Tech and IT decision makers subscribe to a range of tech magazines. We had to take over the magazine cover to intrigue them to read the editorial content inside and go to the Private Cloud landing page.

The key objectives were to increase awareness and consideration of Microsoft’s Private Cloud Solutions and increase the number of visitors to the Private Cloud landing page.

Our insight was that predicting the future is hard but being ready for it isn’t with Microsoft’s Private Cloud.

To show how hard it is to predict the future we took poignant quotes from cult sci-fi novels like '1984,' 2001: A Space Odyssey, The War of the Worlds and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Each quote was an author’s prediction of the future – a prediction that clearly hasn’t come true.

Each quote was typographically visualised to appeal to the intellect and interests of these IT managers.

Most cover wraps on these tech magazines feature rather uninspiring shots of grey computer hardware. What we created was something completely different that would stop these key decision makers in their tracks.

When the cover was published in June 2012 the site received a huge spike in traffic: 21% of the year’s visits (almost twice as many visits as any other month).