| Title | TENGRANDISBURIEDHERE.COM |
| Brand | MICROSOFT |
| Product / Service | INTERNET EXPLORER 8 |
| Category | D04. Use of digital in a promotional campaign |
| Entrant | WUNDERMAN Sydney, AUSTRALIA |
| Entrant Company: | WUNDERMAN Sydney, AUSTRALIA |
| DM/Advertising Agency: | WUNDERMAN Sydney, AUSTRALIA |
Credits | |
| Name | Company | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Matt Batten | Wunderman | Creative Director |
| Jason Stubbs | Wunderman | Head of Copy |
| Theodora Gerakiteys | Wunderman | Copywriter |
| Matt Batten | Wunderman | Art Director |
| Anu Mohan | Wunderman | Planner |
| Anu Mohan | Wunderman | Account Manager |
| Jo Durant | Wunderman | Digital Producer |
| Terry Hibbert | Wunderman | Devigner |
| James Britt | Wunderman | Devigner |
| Gianpaolo Carraro | Microsoft | Senior Director |
| Deeps De Silva | Microsoft | Client Executive |
| Karo Esmaili | Microsoft | Client Executive |
Microsoft’s share in the browser market in Australia had declined. The launch of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 was a chance to arrest this trend. New Microsoft products typically meet cynicism and criticism. Users of competing products (Safari and Firefox) are highly brand loyal, and highly critical of Microsoft. Called ‘Fanboys’, they are vocal in their anti-Microsoft sentiment, so simply having a marketing presence could attract negative opinion and comment of the Microsoft brand. We had to give an online presence to Internet Explorer 8, give a voice to users of IE8 and create a social buzz.
The cryptic clues led players to search for answers on hundreds of websites. It even led players offline into bookstores to find a certain word on a certain page in a certain book. By solving cryptic clues, players had to deduce they were looking for a secret URL comprised of four key words – www.FasterSaferPrivateBetter.com – the attributes of the product. Once discovered, they had to crack the password. The first person in won $10,000.
Microsoft wanted to achieve 5,000 downloads of IE8 in Australia and generate a social presence amongst this audience to spread the word and combat the Fanboy influence. But they only had AU$15,000 to do it. We created a world first by burying two-thirds of that budget on the internet, then we challenged people to find it. Consumers downloaded Internet Explorer 8, followed @TenGrand on Twitter for daily clues, then searched for the hidden money using the product. Our campaign existed solely in social media. It was a game on the world's largest playing field – the internet.
Over 90,000 visitors to www.tengrandisburiedhere.com Over 5,000 followers on Twitter Whirlpool.net, the world’s largest IT blogs, created a forum that generated nearly 5,000 comments on more than 150 pages. Even though the competition was only open to Australian residents, blogs began in UK, USA and Europe to solve the clues. Over 15,000 Australian downloads of IE8 (more than 300% of target) with many more around the world. The competition lasted 63 days and 74 clues, with players using the product for several hours every single day for two months All this without spending a single cent on paid media.