Problem

VMworld is a global conference for virtualization and cloud computing, hosted by VMware. Newer products and services focus on security.

Within VMware's suite, VMworld channels have historically had the most flexibility when it comes to personality. That's partially because it's an offshoot of the main brand and partially because VMworld's primary goal is to engage an audience that includes a mix of customers, prospects, and people who are there to improve their knowledge of security, networking, and virtualization technology. These folks are mainly developers and security professionals who appreciate humor.

Solution

As the Editorial Lead, I laid the foundation of the content strategy by focusing on digestible, social-first elements like GIFs, photos, videos to emphasize the educational and humorous content and drive engagement. Most were long-standing memes and cultural references. We also leaned on a giveaway to help drive interest. All work was done organically.

Results

Across its suite of products and respective blogs and handles, VMworld's content and social channels have the highest time on page and engagement rates, despite having no paid promotion behind its content, indicating that the humorous strategy works.