How Cisco Used Personalized Video to Recruit Over 700 Impassioned Brand Advocates

How Cisco Used Personalized Video to Recruit Over 700 Impassioned Brand Advocates

It’s not an uncommon problem for B2B companies to face: a lack of customers who can be called upon for references, speaking opportunities, case studies and other important marketing resources. For Christina Melluzzi, Head of Customer Advocacy EMEAR at Cisco, this frustration was manifested in a limited pool of only 100 brand advocates that sales and marketing personnel could go to for help. 

“Since our customer pool was so small, we constantly asked the same people to help,” says Melluzzi. “The few advocates that we had felt over-used and under-appreciated.” 

What’s more, Cisco employees were unclear on how to nominate new references, so the original list of 100 contacts quickly became outdated. Melluzzi sought to create a better process for her team, evolving Cisco’s reference-only program into a customer advocacy program. 

In order to find the hundreds of potential brand advocates she knew existed, Melluzzi needed a strategy that was at once scalable and engaging so that the entire Cisco customer base could be reached and captivated by her efforts. 

To that end, The Cisco Gateway advocacy community was created, and Idomoo’s Personalized Video as a Service (PVaaSTM) Express platform became an invaluable engagement tool as Cisco aimed to find and delight hidden brand advocates. 

The brand’s biggest fans – customers who were already vocal in their recommendations and 5-star reviews — were contacted with a Personalized Video email invitation video featuring Richard Ayoade, star of the British sitcom, IT Crowd. Click the image below to watch the video.

The Personalized Video campaign was a huge success. It took only two months from kickoff to launch, proving that Idomoo’s PVaaSTM Express solution makes it truly headache-free for enterprise businesses to leverage customer data in a meaningful, visually driven way. Just as importantly, the campaign was a massive hit with recipients: 

“I absolutely loved the personalized email. I’m a huge Richard Ayoade fan, and it was so nice to get this kind of email from Cisco. It made me feel special.” 

“This is the first time I’ve received an invite like this, and it was surprising to receive it from Cisco! Very cool!” 

The video campaign had a 16% overall conversion rate, and a 60% rate for those who viewed the video — rates that Cisco reported were previously unheard of. 

It also helped attract 733 new brand advocates who have provided (to date): 

  • 823 social shares, which generated 10,237 clicks on Cisco content
  • 284 testimonials generated
  • 152 potential new case studies identified
  • 105 advocates who raised their hands to write blogs for Cisco
  • 6.3% conversion rate on one advocate blog (created using Influitive’s Upshot solution)
  • 114 reviews on sites such as G2 Crowd and TrustRadius (an 18% growth in online reviews in just two weeks)
  • 84 referrals
  • 105 event sign ups and three speakers sourced for Cisco Live 2018, Barcelona
  • 73 NPS among advocates (Cisco’s general customer base’s NPS is 38) 

To read more about Cisco’s Personalized Video campaign, as well as The Cisco Gateway, click here.

If you’d like to learn more about launching an engaging, results-driven Personalized Video campaign of your own, reach out to an Idomoo click below.

Schedule a Demo

Explore More Content

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
post

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Email * Enter Email

Explore More Content

Related Articles

video marketing shown on a laptop and mobile phone for 2024 trends

8 Video Marketing Trends to Watch in 2024

For marketers, staying on top of the latest trends is crucial to designing future strategies that get results. With video dominating the content landscape and constantly evolving, video marketing is no exception. From the latest technology to popular content styles, there are a handful of new developments in video marketing expected to make an impact this year.

Read More
A Beginner’s Guide to Understanding Churn Models

A Beginner’s Guide to Understanding Churn Models

In business, success isn’t just about scoring new customers — it’s also about holding onto them. Unfortunately, customer churn exists as a challenge to this goal. Also called customer attrition, churn refers to your customers saying sayonara to your brand. So much more than just a statistical metric, your churn rate is a major indicator of brand health. Churn chips away at your brand’s strength and hinders its growth potential. To keep your business in tip-top shape for the long haul, you need to size up this enemy, predict its next moves and hit back with countermeasures. Thankfully, recent tech advancements have simplified this task with churn prediction models. In this post, we’re breaking down what churn models are and how they can help you retain your most precious asset: your customers. But first, let’s talk a little bit more about churn, retention and how they’re connected. Customer Churn vs.

Read More
6 Ways Businesses Can Use Interactive Marketing Videos

6 Ways Businesses Can Use Interactive Marketing Videos

Ever found yourself engaged in one of Netflix’s interactive specials, such as the hit Black Mirror: Bandersnatch or You vs. Wild? Or maybe you’ve been part of a live stream where your comments or votes influence what happens next? All around us, interactive entertainment has found its way into our lives, making us active participants in the content we enjoy. Now, imagine bringing that level of engagement to the marketing world. It’s more than just a trend; it’s a response to the evolving preferences of today’s consumers. As our attention spans shrink and the demand for immersive experiences grows, Interactive Videos have become an effective tool for breaking through the noise. In this post, we’re covering the different ways you can incorporate Interactive Videos into your marketing strategy. But first, let’s take a closer look at why using advanced Interactive Video matters. Let’s get started. The Impact of Interactive Videos

Read More

Request a Call

Leave your details below, and our team will contact you ASAP to show you what Personalized Video can do for you.