Due to the success of our previous campaigns, we knew it was time to push beyond early adopters and capture the imagination of more consumers by continuing to focus on the emotional truth that people's stuff — be it their work, their art or their family photos — is personal and precious.

We also knew that Maxtor's new OneTouch III product line, set to launch smack in the middle of the busy holiday buying season, presented a perfect opportunity to catch people's attention when they might be thinking about enhancing their digital lives.

With those things in mind, and the knowledge that we would be trying to reach more people than ever without extending our budget, we saw an opportunity to do something different and stand out among the crowded field of holiday hucksters.

idea
Once we understood the opportunity before us, we developed two clear goals:

• Get new consumers interested in and educated about the product category
• Defend a premium price by creating affinity with the Maxtor brand as warm, accessible and non-techy

With these goals set, we quickly realized that our existing premise — the value of Maxtor drives is their ability to ensure you never lose the things that matter most — could be extended to achieve them.

In fact, we decided to hit that message more directly than we ever had before by letting people know that if they did not back up their data, they were at risk of losing their stuff, which would make them a total loser. We felt this direct-yet-cheeky approach would play perfectly to the sense of humor of our Gen X and Gen Y targets. If we really struck a chord, we also would create a sense of fun that would draw them in and get them to pass along the ads to their friends — extending our reach without busting our budget.

execution
Our Loser Patrol hit the streets of New York City the day after Thanksgiving, getting unbranded "Are you a loser?" posters up to coincide with the holiday shopping rush. They also swarmed around electronics stores handing out stickers that posed the same question.

Instead of relying on people who saw the posters and stickers to remember a Web address, we put a toll-free number (877-HeyLoser) on the posters so the curious could extend their experience immediately via cell phone. Once on the "loser hotline", potential losers could take a quick personality test that would help them answer the nagging question that thousands of Americans wake up and ask themselves every day, "Am I a loser?"

After just four quick questions, sponsored by their "friends at Maxtor," our potential losers learned their fate and were reminded that an easy way to avoid being a loser is to back up their stuff to a Maxtor OneTouch III.

The posters and 800 number, along with unbranded "Are you a loser?" ads online and in the New York edition of The Onion, also invited consumers to visit our Web site, loserloserloser.com. There, they could take an in-depth (and slightly ridiculous) personality test to find out if they were a loser, read their "Loserscope," play an interactive game to get a loser off the couch and get words of wisdom from our very own Perdy, an advice columnist for losers. Visitors were exposed to a variety of Maxtor ads on every page too and given multiple opportunities to pass the site along to their friends.

Once consumers were exposed to our non-branded loser campaign, we transitioned to the branded portion of the project, starting with Maxtor's in-store appearances. Teams of Maxtor employees — as well as the stores' own sales teams — could be found in their loser gear. They were surrounded by branded "Don't be a loser" posters, branded giveaways of Loser T-shirts, gloves and buttons and branded "Don't be a loser" shelf displays, as well as DJ Alex English spinning music off of a OneTouch III drive that was then given away to a raffle winner each day.

In a national push, print and online ads ran in The Onion, MacWorld Magazine, CNet, and other relevant sites and magazines. Headlines like "My Mom is a Loser" and "I Admit it. I'm a Loser" played off of vibrant, engaging imagery designed to connect Maxtor's drives directly to people's lives.

We were even able to take our campaign overseas with only minor tweaks for cultural suitability. Across Europe — from Sweden and Holland to Germany, France and Italy — our lovable losers admitted on airport billboards, in print ads, and on a product microsite that they had lost their music and should have backed up to a Maxtor OneTouch III.

We also brought the Loser campaign to Maxtor's biggest trade show appearances of the year: CES in Las Vegas and MacWorld Expo in San Francisco. Striking booth graphics, a roving billboard and giveaways kept booth traffic high and continued to let potential losers everywhere know that backing up to a Maxtor drive is a surefire way to avoid losing their stuff.

Finally, we brought our messaging home with a tag line that will live on past the Loser campaign — Good Thinking. Those two simple words go right to the heart of why someone would use a Maxtor drive (because backing up your stuff, and not being a loser, is Good Thinking). They also speak to the main difference between Maxtor and the competition: Maxtor fills every drive with tons of Good Thinking, like automated backup and System Rollback.

influence
From day one in New York, the campaign was a hit. It’s now considered Maxtor's most successful consumer marketing campaign.

Even with limited promotion, our unbranded/viral components attracted people from all around the world. A good portion of those Internet hits came from our non-branded ad on The Onion, which generated an impressive click-through-rate of 2.27 percent. Many others found their way to the site via unsolicited blog postings and the pass-along features on the site itself — making loserloserloser.com a true viral success.

Our traditional marketing efforts were equally well received. Maxtor's in-store events were smashing achievements, with thousands of people picking up Maxtor-branded paraphernalia at each store and the retail employees thoroughly enjoying their new Loser gear. As anyone who does point-of-purchase marketing knows, one benchmark of a true accomplishment is the complete implementation of a program at the store level. All too often, promos gather dust in the back rooms of the stores.

Maxtor was even able to parlay the success of those initial in-store events into greater presence at other retailers, who eagerly embraced the program. So, even the point-of-sale effort turned out to be triumph.

Maxtor's trade show events also were a breakaway victory, with consumers filling the booth to get their hands on the loot — and many commenting on how much they enjoyed the Loser creative angle.

The same can be said for the Loser advertising. The striking imagery — whether a young man hiding himself behind a turtleneck and ridiculous sunglasses or a mom who's clearly embarrassed by losing her child's vacation photos — has drawn praise all around. And the direct, personal tone of the ads clearly has resonated with a wide-variety of audiences, extending Maxtor's reach into the lucrative consumer market.

All in all, combining unbranded viral elements with striking, highly personal creative aspects that highlighted the role Maxtor's storage solutions play in people's lives turned out to be exactly what we thought it would be: Good Thinking.