Company: Cisco
Company Description: Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in technology that powers the Internet. Cisco inspires new possibilities by reimagining your applications, securing your data, transforming your infrastructure, and empowering your teams for a global and inclusive future.
Nomination Category: Marketing Campaign Categories - Industry
Nomination Sub Category: Marketing Campaign of the Year - Software
 Nomination Title: Cisco's Secure the Enterprise Campaign: Freeze
- If you are providing written answers to the questions for this category, you must answer this first question: Specify the date on which this campaign or program was launched:
November 15, 2022
- Which will you submit for this nomination, a video of up to five (5) minutes in length about the nominated campaign or program, OR written answers to the questions for this category? CHOOSE ONE:
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the nominated video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video.
- If you are providing written answers to the questions for this category, you must answer this second question: Describe the genesis of the nominated campaign or program: the reasons it was initiated, the challenges it was created to address, the problems it was developed to solve, etc. (up to 250 words):
Total 250 words used.
For the past year, awareness and preference for Cisco’s security portfolio has been in decline. As a company, we needed to make a big bet to be #1 in cybersecurity, shifting perspectives of Cisco from “just” a networking company to a security leader.
Our targets are executive IT Decision-Makers (ITDMs), including CIOs and CISOs. Through 3rd party research and 1:1 interviews with Cisco’s subject-matter-experts, we learned cybercrime is the #1 crime in the world and the costs will hit $10.5 trillion by 2025. Because companies are more interconnected than ever, when a breach happens, it can have disastrous consequences including lost revenue, lawsuits, investigations, and bad press. This makes the job of CIOs and CISOs extremely stressful. When they buy a security solution, they need confidence that their business is secure and can quickly recover. Confidence comes down to full visibility and control--what Cisco uniquely delivers--so we positioned Cisco as the end-to-end security provider.
To capture attention, we needed to tell Cisco’s security story in an unexpected way. Our competition had widened the global brand familiarity gap, so differentiation in our positioning and creative were key. While many of our competitors portray security in advertising as dark and alarming, we wanted to take a fresh approach. We needed to show that buying Cisco provides confidence and peace of mind. While a cyber-attack can grind everything to a halt, Cisco delivers the resilience that keeps organizations moving forward by securing the people and devices that connect to their network.
- If you are providing written answers to the questions for this category, you must answer this third question: Describe the development of the campaign or program: the planning process, the goal setting, the creative and media development, the scheduling, etc. (up to 250 words):
Total 250 words used.
We established 3 goals for this campaign:
1. Increase familiarity of Cisco security by 4% from 68% to 72%, and from 3rd to 2nd place in competitor rankings.
2. Establish perceptions of Cisco as an end-to-end security provider.
3. Compel ITDMs to learn more about Cisco’s security offerings.
Then we identified a marketing message to overcome perception barriers that connects two unique aspects of Cisco: the unmatched visibility into the network we have as the market leader and our comprehensive, integrated portfolio of solutions that truly delivers security everywhere. The big idea was that Cisco was the first company to connect the world and is the best choice to protect the world. This led to our campaign theme line: If it’s connected, it’s protected.
We amplified brand messaging via premium, high-impact paid media opportunities and at key events, including Cisco Partner Summit, Cisco Live Melbourne, RSA, and through Cisco’s NFL partnership (91% of ITDMs are NFL fans). We executed the following tactics from our media strategy and plan to drive demand for solution, product, and account-based marketing and sales engagement:
- A 60 and 30-second commercial airing on major media outlets and streaming devices (1,342 spots, 169.3M broadcast impressions to date)
- Digital paid media advertisements in 8 countries (42.4M digital impressions to date)
- Strategic out-of-home advertising in 4 of the world’s busiest international airports
- A 3D billboard ad in New York City’s Times Square
Then tested our final campaign executions with customers to be sure the creative worked.
- If you are providing written answers to the questions for this category, you must answer this fourth question: Outline the activities and concrete results of this campaign or program since the beginning of 2019. Even if your initiative started before 2021, limit your response to activities and results since the beginning of 2021 only (up to 250 words):
Total 237 words used.
Over two quarters, this campaign has already increased global familiarity of Cisco’s security portfolio by 5%, exceeding our goal of 4%. In competitive rankings, Cisco moved from 3rd to 2nd place and is now only 4 points behind the category’s familiarity leader—by next quarter we could overtake them, and achieve our big bet to become #1 in security.
After viewing the video and ad-like object in our creative effectiveness research, ITDMs agreed that:
-
85% - “Cisco provides cybersecurity products and services”
-
73% - “Cisco secures my network better than any other company”
-
71% - “Delivers truly end-to-end security”
And 2 in 3 were very likely to seek more information about Cisco’s security products.
Our creative effectiveness research results prove most ITDMs believe Cisco is pushing itself beyond networking into a broader security role through this campaign. It deepened their awareness of Cisco as a superior security partner and drove a desire to learn more about what makes Cisco’s offerings unique.
In the first quarter, this campaign also helped capture demand with a 40% year-over-year increase in marketing-sourced bookings and drove a 7% year-over-year increase in new website visitors. In the second quarter, the campaign drove double and triple-digit increases in pipeline and a 75% increase in web traffic to top of funnel campaign pages, demonstrating how this campaign is already resonating in the market, capturing the attention and interest of our audiences, and driving demand and pipeline.
- You have the option to reference here any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 67 words used.
Demographic data - Zippia, Korn Ferry, Deloitte
https://www.zippia.com/chief-security-officer-jobs/demographics/
https://www.zippia.com/chief-information-officer-jobs/demographics/
https://www.kornferry.com/about-us/press/age-and-tenure-in-the-c-suite-korn-ferry-institute-study-reveals-trends-by-title-and-industry
https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/About-Deloitte/gx-dttl-2014-millennial-survey-report.pdf
Psychographic data - Balbix & Nominet
https://www.balbix.com/insights/ciso-have-the-toughest-job-in-the-world/
https://media.nominet.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/12130924/Nominet-Cyber_CISO-report_FINAL-130219.pdf
Insights & Strategy - Cybersecurity Ventures
Cybercrime is the #1 crime in the world and the costs will hit $10.5 trillion by 2025 - https://cybersecurityventures.com/hackerpocalypse-cybercrime-report-2016/
| Attachments/Videos/Links: |
|---|
|
