Making School Cool

Think a notebook is just a notebook? Think again.

For many teens and pre-teens, school supplies are a way to express themselves. And back-to-school can be a time to show the world that their personal style has evolved over the summer.

Using a combination of television placement, online video and teen idol charisma, OfficeMax is capitalizing on kids’ need to reinvent themselves for the fall with “New Year, New You,” an ad campaign celebrating the personalization trend.

“We want kids to feel this is a back to school store that understands who they are,” says Bob Thacker, senior vice president of marketing and advertising for Itasca, IL-based OfficeMax.

Unlike Staples, which targets parents by spoofing their joy at the kids going back to the books, OfficeMax is clearly going after the end users of school supplies. That’s because the store’s main back-to-school clientele is generally middle school, high school and college age students who are making the purchase decisions, not parents buying crayons for children.

“They’re not looking for the ‘Cars’ or ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ notebooks,” says Thacker. “They’re looking for something that makes a statement about who they are, and it’s very personal.”

To help kids make that statement, OfficeMax has installed “Creation Stations” in stores. There, students can design their own customized notebooks by selecting the cover, type of paper and dividers. The notebooks sell for about $5.95 each.

The “Creation Stations” have been the centerpiece of back-to-school events hosted at many stores. At the events, $3 from the sale of each notebook were donated to a local school organization.

The retailer also collaborated with personalization expert Kelley Moore to highlight ways OfficeMax products like surfboard-shaped white boards and mirrors could be used to “trick out a locker,” says Thacker.

“That’s their personal space,” Thacker notes. “That’s the one place in the school that’s really theirs.”

The campaign started in late July, with promotional media staggered to accommodate different school start dates in various parts of the country.

The centerpiece of the campaign is “Schooled,” a reality television special on ABC Family. In the program, eighth graders at Tuckahoe Middle School in Eastchester, NY are duped into believing they have to take an outrageous oral and written admission exam before they enter high school. If they don’t pass, they’ll spend the next year in “eighth-and-a-half grade.”

Parents, teachers and the school board were in on the hidden camera prank, which took place on a Saturday during summer vacation. The questions on the test were puzzlers, to say the least. “Name a left handed U.S. president.” “Why do you think October is necessary?” “Spell Connecticut backwards.” “What is more dangerous and why: loitering, littering or laundering?”

“But we didn’t torture them too long,” assures Thacker.

After the oral quiz, the kids were brought into gym for what they were told would be a two-hour written exam. “They’re dying,” Thacker says. “Suddenly you hear drums and guitars warming up. The wall parts and [teen idol] Jesse McCartney is there for a live concert.”

OfficeMax products were subtly featured in “Schooled,” and all the students who participated got a backpack filled with free school supplies, including pens, notebooks, digital cameras and calculators. The retailer also made an $80,000 donation to the school in the form of two $40,000 gift cards.

Video shorts from the program have been showcased on a Google Video microsite, which drives kids to the OfficeMax online store. A DVD of the show, including outtakes and Jesse McCartney music videos, is being given out free to customers who buy $50 or more in school supplies.

The microsite has had over a million clickthroughs, and the video hit number 38 on the top 100 Google videos. While back-to-school supplies are being featured in newspaper circulars, no other television or direct mail promotion is being conducted.

“Kids love mail, but kids are more accessible online,” says Thacker. “This is where kids live.”