Dev Zone

Developers hold outsized influence in tech buying decisions. Microsoft understood that re-engaging this audience was essential to fueling cloud growth and innovation adoption.

Pre-pandemic, in-person events like meetups and hackathons helped Microsoft stay top of mind with developers. But those connections faded during COVID. The goal now: regain face time and build advocacy through memorable, high-impact experiences.

Microsoft set clear objectives for the campaign: re-engage the developer community through high-value in-person experiences and spark advocacy for Microsoft cloud solutions.

We saw an opportunity to meet developers on their terms: socially, informally, and in person. To do that, we turned Microsoft Build content into a cinematic experience.

We launched Dev Zone. A series of exclusive movie nights across the U.S. and Canada designed just for developers. It combined curated highlights from Microsoft Build with an early screening of Top Gun: Maverick.

The campaign was timed for maximum relevance, offering developers a way to stay informed and entertained in a single evening. With custom invites sent via LinkedIn and email, and novelty tickets handed out as collector items, the experience felt premium and personal.

Everything from creative to comms embraced a “flight deck” visual theme, leaning into Top Gun nostalgia. Aviators. Fighter jet formations. A confident, playful tone that respected our audience’s intelligence and time.

The campaign soared past expectations, reaching 173% of the attendance target and drawing in developer audiences at scale.

Among Microsoft’s priority accounts, the attendance rate reached an incredible 96%, proving we engaged the right audience at the right time.

What started as a North American experiment became a global playbook. The pop-up premiere model was scaled to other marquee Microsoft events like Ignite, Inspire, and Envision, reinventing how conference content is delivered to hard-to-reach audiences in a hybrid world.