several new 
websites have launched aimed at allowing you to create characters based on your appearance. Yearbook Yourself lets you put your face onto yearbook pictures from the 1950s to today (wow, I sounded like a slimy radio DJ just then). Here’s my “yearbook” picture from 1968.
This month, Kodak Gallery launched Make Me Super. Make Me Super, like Yearbook Yourself, takes your headshot and puts it onto a super hero’s body. It produces a funny video of you showing off your super powers. One of the great things about Make Me Super is that Kodak found a way to also try and make money off of their viral campaign. You can order products with a picture of your super self – a mug, a mousepad, or a deck of cards.
Today, I found two new websites that allow you to pose with your favorite presidential candidate. Upload your photo to be in several different pictures with McCain or Obama. Here’s my pic of me with fellow super hero, McCain, for example.
There are also several websites which allow you to create a Japanese-inspired cartoon characacher of yourself. These manga or avatar sites let you choose your skin tone, eye color, hair color and style and clothes. I made mine at a site called faceyourmanga.com. For a while I didn’t think that you could be on Twitter without having a manga.
So, what do all of these mean to marketers? Well, everyone is out to create viral marketing. Viral marketing, as explained by wikipedia, is the “marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily.” Like the video of the skateboarding dog – come on, you know you forwarded that to 10 of your friends. The interesting thing about viral is that it can’t be produced – it has to happen spontaneously.
You may still be asking why people are so interested in viral marketing. Bottom line, it translates to money (cue the “cha-ching” sound). Let’s go back to Elf Yourself – which by the way, Office Max is relaunching this year. Elf Yourself contributed to a 20% increase in holiday traffic to OfficeMax’s website. According to AdAge, the website received over 36 million hits in 5 weeks. Over 123 million elves were created, and users spent a combined average of 2,600 years on the site.
As Elizabeth McDowell, Publicist for EVB San Francisco, the co-creator of “Elf Yourself” says, “The success is in part due to three fundamental characteristics: 1) Keep it Simple; 2) Make it Personal; and 3) Give People a Reason to Pass It On!”
