From beginning to Endpoint

The Background

Symantec, a global leader in anti-virus and security software, was releasing their biggest product in years, Endpoint Protection 11.0. They wanted to offer a rich interactive experience to ensure their Channel partners and End Users businesses across Europe took notice.  

For the channel, we needed to educate them about the product and create a front-of-mind preference for it. For end users, it meant engaging them directly and personally, with dynamic visuals, a live ‘virtual launch event’, and even some light entertainment.

We based our campaign on the concept of The One Solution, as the software bundles five critical IT protection technologies into one convenient package. The launch was simultaneous in 17 countries, using 6 languages.

The Solution

To educate the channel, we created a simple but immersive microsite experience, designed to provide them with all the sales tools they need in one convenient place, with the offer to attend an exclusive launch event in each of the 17 launch countries.   

To create engagement amongst the channel, we tapped into the competitive spirit of their sales teams in a way that made the product benefits clear and compelling.
We did this via a Superhero viral game, which provided a mix of product education and viral competition, and served to drive registrations for the launch events. Users could personalise a hero by uploading their own photo, and each super power was linked to an Endpoint benefit.

For the End Users, we faced a similar need to educate them and to provide compelling reasons to upgrade to the new product.   We did this via a microsite and an End User viral game, ‘Finger Athletics’, which promoted a key product benefit in its gameplay.

Due to the number of End Users across EMEA, a physical launch event was not possible, so we created a live Virtual Event where users could interact and chat with the Symantec experts and their peers during a day-long series of live presentations and discussions.  

The Virtual Event provided the engagement of a live event but was fully online,  designed to be a very immersive experience, built in 3D and streamed in real time.  A friendly host avatar guided attendees through the areas and presentations available.

Results

The launch exceeded budgeted sales targets by 12.7%, and direct user sales by 18.5%.

Registrations for the virtual launch event were exceeded by 33% (with 1,000 more people than expected), and there were 40% more attendees than we anticipated.
More than 1,000 people played the Superhero game.

And the campaign won 3 B2B Marketing awards and was nominated for the BIMAs.