The customizable ElfYourself.com Web site has returned for an encore after attracting 40 million visits during the campaign last year when the site generated more than 11 million elves and kept users glued to the site for the equivalent of over 600 years. Nearly a quarter of a million people have visited the ElfYourself Web site in anticipation of this year's launch.

This year the OfficeMax-sponsored site includes new video footage, big band music, fancier dance moves, voice capabilities and the ability to add three friends. For those with a more dour approach to the holidays, there's a sister site at www.ScroogeYourself.com, featuring a customizable grumpy, yet dancing Scrooge character. Both sites were created by Toy New York and EVB.

Over 100 user-created videos inspired by the elf videos ended up on YouTube, including children who learned all the elf dance steps and recreated the experience live, and a heavy metal band that used the elf images in their music video, says Jason Zada, EVP/executive creative director.

Although the site was taken down in January, users continue to seek it out, he says. In fact, the URL has received almost a quarter million hits since the site's run ended in mid-January. Last year's campaign resulted in over 79,000 MySpace hits. The site was the fastest mover on the Alexa rankings reaching 267 on the most-visited sites and was No. 2 on Entertainment Weekly's "Must list."

If initial traffic is any indication, the 2006 numbers may be just a drop in the bucket. "We haven't even hit December and the numbers so far are staggering," Zada says.

The campaign's goal is to continue to create a positive association between OfficeMax and the holidays and to put OfficeMax on people's radars as a place to buy holiday gifts. The campaign includes in-store promotional materials that tie in with the ElfYourself Web site, Zada says.

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