Client
Microsoft
Agency
UM
Planners
Will Oatley and Alan King
Strategy
Coders are highly competitive and passionate about music, so traditional online advertising techniques would have limited impact. We had to tap into the audience's passions and allow them to earn respect from their peers by showcasing their skills. If Microsoft could make that happen, we could increase brand perception and encourage trials of the product. We therefore set the coder community a challenge to fuel their competitive drive. We joined forces with Last.fm,
a known favourite in the coder community, to host the world's first Last.fm Hack Day.
Activity
Our live event at the Old Truman Brewery in Shoreditch allowed coders to get under the bonnet of Last.fm,
giving them the tools to create web applications to improve the Last.fm experience. Attendees had the chance to win cash, Xboxes and computer games, and every visitor received a copy of the Visual Studio '08 software. We created a fun environment to promote Microsoft's new products, ranging from coder software to the Microsoft Surface, Microsoft's touch-screen table.
Results
Our £25,000 media budget delivered. According to Atlas and comScore, 20% of the UK coder audience, or 50,000 people, saw the promotion on either Last.fm or the target sites carrying our signposting. Meanwhile, Last.fm data showed 150 coders spent more than eight hours of their weekend at the Microsoft event. A traditional digital advertising campaign of this budget would have generated 75 product trials, but our approach generated 307 trials.
Will Oatley, Digital strategist, UM