The campaign will target markets where the San Jose-based company sees potential for growth. The bulk of Cisco's business is based on building technology that allows computer networks, including the internet, to talk to each other and it calls itself the company that is "empowering the internet generation".
Last year, Cisco awarded its global advertising account to Grey Worldwide, following a three-way pitch and is handled by darkGrey, Grey's technology unit in San Francisco. To win the business, Grey beat off competition from TBWA\Chiat\Day in Playa del Rey, California, and JWT & Tonic in San Francisco.
However, Grey quickly ran into problems and the account was switched to Ogilvy & Mather following the arrival of a former IBM marketing executive Marilyn Mersereau as Cisco vice-president of corporate marketing. WPP Group's Ogilvy & Mather is IBM's agency of record. The switching of the account, which at the time was reported to be worth as much as $200m, resulted in Grey laying off staff.
Cisco expects markets including security, storage networking, voice and wireless to be the growth markets in the next two to three years.
According to Mersereau: "The point is to position Cisco beyond routers and switches into these new growth markets. There's no clear leader in any of these markets and they're burgeoning, multibillion-dollar markets."
The new campaign features a new tagline and one that is less internet-centric -- "This is the Power of the Network. Now."
The campaign breaks with eight-page newspaper inserts in the US and is set to roll out to Canada, the UK, Germany, Italy, Japan and China by the spring.
The eight-page insert will appear in today's editions of the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post. Press ads will appear in magazines including Business Week and Fortune, and online at Discovery.com and CNN.com. It will be followed by prime-time TV spots on such shows as Fox's '24', NBC's 'West Wing' and CBS's '60 Minutes', according to Reuters.
Cisco builds routers, bridges and other computer networking technology, which allows computers to connect to the internet. Its closest rival is fellow US technology firm 3Com.
It has traditionally targeted large corporations and service providers, but is moving towards the small business and consumer arena. It is attempting to take on other high-tech giants by developing new products and services.
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