Cisco’s products are the foundation of the Internet and many corporate, education, and government networks around the world. A featured online component of its Executive Thought Leadership offering is the multimedia broadband series ExecNet, which features Cisco senior executives presenting insight on key business issues such as convergence, technology, and security. Market response—both in and outside the company—was mixed, however, as the program was showcased on an external proprietary product that was inflexible and technically limited as a broad video platform. Cisco asked us to oversee general production and provide a solution that would make the show easier to produce, manage, publish, and view.
We immediately migrated the production to a stable, established, and video-friendly platform: Flash MX. A production process was instituted utilizing a combination of green screen video technology, compression, and synchronized onscreen animations that appeared around or beside the executive that supported and iterated key presentation points. The information architecture was also revised to include a bottom-scrolling bar, segmented by topic, which allowed the viewer to jump ahead or repeat key sections in each show. In addition to adding viral send-to-a-friend functionality, viewers could leave a program in mid-play and return at anytime and pick up where they left off.
These changes not only allowed effective integration of all components from a single backend architecture, but a more seamless production process and, most importantly, a richer and more friendly interactive user experience. Audience response was so immediate and positive that Cisco enlisted us to retrofit and migrate the program’s existing backlog library to the new platform.
As agency of record for developing this ground-breaking series, We are responsible for visual strategy, and all video production, including editing, animation design, compression, and technical integration. The program averages over 10,000 hits per show/per month with a constant stream of positive feedback both internally and externally. In addition to becoming the jewel in the company’s Executive Thought Leadership crown, ExecNet is becoming a recognized leading online communications tool.
About Cisco:
Cisco is the leading supplier of networking equipment and network management for the Internet. Cisco hardware, software, and service offerings are used to create Internet solutions that allow individuals, companies, and countries to increase productivity, improve customer satisfaction and strengthen competitive advantage.The Cisco name has become synonymous with the Internet, as well as with the productivity improvements that Internet business solutions provide. At Cisco, our vision is to change the way people, live, play, and learn. Cisco has more than 65,000 employees and annual revenue of US$36.11 billion as of 2009.
