Kaspersky is one of the largest cybersecurity brands in the world with sights set for growth in over 100 markets. With successes in the consumer category as the 5th largest global brand, they still faced many challenges in the B2B industry:

Perceived as a personal or small business Cybersecurity brand, not for enterprises unlike major brands like Microsoft, McAfee and Symantec.  Spontaneous brand awareness among enterprise significantly decreased from 18% (2018) to 13% (2019).  Their share of market in endpoint security decreased from 4.2% to 3.7% in 2019.  Furthermore, in 2019, though the Enterprise cybersecurity category grew 24% globally and was prepped for an equally significant growth in 2020, a global pandemic upturned economic markets the world over. This had immediate effects on Enterprise level IT software business decisions in many industries resulting in a major slowdown and reduced market growth by 17% YOY!

So in 2020 we set ourselves lofty goals of where we want to move towards:

Being seen as a trusted brand and solution provider for enterprise

Cybersecurity market experts and partners/resellers to recommending Kaspersky’s enterprise solutions based on quality and not discounting

Being in the same consideration mindset as our enterprise competitors: Cisco, CrowdStrike, Carbon Black as these providers started out as enterprise at-the-core.

And campaign goals of:

+30% YOY site tra􀃞c

+15% leads

To overcome these market and brand challenges we needed to try a whole new approach versus our usual tactics of only narrowly targeting IT lead intenders that hadn’t been working to drive significant results. We needed a new integrated strategy to build awareness and consideration for cybersecurity and the Kaspersky brand and kickstart a new pipeline leads for H2 2020 and leading into 2021 and get us back on track for growth for our Enterprise B2B solutions.

For Enterprise and SMB IT software and cybersecurity purchases:

An average of 7 decision makers are involved

76% of decision makers are not in security roles and 64% are C-Suite

Kaspersky has high awareness amongst IT leads but not C-Suite

Mix of rational and emotional cues is most effective for driving both credibility and action

Demonstrated expertise through content and thought leadership is the second most important factor in supplier selection

To reposition our brand and pick up the pace and scale of new leads we needed to:

Raise awareness of and trust in Kaspersky’s brand as an Enterprise solution by promoting our CREDIBILITY through our Enterprise level expertise and authority in the cybersecurity industry using content and thought leadership.

Target and engage a broader suite of C-suite decision makers throughout the exploration and consideration stages.

Tailor content messages by industry, company size and publisher partner focusing IT and tech-based messages for IT publishers and broader emotive brand messages for news and lifestyle environments.

We completed three levels of research to understand the challenges, interests and needs of our audience both historically and in this new post-pandemic world with new challenges never before faced at this scale. We:

Reviewed performance and engagement history of Kasperksy’s owned content library.

Consulted external trending topics and needs research at global and regional levels.

Conducted external interviews with sample groups of key decision makers

A bespoke collection of content including 26 articles and 5 videos were created across three themes to engage senior decision makers across all key departments and split by Enterprise and SMB audiences. Content included:

VISIONARY BUSINESS – Top Business Trends, Industry Specfic Challenge Trends

TECHNOLOGY – Rising Tech Trends, Challenges of Automation, Evolution of Machine Learning

CYBERSECURITY – Cyber Threats for Remote Workforces, Cybersecurity 2021 Predictions, Overcoming Barriers to Cybersecurity, The History of Ransom: From Kidnapping to Ransomware, Is Your Organisation Ready for Threat Intelligence?

Accompanying brand ads were created around broader personal interests of C-Suite like linking to football and calls to action to “Change your security game with Kaspersky’s Enterprise Security League” or with chess and “Making the First Move in Threat Intelligence”. Broader brand messages would allow us to connect with a wider audience and expand on our brand reception.  With a well-researched collection of content and ad messages to engage our audiences and leave them wanting more, we just needed a great media strategy to reach them!

We set out to overcome a declining trend for both the market and Kaspersky and to change market perception that Kaspersky wasn’t a viable Enterprise level cybersecurity solution.

We took Kaspersky’s Enterprise and brand messaging to a whole new level, building on their CREDIBILITY and VISIBILITY of Kaspersky’s Enterprise brand and products through:

Understanding the full suite of decision makers involved in the IT and cybersecurity purchase process and their interests, needs and media habits.

Tailoring content, ad messages and placements by audience, role, company type and media environment to maximise engagement across our newly expanded target audience.

Effectively partnering with the most trusted local and global IT industry and non-industry publishers for aligned brand values.

Results far exceeded expectations:

+9 million reach vs target of 5 million

300,000 content views vs target of 150,000

+47 YoY % additional site visits vs target of 30%

Over 3.5k companies engaged

More importantly, in a pandemic year where market growth was on a DOWNTURN, against an already lofty target of 15% growth of quality B2B leads YOY we delivered a 45% GROWTH showing that our campaign messaging clearly resonated with our core B2B audiences. Kaspersky was, needlessly to say, very happy and had this to say:

“This campaign was the first step to turning around our Enterprise Business and turning us in the right direction for future successes.  Success was driven by robust, data-driven planning, world-class expertise and thought leadership, all ampli_ed in the most relevant and authoritative media environments. WMG publishers played a crucial role in increasing Kaspersky Enterprise credibility and visibility within their trusted environments. We are very excited to expand on this winning strategy.”

Griff Leader, Global Head of Communications Planning, Kaspersky

This campaign set us up for a fantastic start to 2021 and for even bigger plans for growth!