Telenor is one of Sweden’s biggest telecom companies. As a big debate about cybersecurity has risen all around the world - with the recent Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal and Russia meddling with the US election in the public eye - Telenor was looking for new ways stand out in the saturated market and communicate that they care about their customers’ cybersecurity.

We found the perfect opportunity to earn them a reputation when one of the world’s most talked-about rappers, Kanye West, met president Donald Trump at the White House. Dressed in a Make America Great Again-cap, the rapper accidentally showed the journalists of the world his iPhone passcode. The code turned out to be the least safe code one possibly could have - the QWERTY of phone passcodes; 000000. This, of course, turned into big news all over the world.

Telenor introduced MakePasscodesGreatAgain.com. A site generating passcodes that are stronger than Mr. West’s (which isn’t hard, but still really important).

Within hours after the passcode mishap, we had created a site that generated random 6-digit numbers. The site name and design was a response to the meeting and the headwear.

By joining the ongoing debate about cybersecurity and adding on to the headlines about Kanye’s passcode, we found an opportunity for Telenor to talk about their role in making Swedes aware about cybersecurity.

The site was seeded to media through press releases and on Telenor’s own social media channels.

We were looking at three strategic parameters; consumer insights, cultural relevance and brand. The balance between these makes a creative opportunity to stand out and put the Telenor into a context which people can relate to.

Consumer insights: Big scandals such as Russia meddling with the US election and Cambridge Analytica sparked a big cybersecurity debate around the world. As a result, people started to protect their computers, but forgot their phones.

Cultural relevance: Both West and Trump have been much-disputed in Sweden. The passcode mishap did not only become headline news in the US, but quickly spread to Sweden. By using social media monitoring tools, we could see that the trend was big enough to respond to.

Brand: As a telecom provider, Telenor could add a credible perspective to the cybersecurity debate. Their target audience are “urban careerists”, with key interests in international politics and pop culture.

We needed to make sure that the story was trending in Sweden in order to act. With a limited team and just one developer, we had to work efficiently once the trend spiked. Within 48 hours after the mishap, just in time for Swedish media to have picked the story up, we had developed the site, sent press releases and created social media posts.

Since phone security was the center of the campaign, we developed the site mobile-first. And to spread the word, we made organic and sponsored social posts. The posts focused on getting people into the site and generate their own passcodes.

The goal was to reach the target audience; urban careerists in Sweden. Since the media budget was very limited, we tried to pinpoint the audience when targeting the sponsored posts. Making sure that - rather than reaching the most people - we reached the right people.

The site got 1,4 million impressions, with a total reach of 1 million people. In a country of 10 million people. 85 % of the site visitors were Swedish, meaning that we succeeded to focus the campaign to the right audience. 100 % of the visitors generated at least one passcode for their phones and over 75% of them were visiting the site on their phones. Within 24 hours, the site had more than 6000 generated passcodes.

The site was mentioned and written about all over the world, on five different continents, from Japan to Brazil. It became a story on Sweden’s biggest music site and was AdAge’s Pick of the day.