HPI wanted to make a big splash at Black hat 2016. If you don’t know Black hat is the largest and most prestigious computer security conference in the world. Hackers and computer security specialist from around the world gather to compare notes and… well, to tell you the truth, I have no idea what they do. I still have a VCR that constantly blinks 12:00… so, yeah. Anyway, the big problem for HPI is, printer security, though important, is far from sexy and not likely to generate much traffic on the convention floor.
Gyro proposed ditching the standard flashy booth and suggested a different presence. We constructed a cool lounge just outside the main speaking areas, loaded it with charging stations and pumped up a twitter based contest/forum named #SecureMyUpgrade. #SMU was basically a contest on twitter. Conventioneers submitted requests via twitter on how to upgrade their experience while attending the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas. Excursions, spa trips, shopping, shows… all kinds of upgrades were gifted by HPI and we were there to shoot and edit the experiences as they happened. We created a buzz with billboards, signage, in room tv animated promos, even #SMU custom decked out limos. Each day we shot, edited and posted videos to twitter to build excitement for the promotion. We never knew what we were shooting in advance and had to do some fancy phone work to secure location releases and city permits on the spot, but we planned it out well and had many contacts ready to help at a moments notice. We pre-produced animated opens, music and graphics and set up an edit room in our HPI command center so we could get quick client approval on our videos. We hired local drivers to run data between our crews all across Vegas to our editor. It was a crazy hectic 5 days, but the results were off the charts.
Over 1400 #SecureMyUpdrade mentions, and over 600 entries. Social media was responsible for driving 68% of all traffic to the HPI website during the campaign and social video drove the highest amount of awareness and engagement of any social post type. We got people talking about printer security in an unexpected way. We are proud of our work on this campaign and are happy that this is one story that will not “stay in Vegas”.