The security industry isn’t exactly known for its sense of humor.
Most marketing in our space is dark control rooms, glowing maps, dramatic music, and reminders that something terrible could happen at any moment.
Our campaign was a tiny hat stuck on top of a security camera.
And the highly qualified marketing executives that served on the judges recognized the genius of our campaign and shortlisted it for a The Drum Marketing Award in the B2B category!!!
Booyah!!!
The Drum Marketing Awards EMEA recognize some of the most creative and effective marketing campaigns across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. This year, The Boring Lab’s Camera Hat Campaign was named a finalist in the B2B category alongside agencies and brands doing some seriously impressive work: Canva, Workday, Carhartt, Cloudera, Qualcomm, Navan, and Mack Trucks.
For a company whose mission is to make security less boring, it feels especially meaningful that the campaign being recognized is one that so perfectly embodies who we are.
Like many of our ideas, Camera Hat started with a simple question:
“What if you looked up at a security camera and noticed it was wearing a silly little hat?”
No market research.
No focus groups.
Just a silly idea that made us laugh.
Then everyone we shared it with laughed too.
Other security professionals started sharing photos, requesting hats, posting their own camera hat creations, and joining in on the joke. (Check out the Camera Hat Gallery!)
What started as a ridiculous little idea turned into something much bigger: a reminder that the people behind security systems are people.
Not faceless administrators.
Not “Big Brother.”
Just smart, hardworking humans who appreciate a good laugh as much as anyone else.
One of the things we love most about the security industry is that the people doing the work are often solving incredibly important problems while also dealing with a lot of tedious, repetitive tasks.
That’s exactly why The Boring Lab exists.
We build tools that simplify the annoying parts of managing Milestone XProtect. The repetitive stuff. The spreadsheet stuff. The “there has to be a better way” stuff.
The Camera Hat campaign was never really about hats.
It was about celebrating the people doing that work every day.
And proving that security doesn’t always have to take itself so seriously.
What made the campaign special wasn’t the physical product.
It was the reaction. The Reddit conversations. The newsletter signups. The photos people shared. The stories.
The reminders that even in a highly technical industry, human connection still matters (especially in a highly technical industry).
The campaign generated dozens of conversations among end users and helped introduce hundreds of new people to The Boring Lab and our mission to make work less boring.
Not bad for a tiny hat.
Being shortlisted is exciting.
Not just because it’s recognition for our team, but because it’s validation that B2B marketing doesn’t have to look like every other B2B campaign and cool and memorable campaigns don’t always need $1,000,000 budgets.
Especially in the age of AI, sometimes the best idea is one that feels human and makes people smile.
We’re incredibly grateful to The Drum for the recognition, to Milestone for being an amazing partner, and most importantly to the security professionals who embraced the campaign and made it their own.
And yes, we’re still making tiny hats for cameras. If you want one, ask for one at the end of your demo of The Boring Toolbox 😉
Or just send us a message. The more hats on cameras, the better!
Download our free excel report template to see exactly the kind of information you can learn from your system using The Boring Toolbox reports.
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