Let’s ELF it up! Find out how this popular Christmas app spread the holiday cheer in 2017!

12 Days of Christmas FROM THE DESK OF MILES EVERSON: This is it, the ultimate Christmas countdown is here: 5 days left before Christmas Day 2021! Are you fond of dressing up as one of the iconic Christmas characters during this time of the year? If so, who would you like to dress up as? It’s okay to say you like dressing up as a Christmas elf! Speaking of elf, did you know that one company created a guerrilla marketing campaign related to this character? Check out this article below to know more about this campaign and maybe get an idea on how you can make your Christmas Day extra merry. CEO, MBO Partners Chairman of the Advisory Board, The I Institute

Let’s ELF it up! Find out how this popular Christmas app spread the holiday cheer in 2017! The jolly elf is a beloved icon during the Yuletide season. … and since 2006, one brand has been using this Christmas icon as a staple for its fun digital guerrilla marketing campaigns every year. What is this brand? Office Depot! ―an American office supply retailing company headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida. The company is known for offering low prices on office furniture, supplies, electronics, print services, and more. As part of Office Depot’s annual Christmas celebrations, it conducts its recurring campaign called “Elf Yourself.” This campaign invites thousands of online users to spread festive cheer every holiday season by creating funny clips and turning themselves and their friends into funny and cute Christmas elves. To date, over 1.6 billion office elf videos have been created and more than 564 sessions globally. The campaign microsite provides narratives and product tie-ins around the elves. Alongside that, site visitors are incentivized with fun weekly social media challenges. Office Depot’s elves are everywhere on the brand’s social media accounts during the holiday season. On Twitter, the company surprised and delighted shopping-challenged fans with handpicked and wrapped office products. On Instagram, Office Depot’s intern elf offered fun office activities that feature products sold by the brand. Targeted advertising across Facebook and Twitter ensured a new generation of fans were introduced to the Elf yourself app. Meanwhile, existing app users got to know the office elves’ newest songs. Since this app was introduced and created by Office Depot in 2006, it has undergone changes and innovations throughout the years… In 2017, the Elf Yourself app was updated and now incorporates an augmented reality (AR) that connects with users’ smartphones. The app’s new AR features are easy to use. With a simple tap, users can have Santa’s little helpers rock out on the screens of their smartphones as they, their families, and friends dance alongside the elves. The app update also comes with a feature that lets users turn their favorite frame into a custom holiday card, which they can easily order from any Office Depot or OfficeMax print center in store, online, or through the mobile app. What a fun way to get active with and greet your loved ones during the holiday season! Results of Office Depot’s “Elf Yourself” Campaign According to Natalie Malaszenko, resident elf expert and vice president of digital and B2B marketing for Office Depot, “Over the past decade, the ‘Elf Yourself’ experience has brought over a billion elves into the world, bringing holiday cheer and excitement to all those who have ‘elfed’ themselves or been ‘elfed’ by someone else. Our passion has always been rooted in finding new ways for people to unleash their inner elf, and this year we are able to kick this up to a whole new level due to our new AR capabilities.” Here are other results of Office Depot’s “Elf Yourself” campaign: About 63 million users across 215 countries have joined in on the fun. The company has recorded around 11 million downloads of the “Elf Yourself” app and around 21 million app updates. The campaign has garnered a total of 328 million social media impressions. Office Depot has collected a total of USD 1.2 million in revenue from the campaign. Clearly, these numbers show that the brand’s campaign deeply resonates with a lot of consumers who are looking to enjoy the Christmas season every year! The “Elf Yourself” campaign wasn’t the first campaign to let users upload a photo of themselves onto something sort of silly. However, since debuting in 2006, Office Depot’s holiday elves have proven to be a Christmas staple! So, what’s this campaign’s lesson for marketers? A good marketing idea works well for a commoditized industry. With a fun and consumer-centric campaign, you can bring your brand’s core values to life and encourage positive and memorable interactions with your target market. What else? Humor can be an effective tool in getting your brand’s message across. When incorporated properly, humor will add to the “feel good” vibes of your campaign and compel more consumers to engage with your brand. ‘Tis the season to spread some holiday magic and a dash of happiness. While Christmas only happens once a year, the fun memories you create through your brand’s marketing campaigns will stay in consumers’ minds… ALL. YEAR. ROUND. Hope you’ve found this week’s guerrilla marketing insight interesting and helpful. Follow us on LinkedIn.     Stay tuned for tomorrow's 12 Days of Christmas article! Do you want to learn about how the largest coffeehouse chain in the world gave consumers something to look forward to every Christmas? See it in the next 12 Days of Christmas article!