Amidst Kaspersky Lab’s business landscape are the escalating geopolitical issues that have impacted its global operations. At the time, Kaspersky had just undergone a significant rebrand and was about to launch its new consumer products.
This case study discusses how Kaspersky navigated this landscape, increasing revenue and enhancing brand awareness amidst rebranding as it partnered with digital marketing agency JOLT Digital.
The Challenge
Against the backdrop of geopolitical predicaments affecting operations in the Western markets, Kaspersky was immersed in the pressure of increasing revenues in Southeast Asia (SEA) and Greater China. Kaspersky marks the region with the highest business potential, spanning the markets of the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
Strategies for revenue impact needed to be implemented fast, especially during the second half of 2023, covering sales periods such as Back to School, 11/11, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, and New Year.
Additionally, Kaspersky’s brand awareness was relatively low due to the rebrand, posing a problem for the company as it planned to launch a new suite of subscription products. It also needed to compete with key regional players, including Norton, Trend Micro, Avast, and McAfee.
The Objectives
Kaspersky aims to increase revenue through higher conversion while maintaining a positive return on ad spend (ROAS). It aspires to capture new audiences with higher purchase intent, ensure optimal budget for maximum ROAS, and enhance overall campaign effectiveness.
Kaspersky’s key goals include:
- Uncovering audience insights through the Global Web Index to identify trends that Kaspersky can apply to its strategic planning
- Understanding potential months where spending can be capitalised to guarantee higher impact in more competitive months
- Identifying the most optimised budget allocations using JOLT’s proprietary technology, J-CAL, a scientific approach to media planning
The Solutions
Working with JOLT Digital, Kaspersky harnessed the abilities of the J-CAL proprietary data analytics tool, to optimise its budget and media mix based on scientific data, enhancing return on investment. JOLT also collaborated with GWI, a market research company that provides insights on specific users of cybersecurity services.
With GWI, JOLT found that users in the region spend more than 3 hours using their mobiles daily, specifically to explore Meta and TikTok. Additionally, they learn about new brands through search engines and social media ads, relying on consumer reviews and product websites to research them. Brands that offer coupons and discounts increase their chances for their products to be purchased.
Based on the insights, Kaspersky and JOLT sought digital channels and chose the video and static formats, identified as the formats that would efficiently reach the target audience.
JOLT then moved to the two stages of budgeting. Leveraging both companies’ expertise, the budgets were allocated to individual markets according to past performance and target return on ad spend. J-CAL was then employed, which recommended the final budget allocation that consists of 30% for search, 85% of the remaining 70% for social and 15% for display.
The Result
Through the collaboration, Kaspersky saw an 85% improvement in quarter-on-quarter revenue in SEA, with the click-through rate recorded as high at 3.51%. Meanwhile, the company observed a 138% improvement in revenue in Greater China, surpassing its H2 target by 10%. There was also an increase in month-on-month ROAS by an average of 8%.
