Stonesoft: security software provider sees success at Black Hat
Network security provider Stonesoft helps IT departments simplify complex security environments. At the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas, Stonesoft planned to interact with qualified new leads, while further engaging in the network security community. More than 6,000 people attend the conference.
A number of factors caused Stonesoft to get a late start on planning for Black Hat, so it needed a quickly developed marketing strategy to take full advantage of the conference.. They turned to Arketi Group to help drive booth traffic and generate leads.
DOWNLOAD A PDF OF THIS CASE STUDYHOW WE DID IT
Since the conference was being held in Las Vegas, activities to drive traffic needed to break through a lot of noise. As the initial step, we came up with the theme Simplified, which played off Stonesoft’s tagline, Network Security Simplified.
Arketi then brainstormed giveaways that complemented the theme and would draw attention, including:
- Free limo rides between the airport and conference venue to make attendees’ trips easier and more enjoyable
- Raffles for the much anticipated new iPad, casino coins and a one-year subscription to Stonesoft’s Virtual IPS solution.
- Sponsoring the Black Hat “pub crawl” and two “Hack the Lab” sessions.
Stonesoft’s bar had a fiesta theme, complete with a blue margarita specialty drink, a black hat piñata full of mints, plastic bottles of tequila, festive lights and music. The two, three-hour “Hack the Lab” events allowed qualified attendees to try their hand at hacking into a simulated environment using the latest hacker techniques.
To promote these activities, we used both on-site and email marketing. We included security information in Black Hat’s Crawl email and sent emails to its database driving prospects to a fiesta-themed landing page highlighting the “pub crawl,” the limo giveaway, the “Hack the Lab” events and the IPS software giveaway.
We used a marketing cloud tool to manage and track these online promotions, which provided visibility into opens, clicks and landing page form completions.
Sales pipeline generated by campaign
New prospects identified
Campaign executed in ultra-short time
THE RESULTS WE ACHIEVED
The results of Black Hat exceeded expectations. The landing page received nearly 1,400 total views, and more than 380 unique leads were scanned into Stonesoft’s lead retrieval device during the event. Stonesoft representatives made more than 500 unique contacts and sales opportunities from the event totaled approximately $750,000.
RECOGNITION In addition to these business results, this campaign earned the Public Relations Society of America Phoenix Award for Business-to-Business Technology Marketing.
“Arketi is developing marketing programs that drive our sales opportunities which makes them a critical extension of the Stonesoft marketing team.” Heather Pritchett, Director of Marketing, STONESOFT |  |
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