Challenge
Between a rock and a hard place

Cisco's agency-led approach couldn't keep pace with the demand for cheaper, faster, better content

A broken agency-led approach

Faith Wheller, Director of Segment, Brand and Advocacy Marketing EMEAR at Cisco, was faced with a seemingly impossible set of constraints to overcome

Located in multiple offices across the EMEAR region, Faith's team is tasked with producing a steady stream of content materials for partners, sales teams, internal comms, and more.

In early 2018, the team found themselves under growing pressure to deliver better content in less time without increasing costs. The existing agency-led approach to content was creaking under the strain, resulting in five key content challenges being identified. These would need to be overcome if the team was to meet their ambitious new objectives.

1. Cost of creation

The high price of agency design time was severely restricting the amount of content that could be produced.

2. Long lead-times

Slow agency turnaround times meant people were waiting too long for the materials they needed.

3. Out-of-date on arrival

Worse still, these long lead-times meant that content was often out-of-date before it was even delivered.

4. Lack of consistency

With every agency interpreting the Cisco brand differently, each piece looked different, diluting the corporate brand and visual impact.

5. Limited insights

After all this time and cost, the inability to show performance beyond simple download counts was becoming increasingly hard to justify.

As soon as you’ve created a PDF, it becomes redundant because content becomes out of date so quickly, especially when you start localizing.

Faith Wheller, Director of Segment, Brand and Advocacy Marketing EMEAR