1. Cisco B2B Case Study: ASR
Launch
Jonathon Bilancia
Social Media and Business

2. 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

3. WHAT WAS THE ISSUE OF CISCO B2B
SOCIAL MEDIA?
• As seen in previous slide, Cisco has great presence on social media
• In 2009 many Marketers decided to make a push for using Social Media more
greatly in there marketing B2B campaigns
• Cisco needed to prove to its more stubborn Marketing officials that social media
is more effective
• Many marketers were in favor of more costly traditional launch promotions

4. Actions taken to prove social media
effectiveness
• Cisco chose to market the launch of a new product using only social media,
• Marketers would only use YouTube, Facebook, Blogs to promote, and create
launch presentations
• Would compare costs and results with traditional launch promotions
• The new product launch was a new router platform called ASR for businesses

5. Cisco advertised the ASR router where
their customers were
• 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.

6. They posted to YouTube
• Cisco posted a video called “The Future of Shopping” highlights their product
ASR
• Additionally, the company heavily used video to educate customers and the
media about the ASR, encouraging them to pass along links via social sharing.
• The video received 3.3 million views

7. Creating Awareness of the launch by
reaching 9,000 people
• Compared to traditional launches of the past, the ASR launch delivered eye-opening
numbers. More than 9,000 people from 128 countries attended virtual
launch events. Without travel, the launch saved an estimated 42,000 gallons of
gas.
• Print ads were largely replaced with media coverage, including 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

8. The Results and Comparisons
• 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 event – 90
times more attendees than in the
past
• Saved 42,000 gallons of gas
• Nearly three times as many press
articles as with traditional outreach
methods
• More than 1,000 blog posts and 40
million online impressions
• One-sixth the cost of a traditional
launch
Traditional Launch
Advertising
Social Media Launch

9. What I have learned
• Social media doesn’t replace the need for white papers or sales interaction. I
think it helps accelerate and shorten the sales cycle Brill said.
• “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