There are certain topics that can be difficult to make “fresh.” IT security is one of them.

So when Hostway finished a survey on how its customers were approaching IT security, I wanted to share the results in a way that would grab customers’ attention. The easiest way to do that? Connect the information with something people are already interested in.

Connecting Our Product with Pop Culture

 
It was October 2012, and Halloween was, of course, just around the corner. But the more pressing date on people’s minds was October 14, when a new season of the popular AMC series The Walking Dead would start.

Now, I’ve never been a believer in being cute for cute’s sake, but we saw something different here. There were some pretty strong parallels between protecting yourself from zombie attacks and protecting yourself from IT breaches. We had an opportunity to try something fun.

Working Outside Our Corporate Comfort Zone

 
 
 
A friend pointed me toward a local illustrator (Austin Rogers – find him at www.redbeardcomics.com) who did a bang-up job bringing the story to life. Then our web designer made it interactive, with clickable skull and crossbone icons throughout that revealed survey results as the story unfolded.

Enjoying the Payoff

 
The piece was a huge hit with the team, our customers, and the content marketing community (see the write-up we got on Top Rank Blog). It became one of the “bricks” in our content marketing campaign and a valuable sales tool for our front line.

So now, when a topic seems boring, I ask myself, “Is it really the topic that’s boring, or is it just the story we’ve been using to tell it?”

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