Have You Been Elfed?

Talk about virtually spreading the joy. Two recent campaigns, Ace Hardware's "Ace Your Face" and OfficeMax's "ElfYourself" have created a promotion that allows consumers to upload their own face choices into humorous greeting cards.

In it's third year, this week 57 million elves has been created during the first three weeks of the most current campaign. Statistically, users have been averaging 15 minutes (double the 7.5 minutes last year) on the site and has created 4.5 separate elf-centric videos. OfficeMax boasted 11,088 blog posts mentioning, "ElfYourself," which is doubled from last year.

I think this is a great representation of a brand engaging their customers. Through this fun and free gift they've created a niche within social media by creating brand association.

Furthermore, with a recent partnership with JibJab, ElfYourself added a Facebook application, which 600,000 users have tried out. JibJab's technology allows users to merchandises the elves from their videos onto printed greeting cards, ornaments, mouse pads, coffee mugs and playing cards. A great carry over into their product line to increase sales.

Here's a little holiday cheer and sampling of ElfYourself with me and a few co-workers from Lijit: @tarable, @JMalan and our boss, @PQBoulder. We have the moves.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards