A year after Adobe announced they’d no longer release boxed software, and would now only release their programs as cloud-based downloads, Photoshop customers were still unhappy about the change.

Our objective was to make Photoshop customers fall back in love with the brand, and get them to see the benefits of the cloud.

Through research, we knew that our Facebook community loved to show off their work on our page, with a taste for the gruesome. As the popular Halloween holiday approached, we saw an opportunity to tap the audience’s morbid sensibilities.

Our idea? To create a murder mystery that would combine Facebook—the most powerful social network in the world—with Photoshop—the most powerful imaging product in the world. Fans downloaded the crime scene—a heavily layered Photoshop file—from Creative Cloud. Then they solved it together collaboratively on Facebook.

The activation resulted in 4.8 million impressions and 22-thousand downloads of the game itself, half of which were directly from the Creative Cloud. It increased positive brand sentiment from 15 to 76 percent. The campaign turned an unruly community of designers into an army of detectives, sparking their imaginations and reigniting their love for Photoshop and Creative Cloud.

Adobe was looking to create a Facebook campaign that would:

• Drive awareness of Adobe Creative Cloud to its ~7M Facebook fans

• Increase positive sentiment for Creative Cloud

• Reinforce Photoshop’s daring voice in real-time

• Unite and activate Photoshop fans

The campaign resulted in over 4.8 million social and earned media impressions and over 22,000 downloads of the game, half of which were from Adobe’s Creative Cloud. Photoshop fans engaged consistently over the course of three days coming back to get new clues and collaborate with other members of the community.

The game approach was so unique that press outlets picked up the story immediately, challenging their readers to test their skills.

The campaign also helped to increase positive brand sentiment from 15 to 76 percent, based on manual counts of negative, positive and neutral comments. But the best part was seeing the fan love that came pouring in, with requests for another game next year.

“This campaign blew the doors off anything we have ever done before. The engagement from our fans was of such high quality,” noted Lex van den Berghe, Senior Product Manager for Photoshop.

On day one of the campaign we released the crime scene, a heavily layered Photoshop file. Users could download the file via Creative Cloud and snoop through its layers for clues, Photoshop’s design tools becoming forensic tools. Fans immediately started sharing clues and swapping Photoshop tips on Facebook.

On day two we released the suspects’ police files, which included their fingerprints and blood types. We capitalized on the Facebook platform, allowing our fans to interrogate the suspects through the comments in real time. They asked questions—we responded back in character.

With all the clues released, our detectives made their cases sharing original pieces of art designed in Photoshop. After three days of clues and real-time interrogation of the suspects the mystery was solved by several fans.

A year after Adobe announced they’d no longer release boxed software, and would now only release their programs as cloud-based downloads, Photoshop customers were still unhappy about the change. In response, we have been asked to show its Facebook community of creative professionals that Adobe understands them like no other brand.

As a technology company, Adobe is looking to speak to its creative community in unique ways that help them rise above the corporate drone of its competitors.

As the Halloween holiday approached, Adobe was looking for a way to promote Creative Cloud during the week of Halloween.

Photoshop’s Facebook community is made up of some of the most talented creative minds in the world. This innovative group has high expectations for our creative, so we had to come up with a way to celebrate Halloween that had never been seen before. We know this community and they love to show off their Photoshop skills, often sharing their creations on our Facebook page. We also know that they have a taste for the macabre, their work commonly featuring skulls, blood and other morbid visuals.

Our strategy was to create unexpected and entertaining content that celebrates their skills and gives them a new way to use the product. By doing so they are more likely to trust the brand’s business choices and see value in their subscription.

All of the above led to our idea: a murder mystery within a Photoshop file that only Photoshop users could solve.