Inside SMAU in Milan, the most important technology event in Italy, we set up a corner branded with the operation name “Pirata inside” (in order not to arouse suspicion). Inside the stand, some hostesses handed out free “pirate” copies of Office 2010 to the people taking part to the event, with the chance for them to win a fantastic stay abroad. The people’s reactions were secretly videotaped.Inside the CD, instead of Office 2010, they found a game showing them the only kind of stay they could win using pirate software: prison! Then we invited them to free themselves visiting a dedicated website (www.microsoft.it/antipirateria), where we published the videos of the most remarkable reactions in SMAU, all of which were closed with the invitation “not to let piracy deceive you”. The videos could be shared on the most important social networks and have been published also on YouTube.

The people’s engagement was immediate, during the SMAU event. They accepted 10,000 free “pirate” copies of Office 2010, 4,000 only during the first day. A great spontaneous sensation has been caused on trade magazines, both online and offline. And the end actions on the dedicated website reached 644% of the target. These results are updated to January 31st 2011. The campaign is still live.