Case Studies: Micro Focus - Visual Studio product launch - Las Vegas and Bangalore

“We're having some great feedback
from Microsoft and also internally”

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional is “the essential tool for performing basic development tasks”. It simplifies the creation, debugging, and deployment of applications on a variety of platforms including SharePoint and the Cloud. On 12 April 2010 Microsoft launched Visual Studio 2010 simultaneously at the Bellagio resort in Las Vegas and in Bangalore.

Our client, Micro Focus was a platinum partner at the launch events, uniquely showcasing four new software products. Cogent designed and implemented their extensive range of promotional material including a micro-site, exhibition graphics, animated videos, a brochure and white papers, on-line advertising e-mail blasts etc. in a period of just four weeks from brief to full delivery
(ad campaign delivered in two weeks, stand design in three weeks) .

These animated videos are a feature of the Exhibition Stands and the Micro Site

Our approach
Because the events and the products are targeted at developers rather than CEOs we were briefed to take a less corporate approach and connect with a younger and more diverse audience. A principle objective was to create a unique, highly recognisable and consistent look and feel for the campaign as it would be spread across many types of media. Also because we were working to very tight deadlines and needed to arrive at a winning and doable solution very quickly.

The creative process 
As always we presented a choice of three concept routes and the Micro Focus team selected a mix of two ideas. We then worked very closely with the team to develop the messaging and story boards for the animated videos.

On-line awareness campaign
This was our most urgent deadline - we had 5 working days to design and produce a set of 11 ad formats for 16 leading developer sites. The animated ads included peel backs and dog ears (a new attention grabbing format). Ads were artworked using placeholder photography and replaced with the actual shots the day after the shoot.

Video shoot and stills photography and animated movie production
We hired an ex ITV colleague to organise and co-ordinate; casting, model and studio hire, separate video and stills photographers, props etc. Cogent then directed the video on the day with a Micro Focus team member on hand to ensure we did not miss anything from the rapidly evolving script. The video was digitised and then edited by Cogent’s in house team. Cogent produced the illustrations and animations and then merged live action with the animation using After Effects and Flash. The animated movies were produced and in high resolution for the exhibition stand 40” plasmas and at a much lower res for the web.

Micro-Site
As per our brief the site is very different from the new Micro Focus corporate site ( which Cogent has also designed in partnership with Micro Focus in house team in Newbury and  Bulgaria) The site features the animated videos which point out the product benefits and a very simple and compelling fashion. The site also has links to the brochure and product sheets and videos.

Exhibition Design - Las Vegas and Bangalore
The Las Vegas launch was held at the famous Bellagio Resort and Cogent worked with the Micro Focus team and Las Vegas based stand contractor Freeman. Because of tight deadlines Cogent proposed a design based on an existing open sided 20’ square’ Freeman stand which was modified to our specification. Overall project management was by Micro Focus and Cogent provided a set of artwork for the large scale graphic panels.

For Bangalore the stand was specified by Micro Focus using a local stand designer and builder. Cogent provided a similar graphics package to that used in the US.

CD Give Away
This is based on the Micro-Site (running though the users browser) and has all the of the resources included on the CD  rather than on-line.

Brochure
Although Micro Focus does not produce much printed material, preferring to use PDFs and on-line distribution, it was felt that a hard copy brochure was appropriate for an event as a point of contact and a giveaway.  Our brochure continues the strong visual theme and was digitally printed in the UK to enable better quality control.

Other items included:  Leaflets, a Competition, and a Questionnaire.