We partnered with a digital comedy production group to develop an episode of “Computer Show” featuring HP’s PageWide technology. This video is a parody of a real technology show, Computer Chronicles, which ran in the U.S. on PBS around 1983.

In “Computer Show,” everything, besides the guests, is from the 80s, including host Gary Fabert. His understanding of technology and popular culture stop at 1983. The set, wardrobe, music, and production are based on the 80s, not quite the golden age for technology programming. The guests, however, are actual HP employees from present day—visiting to explain and demonstrate PageWide.

The show's humor is built on the awkwardness and inflated ego of the host, Gary Fabert, as he asks irrelevant and outdated questions to his guests, his closest point of reference is a dot matrix printer. “Computer Show” provided the perfect platform to showcase HP’s innovation compared to its out-of-date competitors.

HP’s goal is to shape B2B marketing to be more personal and relevant to the authentic culture of their tech centric audience.

Marketing for B2B printing can be stale. Few are on the edge of their seats to learn about printing advancements. Our challenge was to break the indifference with genuine entertainment.

“Computer Show” was developed as entertainment for a niche audience before HP decided to use the format to create a new kind of branded content. The absurdist tone taking on the nostalgia of 1980’s technology programming was a perfect way to surprise tech industry audiences of all ages.

Our eight-week production timeline included story development, script, and casting. From a one-day shoot, we produced fifteen, thirty, and sixty second teasers and a six minute episode. The teasers and trailer were promoted through paid media on HP's social channels.

“Computer Show” broke multiple industry social benchmarks and exceeded engagement goals across desktop, mobile, and social channels. Facebook had a 140% higher view rate and two times the completion rate compared to other video concepts for the PageWide campaign. The average percentage watched for desktop on Facebook was 40%, which is very strong compared to the industry average of 12%-20%.

The “Computer Show” videos performed extremely well on Twitter with a 41% view rate, nearly two times the tech video benchmark, and a $0.02 CPV. The videos had a 29% mobile view rate on YouTube compared to the benchmark of 18%. The "Big Hair, Bigger Egos” “Computer Show” LinkedIn post exceeded performance at 0.64% CTR and 0.75% engagement rate, compared to benchmark at 0.35% CTR and 0.46% engagement rate. The episode also received press coverage from Adweek, The Next Web, and The Drum.