Why teachers trump celebrities for Office Depot

This event report discusses how Office Depot has employed content marketing in the US to add an emotional component to what can be a low-interest category.

How teachers trumped celebrities for Office Depot

Stephen WhitesideWarc

Stationery, paper, toner and ink rarely evoke feelings of excitement and anticipation. And this poses a major problem for Office Depot, a retailer boasting $11.2 billion in annual sales but enjoying a comparatively limited amount of brand engagement.

"To be really candid, we're not a brand that pisses people off intensely or makes them super-happy," Emery Skolfield, Office Depot's director/digital marketing, informed delegates at the 2014 Social Media World Forum in New York. "We're not a super-emotional, sexy, interesting brand; we know that about ourselves. But we're trying to be...

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