• by Aaron Baar , October 5, 2011

Webroot, the Internet security firm that has made a point of making its marketing more "fun" than its competitors, is at it again with a campaign for its new SecureAnywhere product that demonstrates how people feel about their security software in no uncertain terms. In a 30-second video advertisement, the company depicts a security industry focus group, asked by the moderator to "describe their computer security in a single word." What follows is a bleep-filled range of responses, some of which go on longer than one word. ("If you say it fast, it's one word," claims one attendee.)

After the tirades, on-screen text reads, "We get it," along with Webroot's logo and a direction to head to "SecurityYouWon'tHate.com."

"Through our research, we were able to tap into a [prevailing] emotion, which is 'Stop holding my computer hostage,'" Chris Benham, the company's chief demand officer, tells Marketing Daily. "Security should free me to do the things I want to do online."

The difference between Webroot's SecureAnywhere product and its competitors' offerings, Benham says, is that much of Webroot's security signatures and verifications are housed in the cloud rather than on a user's hard drive. That frees up the user's computer to accomplish more at faster speeds than other security software, he says.

"We've taken what used to be a large, heavy application and we've put all the heavy lifting in the cloud," Benham says. "Security should be better than the diseases we're repelling against, and that's not what we're hearing [about other products]."

In addition to the 30-second video commercial, the campaign from TDA Boulder in Boulder, Colo. includes a print and transit ads framed as an open letter to consumers. "On behalf of the entire computer industry, we're sorry," the ad reads. "More specifically, we're sorry for updates, updates for our updates, slowing your new computer down to a crawl, not actually doing anything, wasting your time, confusing you with pop-ups, taking up so much room on your hard drive, more updates, not playing well with most other programs you own, monopolizing your time, and a few other things we never told you about."

The campaign targets higher-income Gen Xers the company designates as "influential enthusiasts." The video will play on Web sites such as FunnyOrDie.com, WSJ.com and PCmag.com, while the print will run in magazines such as Discover, Wired, PCWorld, Popular Science, Popular Mechanics and The Week. The transit and out-of-home elements will appear in New York, Chicago, Minneapolis and Boston. The company will also be using its Facebook and Twitter accounts (as well as these of its employees) to spread the message through social media, Benham says.