Turning a cybersecurity RFP into 5 minutes of genuine engagement
A mobile-first gamified campaign for Microsoft Defender, delivered in partnership with Takeaway Reality
2023
Campaign delivery, ongoing supplier relationship
Digital Marketing / Enterprise Software
Starting position
Starting position
- A few seconds
Typical ad interaction time
Standard display/video ads rarely hold attention much longer
- Standard marketing collateral
Way to explain Defender + Microsoft 365 together
No interactive format connecting the security product to the wider suite
- Low
Audience engagement with cybersecurity messaging
Cybersecurity education typically reads as dry or technical to non-technical audiences
- 0
Existing gamified campaigns for this product line
Microsoft ran an open RFP because no comparable format existed internally
Market size
Mobile-first Microsoft 365 / Defender target segment
Reach of the campaign's target audience
Approx. budget
50,000 – 199,999 €
Budget breakdown
Budget bucket per Clutch.co project cost category. Exact figures under NDA.
RFP to launch, then extended partnership
Single campaign, ongoing supplier relationship
- 1
Phase 1
RFP response and gamification strategy definition
- 2
Phase 2
Prototype and target-demographic testing group
- 3
Phase 3
Azure build and 150+ SCRUM iterations
- 4
Phase 4
Launch and adaptation for the Best Buy partnership
Making cybersecurity education actually hold attention
Microsoft needed a way to market Microsoft Defender that would make people genuinely engage with cybersecurity concepts and the wider Microsoft 365 suite, not just glance past another ad. The brief came through an open RFP because nothing like it existed in Microsoft's marketing toolkit yet.
Standard ad formats rarely hold user attention past a few seconds
Cybersecurity messaging typically reads as dry or overly technical to a general audience
The format needed to promote Defender while also teaching how it connects to the rest of Microsoft 365
The primary audience skewed toward users who don't consider themselves "gamers"
A mobile-first matching game, not an ad
We built a gamified experience where cybersecurity quizzes replace the usual reward-ad interruptions in mobile games: correct answers earn power-ups, questions get progressively harder, and Microsoft 365 app icons double as interactive game elements. The whole experience was built on Azure and shaped through a testing group drawn from the actual target demographic.
Progressive quiz-based gameplay
Cybersecurity questions unlock power-ups and get harder as players progress, turning education into the game's core loop.
Branded Microsoft 365 integration
Word, PowerPoint, Excel and other app icons are functional game elements, not decoration, tying the game to the wider product suite.
Rotating tips + Defender messaging
In-game UI rotates Microsoft 365 tips alongside Defender messaging without interrupting gameplay.
Demographic-led testing
A dedicated testing group of the target audience shaped difficulty, UI and pacing across 150+ iterations.
How the campaign format changed
The campaign moved from a standard ad brief into a reusable, gamified product that outlived its original launch.
Ad format
Before
Standard display/video ad
After
Mobile-first matching game
Users opt in to interact instead of skipping past a message.
Cybersecurity messaging
Before
Standard marketing collateral
After
Progressive quiz gameplay
Learning happens as a side effect of playing, not as a lecture.
Delivery infrastructure
Before
N/A
After
Built natively on Azure
Integrates directly with Microsoft's own cloud ecosystem and scales on demand.
Campaign lifespan
Before
Single-use launch asset
After
Reused for a Best Buy / Microsoft 365 partnership
A mobile-first, well-tested format pays off beyond the first launch.
From one RFP to a reused, long-term Microsoft partnership
≈ 60x
average engagement time vs. a typical few-second ad interaction
Extended to a second partner (Best Buy)
same format reused for a Microsoft 365 promotion beyond the original brief
50,000 – 199,999 €
Payback period
Recovered through follow-on work commissioned after this campaign
Method
Comparison of average interaction time and CTR against typical mobile ad-engagement benchmarks
Confidence
Medium - based on the campaign's own published performance metrics
Microsoft's internal commercial results and the Best Buy partnership terms are confidential.
5 minutes of attention, from a cybersecurity ad
The campaign shipped, was reused for a second partnership, and led to an ongoing supplier relationship. The figures below are the campaign's own published performance metrics.
Average interaction time
Before
A few seconds (typical ad benchmark)
After
5 minutes 2 seconds
Campaign live period
Click-through rate
Before
N/A
After
2.4%
Campaign live period
Replay rate
Before
N/A
After
≈ 1.91 plays per user
Campaign live period
Development iterations
Before
N/A
After
150+ SCRUM cycles
Development phase
“We ran an open RFP because nothing like this existed yet. What came back wasn't just an ad - it was a game people genuinely wanted to keep playing, and one we've since reused and built on with this team.”
Marketing Team
Microsoft
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