Cisco B2B Case Study: ASR Launch Jonathon BilanciaSocial Media and Business

Cisco Social Media Profiling• Website: www.cisco.com

• Blogs: 22 external, 475,000 views/quarter

• Twitter: 108 Cisco feeds with 2 million followers

• Facebook: 79 groups with 100,000 fans

• YouTube: 300+ channels, 2,000+ videos, 4 million views

• Second Life: 150,000 visitors, 50+ events

• Flickr: 300+ photos, 400,000 views

The Situation

• As seen in previous slide, Cisco has great presence on social media

• In 2009 many Marketers at Cisco decided to make a push for using Social Media more greatly in their B2B marketing campaigns

• Cisco needed to show that it’s Social Media marketing was more effective in promoting their brand, and reducing costs

• Also, needed to create more brand awareness as well as create foothold in B2B social media

The Action: Use only Social Media

• Cisco chose to market the launch of a new product using only social media, this product was the ASR router

• Marketers would only use YouTube, Facebook, micro sites, Second Life, Blogs, even interactive games to promote, and create virtual launch events for the ASR router

• Their marketing plan was to promote the router "virtually, visually, and virally"

Action: Grab their target market: THE UBER USERS (tech geeks)• Created a fun micro site directed at uber users (the tech and early

adopter audience) to help create and spread buzz.

• Cross posted videos from the micro site and YouTube to enlarge and extend their reach to their target market and beyond

• Established Second Life presence that included a countdown calculator and pre event live concert to increase visibility (research showed much of their audience the Uber Users is on Second Life.)

• Created a Facebook group to cater to users not part of Second Life ( the long tail)

• Created an interactive 3D game - Edge Quest - to attract the large gaming audience, the game was to promote the router

The Action: Continued• Facebook – Network engineers could connect on the Cisco

Support Group on Facebook to constantly spread the word of the product. One member shared that he networked while laying by the swimming pool so he could stay connected poolside.

• Cisco blogs – Videos and other content engaged bloggers and customers, encouraging viral pickups.

• Online forum – Cisco seeded its Networking Professionals Technology Community Forum with launch-related discussion topics and gave customers an “Ask the Expert” function.

• YouTube Commercials

• Establish a presence in Second Life

YouTube Advertisement

• Additionally, the company heavily used videos on YouTube to educate customers and the media about the ASR, encouraging them to pass along links via social sharing.

• The video “The Future of Shopping” received 3.3 million views

The Results• More than 9,000 people from 128 countries attended virtual launch

events that were promoted on Facebook, and various blogs

• Without travel, the launch saved an estimated 42,000 gallons of gas.

• Print ads were largely replaced with media coverage which then was posted to YouTube

• Nearly three times as many press articles as a comparable traditional launch, more than 1,000 blog posts and 40 million online impressions.

• The whole launch cost one-sixth of a similar launch that used traditional outreach methods

The Results (compared with traditional media)

• Fly in more than 100 executives and press members from 100 countries to headquarters

• Take a few hours of the CEO’s or an executive’s time to prep and present

• Email customers

• Run print ads in major business newspapers and magazines

• Costs in the hundreds of thousands

• 9,000 people attended the social media product launch events – 90 times more attendees than in the past

• Saved 42,000 gallons of gas

• Nearly three times as many press article hits, than traditional outreach methods

• More than 1,000 blog posts and 40 million online impressions

• One-sixth the cost of a traditional launch

TraditionalSocial Media

What Can be Learned from this• Social media doesn’t replace the need for white papers or sales

interaction. think it helps accelerate and shorten the sales cycle

• “There are studies out there that people who are involved in communities and engaged with the brand are likely to spend up to 50% more than those who are not. We want to try to prove that.”

• Social media is effective, it is rapid and fast communication, it is cost effective and it is the future

References• "Free Digital Planning Templates." Smart Insights. Web. 3 Dec.

2014. http://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/b2b-social-media-cisco-case-study/

• "MarketingSherpa Blog." B2B Marketing: How Cisco Transformed Its Marketing Strategy to Better Serve Customers [Video]. Web. 3 Dec. 2014. <http://sherpablog.marketingsherpa.com/b2b-marketing/marketing-strategy-better-serve-customers/>.

• "Business and Social Media: Cisco Case Study." Business and Social Media: Cisco Case Study. Web. 3 Dec. 2014. <http://blog.paradigm-il.com/bid/99334/Business-and-Social-Media-Cisco-Case-Study>.