When Cisco needed to promote their new Digital Network Architecture offerings, they turned to Agency Ingram Micro for help creating a campaign that would attract attention and help communicate the urgency of the need to upgrade their customers’ infrastructures.
“The goal was to convert everyone’s IT to digital,” says Dirk Vandeman, who worked as one of the copywriters on the project. “The call to action was simply to get resellers to sign their end users up for an assessment, and that would help to get the conversation started about the coming digitization of technology.”
When working to create the campaign message, Vandeman hit upon the “IZATION” concept based on something he had heard in a video clip. “Alan Watts mentioned the ‘Los Angelization’ of America,” he says. “That got me thinking about how the suffix itself refers to significant change in this digital landscape. The digitization, mobilization, securitization, globalization of technology was really perfectly summarized by this ‘IZATION’ effect.”
Based on the creative brief provided to the team, and approved by Cisco, Vandeman worked with an art director to explore this concept and communicate it in more creative and compelling ways.
“From the beginning, we wanted to avoid a fear message, which is so common in advertising,” says Vandeman. “We found a positive way to address the inevitable changes that are coming. More like, ‘This is a great opportunity for everyone.’”
Once the team had landed on this idea, the designs and the messaging that flowed out of this reflected the excitement around the opportunity to usher in this new digital revolution. Because of this, optimism was a key component of the campaign.
As always, the creative team developed a few other ideas alongside this one. But once Cisco laid eyes on the IZATION concept, they were sold.
“The IZATION campaign resonated with our team from the get go,” says Dallas Farrell, Ingram Micro associate client services manager for Cisco. “We coined a word and provided a definition for the entire digital movement and ultimately provided structure to the opportunity digitization was presenting.”
The coining of a new term—IZATION—allowed the campaign to introduce an element of mystery and create intrigue around the word. “What’s the IZATION effect?” became a central question that everyone was asking, and that allowed the team to build a campaign around that sense of wonder.
Once the idea was approved, the real work began. AIM’s digital content and web design teams worked to create a strategy around the messaging document and the aggressive marketing plan was created, designed and implemented.
The entire IZATION campaign had a lot of moving parts. In addition to the landing page, the AIM team created a brief “Digital Readiness Assessment” quiz, an informative e-book, a series of videos on the pillars of Cisco’s Digital Network Architecture, and another series of videos on how to apply the technology to improve their business and gain a competitive advantage.
“The entire project was successful because we were able to define something that was being felt but hadn’t fully actualized yet,” says Farrell. “It was exactly what Cisco was looking for. Huge thanks to AIM for delivering a top-notch concept and for exceeding our expectations as each deliverable was met.”
If you’re looking for help with your next marketing campaign, turn to Agency Ingram Micro. We’ve got the expertise to help.
The post Agency Ingram Micro creates the IZATION effect for Cisco appeared first on AIM | AGENCY INGRAM MICRO.