Summary
Cisco Live Europe is a leading IT event for technology and communications professionals.
It is built upon four key pillars:
- technical education
- technology evaluation
- networking
- thought leadership
The annual event offers delegates the opportunity to build their skills and knowledge, while providing a platform for engaging with their peers, Cisco’s Partners, Engineers and Senior Executives.
The event is a clear example of tremendous team effort and collaboration by hundreds of people (client, agency, suppliers, speakers, network engineers etc).
It is a combination of a clear vision, strategic thinking and flawless execution to deliver upon the event objectives while introducing innovative concepts and thinking. 5,750 people (from our CEO and senior executives, to a select group of industry analysts, journalists, IT managers and thousands of network engineers from over 60 countries) attended the event at ICC London ExCeL.
They participated in two keynotes, 350+ breakout sessions and labs, 180+ one-to-one meetings between attendees and Cisco engineers, certification exams, an innovation awards ceremony, a two day hybrid program with online executive chats and session streaming, and a London themed customer appreciation event.
To get a feel for the event, we suggest watching our highlights video online.
About the client company
At Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) customers come first and an integral part of our DNA is creating long-lasting customer partnerships and working with them to identify their needs and provide solutions that support their success.
The concept of solutions being driven to address specific customer challenges has been with Cisco since its inception. Husband and wife Len Bosack and Sandy Lerner, both working for Stanford University, wanted to email each other from their respective offices located in different buildings but were unable to due to technological shortcomings. A technology had to be invented to deal with disparate local area protocols; and as a result of solving their challenge – the multi-protocol router was born. Since then Cisco has shaped the future of the Internet by creating unprecedented value and opportunity for our customers, employees, investors and ecosystem partners and has become the worldwide leader in networking – transforming how people connect, communicate and collaborate.
Strategy
The IT industry is a rapidly moving environment with a lot of innovation, new technologies
and products.
It is critical for a company like Cisco (“The Network is the Platform” and “Together we are the human network”) to educate its customers and partners about its innovation and network platform to enable people to change the way they work, live, learn and play.
Cisco Live fits in a global event strategy to engage with our customers and partners by building trust and loyalty with our most influential audiences.
Objectives
The objectives of the campaign were to:
- Drive Cisco customer and partner loyalty and success through education, thought leadership and community.
- Position Cisco as a strategic platform for advancing Cisco’s key initiatives.
- Create a consistent world-class event experience that powerfully brings the Cisco brand to life.
- Demonstrate operational excellence and remain financially sustainable.
- Position Cisco Live as a brand in the market in all its components.
Each objective had its own set of key performance indicators aligned with Cisco’s top priorities for that fiscal year, adding value to the business and Cisco’s overall bottom line.
Target audience
The event was aimed at several audiences, requiring a segmented and targeted marketing communication approach.
Target audiences included:
- Technical IT and Telecommunication professionals
- IT Business Decision Makers
- European Industry Analysts
- European Business Press
Due to the current economic climate, audience acquisition has been challenging with delegates having to contend with a restriction on travel and training budgets. Add to that a tendency that attendees register later and later which challenges the overall planning and budget process.
The positioning of the event and communicating the core benefits to potential delegates associated with attending were critical to the event success.
Media channels or techniques used
As our delegates are highly technical, our choice of communications was mainly electronic-based mail and social media. Communication channels pre-onsite and post event included:
- Electronic direct mail – used to communicate the event dates, price promotions, the virtual platform, session content, event agenda and other programme elements.
- Facebook and Twitter – both social media sites were leveraged with the ultimate intention of extending the reach of Cisco Live to a broader audience.
- Online media campaign – communicate the event dates, event promotion through online price promotions, the virtual technical trade publications platform, session content, and newsletters event agenda and other program elements Killer Queen, tribute band.
Timescales of the campaign
The event cycle is a 12 month process, from planning phase to post event reporting.
Phase 1 – Kick off & planning
- Identification of the event objectives, key event themes and branding.
- Establish the right teams for the various project elements and connect with the business units.
Phase 2 – Soft launch
- Save the date communications to delegates, partners and employees.
- Light version of website goes live.
- Source suppliers.
Phase 3 – Registration launch
- Registration opens.
- Delegate resource tools go live (Agenda Builder and Meeting Scheduler).
Phase 4 – Event execution
- Cisco Live 2011 – live
Phase 5 – Post Event
- Post event evaluation of data collated during and post event from customers and partners.
- Post event reporting.
- Virtual Platform: sessions available on-demand Cisco Live branding.
Results
Welcome area The 2011 Cisco Live event saw:
- a 40 per cent year-on-year increase in the number of attendees.
- a 70 per cent year-on-year increase in the number of exhibiting Partners.
- 28,853 leads generated in the World of Solutions exhibition.
Post event evaluations showed:
- The event reached a record score of 4.4 out of 5 for overall event satisfaction.
- 44.4 per cent of delegates now plan to increase the level of deployment of a Cisco product or technology they currently use.
- 48.09 per cent of attendees will start to evaluate a new Cisco product or technology as a result of attending Cisco Live.
- 39 out of the 107 Partners who exhibited in the World of Solutions signed up on-site for Cisco Live 2012, a 150 per cent increase year-on-year.
Each event objective had a set of measurable KPI’s. More data to highlight the success and value add to Cisco is available on request.
Client testimonials
“As a small company, it was a large investment to make and we thought Cisco Live might be too big an event for us. On the contrary, the investment has already paid back and we received a very high level of exposure.” Patrick Jonker, VP sales & marketing, NetDialog International BV (Cisco Partner).
“This event was excellent and served to confirm for me once again why Cisco are the world leaders in Networking and Collaboration technologies. I learnt a lot and now have guidance on the future development of our company services.” Cisco Live delegate.
