Why Cisco Says Company Values In Marketing Messaging Are ‘Everything’

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AI isn’t just being used by firms that market to consumers. It’s also becoming popular among B2B companies, according to a study released last month by AI marketing and personalization platform ON24. The vast majority of B2B marketing arms said they either use AI (53%) or plan to (33%). The same proportion believes AI can help their revenue performance, allow greater scale and personalization, make automation more efficient and effective, and improve the buyer experience.

Different B2B industries seemed to have the same enthusiasm for AI, but financial services companies were using it the most. Two-thirds said they already use AI, and nine in 10 say they will integrate it next year. AI use and plans seemed relatively similar across company revenue size as well. About half of companies with revenues less than $25 million, as well as companies with more than $100 million, say they are currently using AI.

But even though B2B companies are ramping up their use of AI, they seem to be set on what they want to use it for. ON24 asked companies if they used it for several functions today and if they planned to do that next year. The answers differed by three percentage points or less, meaning companies appeared to know their priorities. The most popular use for AI is creating promotional content development, which 63% are doing now. Six in 10 are prioritizing plans for it next year. And while the largest group—62%—plans to prioritize using AI for analytics and measurement next year, 59% are already doing that now.

While it’s beneficial that B2B marketing companies seem to have solid plans and good reasoning behind adding AI, they still have bigger challenges to face to actually get it working. They need to invest in the systems, and they also need to be able to make them operate—which are arguably the two most difficult parts.

Since products aren’t in consumers’ common line of sight, B2B marketing has its own distinct characteristics. I talked to Carrie Palin, CMO of Cisco—one of the larger B2B companies—about how the company keeps its message fresh and brings its values into its campaign. An excerpt from our conversation is later in this newsletter.

BRANDS + MESSAGING

New Nike CEO Elliott Hill, a consummate veteran of the athletic wear company who climbed the ladder from intern to executive, knew the company had serious problems he needed to quickly solve. And just as challenging as coming back from double-digit revenue declines is clawing back Nike’s once-stellar reputation. Forbes senior contributor Pamela Danziger writes that in an Olympic year with a sizable marketing campaign, Nike should be doing well. But its Olympics marketing campaign tanked, sending its brand reputation down seven points in one month, according to tracking firm RepTrak. After the Olympics, the company didn’t do its reputation any favors, voting against a proposal to address potential human rights violations in its global supply chain, fighting against paying legal fees for a small company from which Nike unfairly appropriated technology, and receiving attacks from a former national gymnastics champion and athletic apparel company.

Danziger writes that Nike can start to get some of its reputation back if it returns to its core values: ethics, integrity, transparency, equality and fairness. Fortunately, it has a new CEO who is well-versed in how the company can embrace them.

NOW TRENDING

Where can consumers find many of the trendy creator brands? It’s no longer DTC e-commerce. From 2022 to 2024, 57% of retailer-first creator brands decided to launch with Walmart. Forbes contributor Kiri Masters learned more about this strategy at the Forbes Creator Upfronts last week. Masters writes that partnering with Walmart is all about capturing Gen Alpha consumers’ attention, who are likely to influence their parents to buy brands. A study shared at the conference found that 68% of Millennial parents are more likely to buy things because of their Gen Alpha child’s influence, even products driven by social media ads and influencers. Gen Alpha doesn’t necessarily see items at Walmart as uncool, Masters writes, and Walmart may consider its embrace of these creator brands as marketing for the store.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Reddit reported its best-ever quarterly results last week, posting a 68% year-over-year change in revenue and daily active unique user growth of 47%. Reddit’s influence is growing with its revenue. According to a letter to shareholders from Co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman, “Reddit” has been the sixth most Googled word of 2024, showing that it’s a vital place for information. The social network has built its audience by refreshing the Ask Me Anything (AMA) product, enhancing posting tools and expanding internationally by using AI translations of Reddit posts. The company says it has diversified its ad options and is addressing opportunities for data licensing, while it is currently partnering with Meltwater. Reddit is also refining ads around conversations, including the ones below posts and within comments, which it says are driving double-digit improvements to click-through rates. Brands are also sponsoring and hosting AMAs, driving user engagement and building on Reddit’s revenue.

ON MESSAGE

How Cisco Infuses Messaging With Corporate Values

Cisco is nearly 40 years old and one of the original tech brands. What is your strategy for building on it and making it more modern?

Palin: We were incredibly intentional. We did a lot of research. Cisco is consistently in the top several companies to work for [in a variety of studies]. We realized that when people come and work at Cisco, they never want to leave because the culture is amazing. Inside of Cisco, we’re super fun. We’re very forward-thinking. We’re very hip as far as the company culture, attributes and the way we take care of our employees. And we’re like, how do we make that come through in our brand?

We built the internet, and we are one of the backbones of infrastructure for the AI movement. We are so tech-relevant but yet we are in the background. We’re not consumer-based, so we’re not on everyone's iPhone. So we need a different way to come at this.

We thought, ‘All right, with our advertising and the way we’re showing up in-market and out-of-home and in airports, why don’t we start to have a little fun with this?’ We sought out this incredible creative agency based in France called BETC. They do mostly visually stunning, beautiful, very high-end production value ads for luxury goods brands. We thought, let’s go put a new lens on it [and] go with this agency that is looking at things differently. The [ads] were built on having music be a brand language, as well. If we think about Gen Z and Millennials, they are two generations that grew up with earbuds in their ears. They were constantly listening to music. It is a brand language for them.

Our first ad was in the cybersecurity space. It was put up for a Lion Award at Cannes the year it came out. For a B2B brand to have that kind of recognition for an advertising campaign was pretty exciting for us. Instead of being the classic, ‘Hey, you’re going to get breached and this is scary, and only Cisco can help you,’ this ad was very lighthearted, with an original soundtrack and a beautiful heroine who's an IT professional. This woman is dancing while her company has been breached because she feels completely peaceful about the fact that she knows she can fix this.

We didn’t say it was Cisco in the beginning. It comes at the end, and people are so surprised. We ran this ad in the college football playoffs. We know that CIOs and CEOs are always watching that. We put it in the right places at the right time, and it got so much lift. It just worked.

You keep talking about Cisco doing things that go back to the company’s values. How important is that for marketing?

It’s everything. I’ve worked at a lot of companies in tech. I decided to come work at Cisco when they called me because they have a soul. I looked at the evidence of what Cisco does in the world, and has continued to do, and the values of the leadership team. What’s beautiful about Cisco is the purpose is there, but it isn’t something that’s written on the wall that no one pays attention to. It’s mutually what drives our major decisions in our company. It is about: Is this move, is this donation, is this venture going to actually be representative of our purpose of powering an inclusive future for all, and is it going to move us forward? When we think about the brand, we do a lot of work to make sure that the human beings we align ourselves to, as well as the entities—whether in sports or partnerships in tech—that there are similar values.

How can a CMO put company values into practice through their marketing, messaging and what people know about the company?

Most companies care about some level of equity and inclusion. As a brand expression, you can’t do it in all things marketing; I’m not sure how you would express equity inclusion in a technical marketing document for a product. However, we have lots of brand expressions that the public sees all day long, every day, whether it be the New York Times or an advertisement running during the college football playoffs. We are intentional about every single human in those ads that represent Cisco. Yes, they’re actors, but their accent, the color of their skin, their potential background from an ethnicity standpoint, how they are dressed. We looked at every detail and said, ‘Is this an ad that would make people say, ‘You know what? I see myself, and I would feel welcome working at Cisco or working with Cisco.’ You won’t see anything out there in the ether from us that makes people feel like we only care about one type of person.

Think of something like that, and know that you have the power in the brand and your advertising and your digital media to actually put something out there that people can see and see themselves in.

FACTS + COMMENTS

This year’s World Series between the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers—a battle between teams in two of the country’s largest media markets and with the biggest brands—was one of the most watched in the last 15 years, according to viewership numbers.

15.8 million: Average viewership for each of the five games across the Fox platforms

73%: Increase in viewership across all platforms compared to last year’s Fall Classic between the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks

$44.3 million: Ad sales revenue Fox received for each World Series game, according to Sportico

STRATEGIES + ADVICE

For employee productivity, attendance and satisfaction, it pays to be proactive in employee well-being. Here are some reasons it’s worth doing, and tips for implementing a well-being program in your workplace.

Creative solutions to all business situations—not just those that actually involve creative work—help strengthen all partnerships. Here are five ways to boost it.

QUIZ

NBC’s Peacock streaming service just renewed a daytime drama for its 61st season. Which one is it?

A. Days of Our Lives

B. General Hospital

C. Guiding Light

D. Another World

See if you got the answer right here.