SUNNYVALE, CA: Juniper Networks leveraged its relationships with multiple bloggers this week to participate in a contest that helped promote its new data center architecture and give funds to charity.
The networking company, which has never launched an initiative such as this before, invited 10 influential data center bloggers to compete in a contest where they had to build their own data centers out of Lego pieces. Every blogger that participated was allowed to donate a sum of money to a charity of their choice.The donations, made on Juniper's behalf, included $1,500 for first place, $1,000 for second, and $500 for third. For each submission that didn't take one of the top spots, Juniper donated $100.
Edelman, Juniper's global AOR since July 2011, helped promote the idea for the contest, said an agency representative. The firm's digital team supported the contest through social media, and the bloggers involved posted content on their personal social channels about the initiative.
On the PR side, the agency will use the results of the campaign as a case study to gather insights since the company has not done anything like this before, said an Edelman spokesperson. The firm is also looking to garner traditional media coverage about the contest.
In addition to the 10 bloggers, 20 Juniper staffers competed in the competition, which was voted on by a panel of Juniper judges.
Data center blogger Stephen Foskett was named the winner of the contest on Thursday for his creation that showcased data centers throughout history using Lego blocks.
Some other data center ideas that were submitted included themes around Star Wars, Back to the Future, and pink unicorns.
Earlier this week, Juniper unveiled its new data center architecture that will help simplify and increase the delivery speed of applications within and between multiple data center locations.
