Cisco Case - Was the Asr 1000 Launch Campaign a Success?

Cisco Case

1. Was the ASR 1000 launch campaign a success?

The ASR 1000 launch campaign was an absolute success; Cisco applied the new launch strategy “virtually, visually, and virally,” leveraging the new capabilities of Web 2.0 technologies and social media networks. This new strategy was focused on launching the campaign through online marketing, using engaging videos and interactive games, and creating a community of savvy tech users that would spread the word. Reaching high number of target customers, richness of the customer interactions, and the significant cost savings relative to traditional campaign using mass media shows the success of the launch. The success of this launch resulted in it being one of the top five most successful launches in company history. It received recognition from Shin Hashimaoto, an executive vice president at Nippon Telegraph, and Bardo Werum, vice president of cross-industries and operation at Lufthansa Systems. And also it significantly reduced the carbon footprint since a single ASR 1000 Series router can save the amount of carbon that is emitted by 89 barrels of oil.

Cisco says they met their goal of increasing visibility and involving their audience by using the social Web, creating buzz and building a community at a negligible cost; a soft cost that involved time, resources, and creativity instead of budget.

Through the use of social media channels such as YouTube and Facebook, Cisco began to create a buzz about the launching of their new router. A Facebook group was created to form a sense of community around the ASR 1000 Series called, “Cisco Support Group for Über User Internet Addicts.” Creating a sense of community was important because communities allow people to talk and interact with the company and one another. Cisco created a social media widget that provided access to specific content that could then be set into other sites and blogs for people to spread the word. The widget had information concerning the product, videos, images, and resources. An additional digital marketing strategy was creating a means of communication through blogs and forums. Customers could interact and communicate with executives and experts to ask any questions they had about the router. This was extremely useful because it gave people a sense of trust to be able to contact those who actually created the product. The goal for the campaign were to increase awareness and interest on their new product in both business decision makers and technology decision makers of service providers and enterprises, to create a “cool factor” and to increase Cisco’s “share of voice” online.

Cisco used several digital marketing strategies in order to promote their new product. By going this nontraditional route of using only online marketing methods, the outcome was uncertain, but in the end proved to be extremely successful.