In the world’s safest country, the Japanese are very naive about all crimes and especially Cyber crime. They believe that cyber crime only happens in other countries, an understanding is that is highly dangerous.Norton, wanting to promote its latest antivirus product, therefore created a series of cyber criminals who across various media would surprise, spook and concern consumers into reappraising the importance of antivirus software.By creating a surprising ‘face’ to these crimes, using a previously ‘sugar coated’ celebrity, we drove awareness and importantly sales.

After 146 weeks as No.2, Norton regained the position as the No.1 selling brand in Japan and the campaign will also be rolled out across other markets in Asia.

We have used a very well-know and over exploited technique in Japan, where our TV screens are full of nice, sweet, celebrities and characters telling us nice and positive stories. So we chose one of the most preferred idols - so sweet and beloved, so kawaii as we say in Japan.

But unexpectedly, we transformed him into a real monster! Into a stalker, robber, etc.We built this message that the threat is everywhere and can from unexpected places and people. We surrounded the daily life of our consumers with scary messages… on OOH of Shibuya and electronic towns in Tokyo, with 3 TVCs explaining all major areas of cyber crimes, with twitter, banners, leaflet and massive retail presence in computer and electronic shops.

Our campaign truly engaged Japanese consumers into a world they had little inkling of. It changed both their perception and their behaviour, convincing them both of the seriousness of these crimes and to put their hands in their wallets to buy our premium and much safer products. After 3 years in the second position Norton became No.1 in Japan and our campaign will be used as a benchmark for the whole of Asia.And because nice stories need a nice ending, we even organized a massive PR campaign around the arrest of our cyber criminal celebrity.