Learn how employing a world champion body painter helped Gigamon to reposition itself and raise awareness in the security sector

Gigamon’s original innovation was a combination of hardware and software that let systems administrators analyse and optimise their network traffic. But the company realised its technology could also help network security applications work far more effectively, by giving them visibility into malicious network traffic. Gigamon just needed to create awareness and engagement in a completely new category – the security delivery platform.

The brief for Fox Parrack Singapour (FPS) was all about creating visibility where there hadn’t been any before. To make the point, FPS leveraged a popular meme: urban camouflage. The world champion body painter painted four ‘hackers’ into four corporate scenarios, the point being that, no matter how the ‘hackers’ disguised themselves, Gigamon’s technology would still expose them.

By taking the lead in an industry crusade against cybercrime, FPS got 27 security vendors to add their branding and momentum to the campaign site: 

wefightsmart.com

.

An internal launch got Gigamon salespeople on board. The campaign launch at the NYSE and in the

Wall Street Journal

got the ball rolling. Live ‘painted hackers’ at security events became social media magnets. Banners and emails fuelled the fire.

Still gathering momentum, the campaign has so far generated 1465 leads and helped Gigamon to a 43% sales uplift.

About

Gigamon is a Nasdaq-listed Silicon Valley company, successfully selling a technology platform that enables network administrators to analyse and optimise their network traffic by giving them unprecedented visibility into the data flows inside their networks.

However, with network security tools becoming less and less effective against sophisticated cyber attacks, Gigamon recognised that its technology could also help security software see malicious code hidden inside the network.

Gigamon developed a dedicated solution: a security delivery platform called GigaSECURE to underpin a security market proposition. As security vendors command much higher market valuations, the decision was made to reposition Gigamon as a security company.

Strategy

• An extremely competitive security sector.
• Gigamon had no profile in this sector and where it was known, was seen as a networking vendor.
• Gigamon’s existing product had no profile with security people or in the c-suite.
• Internally, it also had to get its people to buy into the new direction.

Objectives of the campaign

The campaign had to:

• Reposition Gigamon within a new category in the security market (with a security solution that could transform the effectiveness of existing security tools).
• Educate prospects and customers on ‘network visibility’, and specifically raise awareness of the GigaSECURE solution.
• Ensure messaging resonated with senior management as well as the security and networking teams.
• Clearly communicate the benefits to ecosystem partners.
• Generate leads.

The target audience

The campaign had to appeal to people at various levels within large corporations, from ground-level security operations personnel to the CEOs (who were ultimately responsible to shareholders for corporate data security). But in most cases, the decision to purchase would be made by chief information officers and chief information security officers.

Additionally, there was an opportunity to get other security vendors to join in (as Gigamon’s technology made its own solutions more effective), so it was important to appeal to them too. The campaign also needed to get Gigamon’s own people onside and excited about this new opportunity.

Finally, the campaign had to appeal to the investment community, to get them to buy into Gigamon’s new direction.

Media, channels or techniques used

A comprehensive global media campaign was developed with digital at the centre, but also including offline executions including print media, posters and event support:

• At the heart of the campaign was a dedicated microsite which featured an industry ‘call-to-arms’ manifesto to unite Gigamon’s ecosystem partners and the wider industry.
• The campaign was launched in the US with print media in the
  
  Wall Street Journal
  
  coinciding with an event at the New York Stock Exchange supported by electronic displays.
• The comprehensive digital campaign utilised programmatic display, paid and organic social, native, content syndication, guaranteed lead programmes through to always-on retargeting and digital nurture.
• An innovative Twitter campaign generated ongoing buzz, particularly among Gigamon’s security partners, and especially during events.
• A comprehensive outbound strategy with emails and dedicated landing pages drove an automated lead nurture programme.
• Comprehensive content supported the campaign with a strong focus on video content (including a ‘making of’ video and pre-launch teaser videos) plus regular blog content, supported by internally and externally curated content that included a specially commissioned ‘
  
  Security Delivery Platforms for Dummies
  
  ’.
• Important industry events such as the RSA in Miami, and Infosec in the UK provided the perfect platform to bring the core campaign concept to life; with live body painting attracting attention both at the events and on social media (the BBC even broadcast some body painting on a cyber security news piece).

Timescales

• Agency selected 26 Sept 2015 following credentials presentations (from four shortlisted agencies).
• Agency briefed 14 October 2015.
• Research, strategy and creative development phase: 15 October-13 November 2015 (22 working days).
• Agency presented strategy and creative proposals in San Francisco 17 November 2015.
• Internal launch 19 January 2016 (presentation, creative concepts, videos).
• Campaign launched (digital and print media, NYSE event) 24 February 2016.
• RSA event (US) 29 February 2016 in San Francisco.
• InfoSecurity Europe event, 7 June 2016, London.
• Email nurturing: 1 April onwards 2016.

Results

The microsite, wefightsmart.com, is received over 1000 visitors per day and is the top referral site to gigamon.com, with referrals spending over two minutes on gigamon.com each time and returning three times. Latest figures show the online campaign has generated 1465 leads as follows:

One-third of the way through the email nurturing campaign, it has delivered 384 qualified leads. Gigamon’s latest quarter’s turnover – $76m – was 43% bigger than the same quarter a year previously.

Lynn Sakamoto, director, Americas marketing at Gigamon, said: “A new sales rep on day two said it was one of the best campaigns he has seen. Andy Zollo, VP of EMEA sales, commented on how he would be painted as hidden man for EMEA rollout. Dennis, who heads up federal sales, wants to leverage this with a big event in Q2. Vince and the entire NY team saw the creative for the first time and are now even more excited than we are leveraging the NYSE for the rollout. Our head of sales for Americas said it brought chills down his back. I can go on and on about the many comments from everyone but I’ll sum it up in one word – brilliant! Thank you FPS team for delivering one of the most impactful campaigns.”