REFRAMING THE DATA ERASURE GAME
technology, advertising, demand generation
The Brief
Blancco, a contender in the permanent data erasure space, was battling to pit its smart and sustainable software solution against the toughest of all competitors: the status quo of physical device destruction.
They came to April Six to help them build a campaign and strategic narrative that would reframe the erasure game forever—and position their software-based alternative as the ‘better way’.
The Challenge
Our challenge was to convince IT, risk, and security leaders that when they need to eliminate redundant, outdated, or trivial data either in end-of-life devices or in live environments, there’s a better way to do it than the de facto crushing of physical devices.
We had to help audiences see the status quo as a futile endeavour—full of security and compliance risk, hugely inefficient, and very damaging to the environment. And then we needed to get them to accept Blancco’s alternative as a better way to erase data throughout its lifecycle.
At the same time, within a tight budget and narrow timeframe, our GTM strategy needed to marry the requirement for building awareness of Blancco, and education around the data erasure solution itself, with the immediate need for feeding the sales teams with qualified leads.
The Insight
Blancco’s ‘better way’ had to stop our audiences in their tracks and bring them face to face with the stark consequences of the status quo. The resolution had to be indelibly linked to the Blancco brand, creating a position that no other vendor could muscle in on. And of course, the right message needed to be served up in the right places and at the right time for our target audience.
The Creative
We were facing a monumental challenge to reframe the way an entire category thought about data erasure. But we stepped up to the plate, bringing to market a smart creative response that also challenged B2B creative ‘norms’.
Huge blank canvases represented the cleanliness, efficiency, and permanency of Blancco’s erasure techniques; a brighter, lighter future for the planet and a challenge for IT leaders that was completely resolved. A simple yet effective solution, celebrating the beauty of Blank.
Our ‘Blank Is…’ headline construct simply mounted onto these white spaces strategically tied this brave new world to the Blancco brand, while allowing us limitless ways to promote the many reasons its offering was better than the status quo.
The Execution
Practically, the campaign and its activations had to actively serve both awareness and demand streams with a content and media strategy optimised for both objectives.
We built awareness and emotional resonance between audience and brand with a memorable video that replayed their known frustrations with physical destruction. Wry humour and a stellar cast played a huge role in its success, not to mention a witty script!
From there, we served up the Blancco resolution with highly targeted paid media, social platforms, and propositional content, including eBooks and demos, taking audiences from awareness to purchase in a seamless flow.
The Results
Our targeted display activity outperformed target impressions in all key regions with over 7,500 hours total exposure time for Blancco creative.
The campaign drove over 2,000 visits to the Blancco site and generated 1,300+ verified leads for the sales team.
Across LinkedIn, within 2 months, we reached over 120,000 people with 5,500 click throughs to content and demos.
The campaign continues to generate results for Blancco, as well as building critical awareness of the issue and irrefutably connecting Blancco to the better alternative: software-based data erasure resolution.
7,500
Total hours exposure
1,300+
Verified leads
120K
Reach
