technology

Kodak Lets People Make Superheroes Of Themselves

Make Me Super-KodakOfficeMax let people turn themselves into elves. But online photo service Kodak Gallery thinks more people want to be superheroes. Thus, the company has launched a promotional program that it hopes will become a viral hit--à la OfficeMax's effort--allowing people to turn pictures of themselves into superheroes.

"After having seen 'Elf Yourself,' I said: 'We're all about pictures. We're all about using yourself creatively and expressing yourself with photographs. We need to do something like this," Camilla Bravo, senior director of worldwide brand strategy at Kodak Gallery, tells Marketing Daily.

Kodak Gallery enlisted EVB--the same company that created the Elf Yourself effort--to create another program that had a deeper, richer experience that also tied into many of the company's products. In this version, a user uploads a photo at www.makemesuper.com, pastes it onto a superhero body, and then is treated to a video (rendered in grainy 1970s-style television) of the new hero performing "super tasks" such as mowing the lawn, playing video games and parallel parking.

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"It's similar, but it's more involved. You get to put yourself in a story," says Kim Kline, vice president of account management and strategy at EVB. "It's more universal than a holiday message."

The program also has a stronger retail component (which was one of Bravo's requirements). After creating superhero images of themselves, users can then order products--such as mousepads or mugs--with that image on them.

"In the video game industry, the way to get people to buy games is by having them try them out," Bravo says. "Driving trial in this case was seeing your photos in a fun way on a product."

While the company's typical consumer is a woman between the ages of 25 and 44 with young children, Kodak Gallery is hoping the online promotion will attract a younger and more digitally savvy consumer to their site, Bravo says. To that end, the company is not using traditional media to promote the site. Instead, it is approaching blogs and other sites that focus on viral video and superheroes, Bravo says. "Those could be our prime target," Bravo says. "I saw this as being an exciting opportunity to talk to people that we wouldn't normally be talking to--like an audience that was younger, video-savvy or wanted to create viral videos."

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