Finding a Wolf in the Printer
In 2016, HP rolled out a series of cybersecurity innovations to its commercial printing line. The challenge was getting IT pros to consider their printing fleets as a legitimate security threat.
While not viewed as a high priority, the reality is that printers have been used as a back door in several high profile incidents.
Enter the Modern Day IT Pro
Through interviews and social research, we uncovered an entirely new audience for HP. The IT pro had evolved from that trope of a curmudgeon who rolls their eyes at employee tech issues, to a Millennial professional that was downright passionate about technology.
Millennial
Millennials were the first round of IT pros that grew up with technology and they were flocking to this careerpath. Given their tech savviness, they were being tapped to help make decisions on major tech purchases, even in low-level roles.
Empowered
This new generation wasn’t hiding behind an IT desk, they were ushering in a tech renaissance around the office. Doing everything from introducing productivity tools to getting the company on social media.
Fanboys
And one more thing. They loved geek culture: prestige television, comics, and gaming. One item they loved to dunk on was Hollywood’s absurd portrayal of cybersecurity: think movies like The Net & Swordfish.
The Idea
Create a cybersecurity thrill series detailing real-world printer vulnerabilities.
The twist? Every one of our printer hacks are 100% accurate. Featuring real code, and based on actual hacks on enterprise printer fleets. This was dramatic content made specifically for our IT pro audience, ripped right from the headlines.
How Strategy made sure the films landed…
Given that our audience was TV-loving and passionate IT pros, it was imperative that we dramatized real-life security risks on the printer.
To ensure we nailed the content series, Strategy folded HP's cybersecurity developer team into the creative process:
We leaned on them to explain real-life cases of printer breaches that were baked into the creative brief and became inspiration for the narrative.
We dialed them into creative briefings and creative check-ins.
They consulted on the actual production, ensuring Hollywood didn't get in the way of our portrayal of actual security threats.
We even had them author actual code that was shown in the dramatic series.
Results
Released in early 2017, the content series resulted in a 21 percent YoY growth in HP security-enabled printers. We also won a few awards.
The big win for me was seeing a printing competitor promoting a webinar about how the HP films showcase actual threats on the enterprise printer fleet. The Wolf had successfully entered the conversation among IT pros!