• by Aaron Baar , January 10, 2011

Watch out "Elf Yourself," "Clay Yourself" is here. Just as we've completed the holiday season full of emails of people representing themselves as singing elves, Hotels.com is introducing a promotion that encourages consumers to create a digital clay avatar (à la the company's spokes character, "Smart,") and a contest with the opportunity for that character to appear in a new television commercial.

"It's a fun and interactive way for people to engage with us and go into that digital clay environment [of Hotels.com's advertising]," company representative Taylor Cole tells Marketing Daily. "The outline for our new commercial includes a new character, and we thought this would be a great time to get consumers involved and take part in the shoot."

The company has set up a microsite, www.clayyourself.com, where users can create a digital rendering of themselves in clay. Over the next eight weeks, weekly winners -- based on the number of user votes -- will win $200 in hotels.com vouchers. For one winner, the company will render the avatar into a clay figurine to interact opposite Smart. The winner will also win a three-day, two night trip to Los Angeles to get a behind-the-scenes look at the promotion.

Although not required to enter the contest, users can also record a Mad Lib-style customized script for their avatar and get a customized screen name for their character based on the type of vacation they prefer. ("Brad Skimo," perhaps, for someone who wants a winter wonderland vacation.) The avatars can easily be shared via Facebook and Twitter.

"We're really looking for creativity behind the clay avatar because that's going to stand out in the commercial," Cole says.