Who started Elf Yourself?

The Elf Yourself campaign is a marketing strategy created by the Toy advertising agency in 2006. Business supply company Officemax hired the agency to create 20 microsites with holiday themes.

During the first year of its release, Elf Yourself featured only one elf. Even so, it received 200 hits a second. The site reached over 36 million visits in five weeks, with almost 11 million elves created by users. In years that followed, Elf Yourself added additional elves, as well as the ability to upload a different image for each elf. Following that, the site allowed users to save and download their Elf Yourself creations.