INSIGHTS & STRATEGY: THE NEED FOR CONNECTION & DIFFERENTIATION

In Asia Pacific and Japan, the stakes are clear: if you snooze, you lose. With 67% of leaders anticipating rising cybersecurity threats, the region’s fast- paced markets demand swift, decisive action. Yet, complex IT environments trap technology teams in a web of inefficiency, shifting focus from innovation to firefighting.

The cost? Missed opportunities, escalating expenses, and sluggish deployment of critical initiatives – fatal missteps no organization can afford in such a competitive landscape.

Our strategy was as follows:

• Have a media strategy that mirrored Cloudflare’s core proposition of transforming chaos into control through a hyper-localized, precision-driven approach
• Humanize the customer journey by using media not just as a tool for broad awareness but also as a conduit for meaningful, tailored interactions to position Cloudflare as a partner invested in solving the complexities of enterprise IT in Asia Pacific and Japan
• Adopt a dynamic test-and-learn approach to continuously optimize campaigns in real time, leveraging data-driven insights to refine messaging to specific verticals and meet decision makers where they were most active
• Work closely with sales activation teams to ensure every door was answered and every lead welcomed, nurtured with precision, and seamlessly handed over to create a leak-proof pathway from conversation to conversion

THE BIG IDEA: A ‘KNOW THY NEIGHBOR’ APPROACH

With rising security budgets and an urgent need for swift action, Cloudflare’s Connectivity Cloud stood out as a streamlined, future-ready solution designed to simplify, accelerate, and empower organizations facing increasingly complex IT environments.

Rather than flood the markets with generic noise, we embraced a hyper-local, data-driven strategy that brought humanity to the forefront – aligning Cloudflare’s value proposition with APAC and Japan decision makers’ unique priorities by highlighting how their solutions enhance security and connectivity in practical, impactful ways.

EXECUTION: BALANCING TAILORED EXPERIENCES WITH MULTI-TOUCH EXCELLENCE

We had three core components to our execution strategy:

Tailored user journeys

To balance volume with ROI and pipeline growth, we leveraged content syndication to engage audiences during their research and decision-making phases. However, after finding that additional nurture points were needed to deliver valuable leads to Sales, we ran a multi-touch pilot that, despite higher CPLs, demonstrated strong results – prompting us to leverage data, intelligence, and AI offerings from our partnerships to enhance the quality of leads.

Region-specific customization

Regional nuances play a large role in the success of engaging with publishers. We leveraged a cluster-based syndication approach across trusted regional platforms like IT Media in Japan to deliver culturally nuanced campaigns delivered in local languages.

These addressed critical regional challenges – cybersecurity, cost management, and operational speed – while aligning Cloudflare’s solutions with the distinct priorities of each market to ensure greater reach and a contextually relevant presence.

Focused accounts for ABM

Our ABM efforts targeted a carefully defined enterprise accounts in an integrated demand gen approach. Our initial phase focused on building awareness and seeding the market with Cloudflare’s message and broader content.

This laid the foundation for the next stage, which pushed out highly personalized content – an executive ‘Chaos to Control’ report and account-specific landing page. These materials engaged audiences already reached through paid media and content syndication, complemented by 1:1 sales activation efforts, email outreach, social media engagement, tele-prospecting, and branded direct mail.