The Campaign Google Couldn’t eadRay

Background

Microsoft's Outlook.com (the new Hotmail) had the same market share as Google's Gmail. The challenge in the UK was, how could Outlook grow at the expense of its major competitor. The insight was that 98% of Gmail users were unaware that Google read all personal emails sent to or from a Gmail account and used the information to sell ads based on the content of those private conversations – holiday plans, divorce, financial trouble. But Outlook.com did not do this. With privacy being a major issue for consumers, the strategy was to highlight Google's invasion of privacy with a direct response campaign that drove consumers to visit the website, to try Outlook.com and to make a stand.