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Communication Strategy: Create a loud-but-simple product positioning for one of Cisco’s most versatile routers.

$18,000 Total Prize Value
$4,5001st place 
$3,5002nd place 
$2,5003rd place 
$1,5004th place 
$7505th- 6th place 
$5007th- 9th place 
$30010th- 14th place 
$25015th- 20th place 

$2,000 Sold Idea
6 Karma Award Winners will receive a Flip Camera Special Prize

Closed

Start date
23-Aug-2011, 18:59
UTC+0300
Submission deadline
27-Sep-2011, 18:59
UTC+0300
Rating deadline
07-Oct-2011, 18:59
UTC+0300
 
 
 
 
Announced
Submission Period (35 Days)
Rating Only (10 Days)

Briefing

Create a loud-but-simple product positioning for one of Cisco’s most versatile routers.

Background Info

Cisco is one of the world’s largest technology corporations. They design and sell networking, voice, and communications technology and services, with more than half of their revenue coming from routers, switching products and services.  Whether they know it or not, millions of people use Cisco’s routers and switches everyday: routing is used for many kinds of networks, including the telephone network, the Internet and transportation.
 
Needless to say, networks play a critical business role. Businesses today are increasingly looking to cloud services and outsourced IT services to reduce costs, increase efficiencies, and help them concentrate more on their business and less on how to configure their network routers. 
 
The ISR G2 (Integrated Services Router - Second Generation) is one of Cisco’s leading router products.  End users for the ISR G2 are typically Enterprise IT organizations -  from large scale Fortune 500 companies to small/medium businesses.  These organizations buy these routers not only from Cisco directly, but from Cisco’s major Service Provider partners (AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, etc), who add cloud and managed IT services on the router.  
  
As different Service Providers have different business objectives, the ISR G2 delivers three distinct value propositions:
  • Security - Businesses require their information and communications to be authenticated, reliable and secure. The ISR G2 is designed to monitor, protect and block targeted attacks across your entire network in real-time.
  • Video/Rich Media - Businesses require video and rich media to better communicate and collaborate with anyone at any time using any device, but this also increases demands on the network. ISR G2 enables the network to deliver seamless video, voice, and data allowing IT to provide a smooth end user experience by simplifying deployment, managing capacity and enhancing performance.       
  • Cloud Readiness - As businesses move to the cloud, they need networks that can deliver agile, optimized, and secure cloud services.  ISR G2 enables these cloud-ready network by providing the management and services to connect devices, easily secure cloud services, and optimize applications to end-users that respond to critical business needs.
 

Task Definition

Create concepts that communicate a compelling value proposition for the ISR G2.
 
The submitted concepts need to deliver the following:
  • The reason why a business would want to buy the ISR G2, based on at least one of the value propositions above. For example, one concept can deal solely with security. Another submission can focus on cloud. Or feel free to explore options where more than one is included in a mock-up (e.g. security + cloud readiness)
  • A headline plus 2-3 lines of copy and a visual representation (e.g. poster, video) of the reason why.
 
Ideas need to be easy-to-execute as they will be developed into marketing tactics that can include email/direct mail templates, web banners, video assets, and telesales scripts.
 
It’s important that submitted concepts focus on the product positioning rather than the Cisco brand itself.
 

Target Group

The target audience for this marketing campaign are IT executive decision makers that span many different organizations, e.g. IT, Finance, Operations and Legal.  For a large customer, this may be an IT Director, IT Administrator, or Finance Operations Manager, while for smaller companies, this decision maker may be at the CIO level.  
 
This mid-level manager understands the business drivers that their CIO cares about, and understands the technical requirements to implement and operate the IT solution, serving as a bridge between the business and technical aspects of IT. 
 
See below for detailed profile of target market.
 
 

Tonality

  • Urgent/Compelling
  • Confident
  • Clear
  • Simple
  • Technically relevant
  • Target-focused
 
 
 

Mandatory Requirements

  • All ideas must be brand neutral.  Think of the product benefits from the target perspective.
  • Be visual. The visual component should be memorable. 
 
Click on the following for additional information on the target IT manager profile and examples of existing Cisco marketing campaigns:
 

Download Material

Click on the following links and download logos, cooperate communication material or any additional information related to the project

 
 

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