Servers are not the most interesting pieces of kit. Even the people who choose and buy them find it difficult to get excited about yet another new model in a market that’s awash with them. So when Sun Microsystems launched their new x64, we knew we were going to have to do something special to get people to notice.
The x64 had plenty going for it, costing half the price, using a third of the power and delivering 1.5 times the performance of its closest competitors. But the really big thing about it was that it offered all of the same key benefits whilst only taking up a quarter of the space. In a world where everyone’s talking about speeds and feeds, this gave us an opportunity to do something dramatically different.
We realized that switching to x64s would give Data Centre Managers a lot more floor space to play with, so we gave them the chance to do just that with a specially designed board game. ‘How Surprisingly Spacious’ comprised of a Data Centre floor plan and a warehouse of fun items they could fill the extra space with ranging from sofas and pinball tables to hot tubs and even a grand piano! Each item was priced and labelled with a ‘fun factor’ and the challenge was to fill the data centre with as much fun as possible within a set time to win football tables and Scalextric sets. Backed up with a microsite carrying further information as well as an online version of the game, the packs were sent out to 1000 existing and potential Sun customers.
The site attracted over 3200 visitors during the campaign with over 900 people playing the game – a fantastic response rate.
Our website isn't vast, but if you'd like to find something quickly, maybe we can help.
Zola's our Rhodesian Ridgeback who cruises our barn from 9 to 5. We fitted her with a webcam to find out what she really gets up to.
See her view of the world at Flickr or follow her on her very own Twitter page.