Symantec is a global leader in infrastructure software for businesses and consumers. The release of Endpoint Protection 11.0 software was Symantec’s biggest product launch in years. The software bundles five critical IT protection technologies into one convenient package, so the campaign was loosely based on the concept of there being a single solution. The one virtual event’ was part of the One solution’ campaign.
As the target audience were channel agents, resellers and end users in small to medium-sized enterprises across Europe, staging an event in one physical place was impractical. Yet Symantec wanted to give both audiences a rich interactive experience, not just another list of benefits and features. For the channel, this meant stimulating a competitive spirit, as well as making the selling points clear. For end users, it meant communicating with them directly and personally, through microsites, online games and, most importantly a live virtual event.
The One Virtual Event was designed to make a big impression on a large audience scattered across 17 countries. The online event ensured a high impact, multilingual delivery and included:
- Live video streaming of presentation by key Symantec personnel.
- Real-time chatting with Symantec experts.
- Life forums for 1400 attendees from 17 countries.
- Content in four languages.
“Use of the virtual 3-D arena for the website and virtual event gave the campaign real identity and brought the product life,” says Paul Hoskins, global campaigns manager, Symantec.
A venue needs a host, so Base One created a friendly host avatar for the One Virtual Event to help guide people through all the different areas and presentations available. Approachability, gender, cultural acceptability, live-action logistics and the need to simultaneously translate the business of the event into four languages, all figured in the development, as well as the need to match the environment’s elegant style.
To promote the one virtual event and drive registrations, Base One developed a movie-like trailer for the end-user microsite. More cinematic visuals dotted the 3D landscape, including the registration kiosk.
To emphasise the One Solution, a dynamic interface with a Flash introduction used a 3D number ‘1’ as a graphic for users to navigate the site. Doors in part of the numeral opened to reveal the virtual venue and, guided by the avatar, users were able to access the areas and attend the seminars which interested them the most. Hoskins says: “For the channel website, the use of the number one as a navigational tool was exceptional and created a truly unique and memorable user experience.”
Two viral games were created: Superhero and Finger Athletics. Superhero emphasised the fact that Endpoint contains five protection powers’, tapped into the competitive spirit among resellers and distributors, driving registrations for local launch events in each country. Finger Athletics promoted Endpoint’s lower systems requirements. The idea involved humorous, timed typing games with the message that users needed to train their fingers to move faster, because Endpoint makes the computer so much more efficient that they would have a hard time keeping up otherwise.
The target for registration for the virtual event was 2000. Fifty per cent more registrations were received than expects, so at 3000 registrations, the target was exceeded by 33 per cent. Local launch events of the channel filled up so fast that registration had to close early.
The One Virtual Event occurred on 10 October 2007 and 1000 delegates were expected to login. Fourteen hundred logins were recorded, exceeding the target by 40 per cent. The web was the only media used for the entire Endpoint campaign, for which the budget was £180,000. The entire launch exceeded budgeted targets sales by 12.7 per cent, while direct end-user sales increased by 18.5 per cent.
Hoskins adds: “The design went far and beyond expectations for what is possible with websites in general, let alone campaign microsites. We originally requested a microsite with information to support a product launch, and what we ended up with was an engaging, rich and visually stunning user experience. Innovative use of navigation was visually impressive, across all the sites and the diversity of creative concepts proved what was really possible with the media. It highlighted how little we had really leveraged online marketing in the past.
“This launch had the most integrated and innovative use of marketing for Symantec EMEA in the company’s history, and the involvement internally and from customers went far beyond expectations.”