• by Aaron Baar , December 1, 2010

There are generally two ways to go about selling Internet security software to people: scaring them about the potential threats on the Internet or amusing them. In marketing its new Titanium product, Trend Micro is choosing the latter.

The Cupertino, Calif. company has just launched an Internet-based video game, "Titanium Power Up," that challenges the common perceptions of Internet security software through humor and fun. Taking cues from games such as "Super Mario Bros." and "Pitfall," the game positions the player as a hero taking on those challenges.

Playing the game, consumers use their computer's keyboard space bar and arrow keys to navigate different levels. The end of each level features a "boss" that represents one of several "pain-points" consumers have cited about security software (such as slowing a computer processing speed to a crawl or featuring too many pop-ups) that they must defeat to move on. One boss, for instance, is called "The Gobbler," who takes up valuable processing resources to run the security software.

"It's very metaphoric about security software," Natalie Severino, director of consumer product marketing at Trend Micro, tells Marketing Daily. "We set up the bad guys to represent [consumer-cited] 'pain points' and they get to be the hero that overcomes them."

The game, which launched online this week, supplements an advertising campaign the company launched earlier this year, positioning its Titanium Maximum Security product as "security that won't slow you down," Severino says. The game is another way to become more interactive with consumers.

"This is something we felt would be complementary to that campaign and more engaging than [traditional] advertising," she says. Players can easily communicate their scores via Facebook and Twitter.

In addition to playing the game, Trend Micro has also set up a sweepstakes tied to the game, with daily prizes of a one-year subscription to the Titanium Maximum Security product and a grand prize of a dream computer system, which includes a Toshiba laptop, Bose Speakers and a 27-inch flat-panel monitor.