Digital brochure spotlights a widespread workplace security risk

Content marketers know that sponsored surveys are a great way to get attention and generate leads. These were among the objectives of a survey launched by Spider Oak, which operates in the data privacy and encryption space. The effort’s success has won Spider Oak and its communications agency, INK, first place in the “Use of Visual Design” category in PR Daily’s 2017 Digital PR & Social Media Awards.

In 2016, Spider Oak introduced a new enterprise chat tool designed to compete with the likes of Slack, Hipchat and Skype. Strong security is one of the product’s strengths, but security wasn’t high on organizations’ list of priorities when it came to employee-facing chat. A survey to demonstrate just how pervasive the problem is made perfect sense. 

Ensuring the results grabbed attention was another matter. Rather than the typical press releases and media pitches, Spider Oak’s communications agency, INK, shared the results in a format that would span the wide screens with which most people would view the document. 

INK employed data visualization to show the results, accompanied by short bursts of text. The visually arresting document was distributed primarily to an email list of leads and targets. (Spider Oak does not collect customer information, consistent with its commitment to privacy.) The document opened doors to top-tier tech media and found an audience that shared it via social media. 

Congratulations to Caitlin New, Emily Grossman, Ryan Riggins and Madison Scullin for demonstrating the creative potential in a document designed for PDF.