When it comes to overall awareness of Cloudflare, it seems most folks fall into one of three camps: 1) those who don’t know much about Cloudflare at all, 2) those who are familiar with one or two of Cloudflare’s many solutions (i.e. DDoS protection, caching, DNS, etc.), and finally, 3) those who understand the full breadth and scope of Cloudflare’s global cloud network. This latter group of folks are especially excited about the broad scope of Cloudflare’s mission, which is: “to help build a better Internet.” Last week our co-founder Michelle Zatlyn explained in a blog post what this mission actually means:
“Our mission at Cloudflare is to help build a better Internet. That is a big, broad mission that means many things. It means that we push to make Internet properties faster. It means respecting individual’s privacy. It means making it harder for malicious actors to do bad things. It means helping to make the Internet more reliable. It means supporting new Internet standards and protocols, and making sure they are accessible to everyone. It means democratizing technology and making sure the widest possible group has access to it. It means increasing value for our community, while decreasing their costs.”
(See Michelle’s full blog post for more color on each of these areas).
You’ll observe that all of our recent Crypto Week and Birthday Week announcements delivered on the tenets of our bold mission. We’ve been very encouraged that our customers are excited about the progress we’ve made so far. We’re confident we’re moving in the right direction, but we know that lots of people still haven’t even heard of us yet, and that not enough people yet know how Cloudflare can help their users’ internet experience be better. We’re excited to invite more people to learn about Cloudflare and join with us (as customers and partners) in helping build a better Internet.
IF bold mission THEN bold message
This week we’re starting to experiment with a new campaign that aims to communicate the scope of Cloudflare’s mission to an ever-growing audience.
This campaign is all about being bold, provocative, and declarative in proclaiming who we are and what we do. After all, Cloudflare isn’t just another technology company — we’re on a very real mission to help build a better Internet. And we’re inviting folks to join us!
Our customers know that Cloudflare is a technology disruptor and democratizer, taking complex and sophisticated cloud network technologies, and making them available to organizations both large and small. Our global cloud network not only serves some of the world’s largest enterprises, but we also proudly serve minority groups, the disenfranchised, and sometimes, even the rebellious. The nature of our role in the Internet ecosystem sometimes puts us in the middle of criticism and controversy but we don’t shrink from the responsibility that rests on our shoulders.
We think it is appropriate that we introduce Cloudflare loudly and unapologetically. The messages in this campaign are direct and provocative. These do NOT look like polished, boring, corporate IT ads. Instead, they look a bit raw and maybe even slightly irreverent. They’ve been created fast and furiously by a team which is inspired to make our message known and to make a difference.
What you’ll see
Below are some of campaign assets you may start seeing.
Wild Postings across Manhattan
Muni bus wraps in San Francisco
Civic Center Muni takeover
Select billboard placements in San Francisco
Forbes Takeover
Where you might see it
We plan to start testing this campaign in two US cities (San Francisco and New York), as well as a number of US national publications (digital versions of the New York Times, Forbes, others), social media, and other digital channels. If you’re in SF and NYC, you may see a few billboards and/or posters around town.
Let us know what you think
If you see any of these messages out in the wild, we’d love to see a photo/screenshot and hear what you think. Let us know via social media by tagging #BetterInternet.