Cisco 2020 Marketing Campaigns Creative Direction

As Cisco entered its first year working with hi.5 agency, there were many creative and strategic hurdles presented. At a top level, Cisco is universally one of the most ubiquitous presences in the technology and networking sectors, yet, their brand awareness was much lower than that of their competitors, such as Microsoft and IBM. On a granular level, their social channels had very little engagement. Their B2C approaches often left consumer experiences confusing, vague, and uninteresting. On top of it all, Cisco had very strict brand guidelines, as well as differing brand guidelines across their umbrella products such as Cisco Webex, Cisco Digital Hub, and Meraki Go. Creatively, the challenge was to a) Explore, study, and have a thorough understanding of the multitude of guidelines for each vertical, and b) Interpret them to create humanizing and engaging content in a way the brand had never seen before.

In the middle of all of this, the Covid-19 pandemic shook workplaces as we knew them, and we quickly had to pivot many campaigns to be the focus of how to safely and effectively work remotely, and how Cisco plans to help its customers do that.

Overtime, we were able to develop a great partnership with multiple business units and company verticals, and were named a “Cisco Preferred Partner” in Spring of 2020. Our work with them continues to expand with new creative and strategic approaches to increase brand awareness and relevancy. Below are a few of the recent campaigns I have directed with a small team of designers, motion artists, and editors.