Asana helps deliver better work faster. 

Asana's activation in Berlin was the start of a long-term relationship with new and existing customers. We set out to lay the foundation and jumpstart the market for future acquisition, expansion, community, and sales efforts to activate long-term revenue streams.

Every touchpoint had to help the audience believe in Asana the product as well as the company. We needed to create a marketing campaign that would feel meaningful for existing customers as well as people who had never heard of Asana. 

We planned to measure the success of the campaign by looking at long-term market growth measured at 3-month, 6-month, and 1 year intervals as indicated by:

• New Asana signups

• Press share of voice

• Growth of Asana ambassador program & pipeline for customer stories

Increasing awareness in a crowded market

We wanted people in Berlin to feel like they were seeing Asana everywhere—online and in the real world. The only problem was, we didn't have the media budget to actually be everywhere. We used hyper-targeted out of home buys, focusing on key neighborhoods with a high concentration of startups and tech companies and complimented them with programmatic digital banners with key German publishers. 

The city of Berlin has advertising everywhere, so we knew we really had to catch people's eye to get their attention. We developed a concept around Asana creating the fastest route from point A to point B, tailoring creative to individual placements.

In subway placements, we used the Berlin subway map as inspiration for a chaotic mess of project routes full of roadblocks with Asana as the direct route. 

On the street, we used an actual street map of Berlin showing exactly where you were standing and highlighted the direct route to Alexanderplatz (a main hub in the city). "Walk sign men" indicate exactly where the viewer is in the city when they see the ad. 

For placements on street-level trams, we used the tram route on which they were running to highlight the direct path to results.

Spreading the love

Passionate customers are one of Asana's biggest assets. They are eager to talk about Asana, share tips, and network with fellow users. Berlin is no exception. We made it our mission to facilitate these interactions for the week the team was on the ground in Berlin. In three days Asana hosted a VIP private dinner, a keynote and panel discussion, and two hands on customer workshops. 

Top customers get the VIP treatment

Berlin is home to some of Asana's top and most strategic accounts. We hosted an exclusive dinner at the Michelberger Hotel with 17 top tier customers and Asana executives. Attendees were hand selected and had the opportunity to get an inside look into Asana as well as enjoy an incredible meal. The Asana sales team grew and strengthened relationships to expand existing deals.

Helping customers make more time for innovation

One of Asana's core tenants is to always provide value to their customers. In that spirit, we hosted Moving Faster: Team Productivity in the Workplace, a 200+ guest event where customers could hear from leaders at top Berlin companies (all Asana customers, of course).

The event featured a keynote from Blinkist Founder & CEO Holgar Seim and a lively panel discussion with Holgar, managing director of Agile Management Experts Sebastian Paasch, and content operations director at HighSnobiety Matt Carter. 

Guests learned how holacracy can transform an organization, day to day productivity tips, and how to get their team bought into Asana. Customers also had the opportunity to talk one on one with the Asana team and the panelists. 

Learning from the experts

One of the benefits of an Asana Premium account is access to the amazing customer success team. We brought that experience to life with two 40-person hands-on workshops led by Asana customer success managers (one in German and one in English). People new to Asana got a chance to be guided through the basics and experienced users learned out to get even more out of Asana for their teams. 

We also used the opportunity to showcase new premium features to an audience that was primarily only using Asana free, leading to several team account upgrades.

3 months later...

Though full measurement won't be complete until 1 year after campaign launch, initial results in Berlin are very promising.

• +19% increase in signups in Germany

• Increased exposure in German publications

• German customers among the first members of new community program

Danke schön!

Rarely are great things accomplished alone. Check out the full project team.

• Campaign Lead: Grace Erickson

• Internationalization Lead: Margarita Rojas

• Event & Creative Producer: Stephanie Marden

• Berlin Event Agency: Piabo

• Community Lead: Joshua Zerkel

• Designer: Anna Hurley

• Writer: Andy Parker

• Customer Marketing: Zoe Deroches