Adobe Acrobat has exceptionally high unaided brand awareness and is the category leader in PDFs. However, much fewer audiences know that Acrobat is more than a static file format, as the brand lags behind competitor associations with collaboration and e-signatures.

Our strategic challenge was to continue growth momentum and drive new users into Acrobat ecosystem by supporting top of funnel growth while improving audience interest and awareness of all that Acrobat can do. With this influencer program, our objective was to leverage an engaging and authentic influencer's story as a social layer to the already successful "Acrobat's got it" campaign to inspire new audiences to try Acrobat.

Thinking like an entertainment company and not a software brand, we cast a true entertainer who could help concept and star in the content as well as relate to small business owners. Hasan Minhaj is a small business owner himself (and real Acrobat customer) and delivers an entertaining campaign authentic to Minhaj’s personality and comedy.

The launch film, “Fresh Scallops,” introduces Minhaj as the new spokesperson with a self-referential reenactment of using Adobe Acrobat to sign a contract to make an ad for Acrobat – nodding to the ubiquity of PDFs and Acrobat’s leadership.

After e-signing as Adobe’s new spokesperson, the centerpiece film, “I Love You, Acrobat,” shows Minhaj as a man on a mission: to liberate people from paperwork drudgery and set them free with Acrobat.

Concluding the campaign, “The Hasan Story” dives into Minhaj’s life out of character and how he and his partners use Acrobat to collaborate.

Our target audience is entrepreneurs (1-9 employees) and working professionals (10-99 company size). Businesses with under 100 employees account for 98% of businesses in America and represent a wide variety of demographics and service-based industries.

Adobe research states 52% say improving productivity and efficiency is their greatest challenge while 39% state managing document files is a top business need. They are time, resource, and budget constrained.

When speaking to B2B audiences, most campaigns fail because they lack strategic depth and memorability. B2B and productivity software advertising typically lacks the elements that build brand recognition: a strong story arc, characters, soundtrack, emotion, and persuasive techniques.

Our approach was to find a new, effective model for B2B influencer work – a model that would challenge the conventions of B2B and bring a new level of engagement and relatability with our audience.

A mix of highly produced hero videos and lo-fi social-first content rolled out in a strategic cadence to tell a cohesive story on Acrobat and Minhaj’s owned channels, leveraging the comedian’s 3M reach as well as Adobe’s broad social ecosystem. To amplify the launch of the campaign, in addition to social media the first film, “Fresh Scallops,” also aired on broadcast TV.

All along the way, social-first short-form content like on-set B-roll, overt physical comedy and bloopers, videos using trending audio, and zoomed-in product feature highlights for small screens supplemental marquee videos.

Additional variations of core campaign content were adjusted for more tactical channels across mid- and lower-funnel audiences to capture qualified prospects and engage existing customers.

The majority of content drove audiences to a customized "Acrobat's Got It" landing page where visitors could explore Acrobat features, revisit the Hasan Minhaj ads, and start their free trial.

The campaign has proven to successfully drive business impact, generating record-breaking social reach and interactions plus higher than usual traffic velocity and website engagement rates, all via social:

- 29M+ interactions across social channels

- 99% positive sentiment from audiences

- 5x the anticipated organic influencer performance (nearly 9M interactions to date)

- Acrobat’s Instagram engagement rate increased 202% during the campaign launch month (double the average engagement rate of B2B industry peers)

- Most positive neuro-testing results of the year by a leading industry researcher

- Near 10% increase in Acrobat subscriber growth QoQ (especially remarkable during disengaged summer months)

The expansive reach and engagement has also provided a sizeable audience for additional nurture and retargeting campaign opportunities to influence conversion.