Being simple ain't easy: Meraki Work Simple

Meraki’s first brand awareness campaign. Our products were undeniable; our brand wasn’t, yet. With BX Films we made three spots for premium streaming TV, then backed them with Meraki’s first print ads, a programmatic push, a landing page, and swag that became one of our most popular branded items.

Contribution

Creative Director

Campaign strategy

Art direction

Video production

Team

Chris D, Brand

Simon T, Brand

Production

BX Films

1st

Brand awareness campaign in Meraki’s history

Spots for premium streaming TV: 30, 30, and 60 seconds

1st

Print campaign, in targeted niche magazines

Channels: streaming TV, print, and programmatic

01 — The problem

Great sentiment. Not enough awareness.

Meraki makes an undeniable product, and for years that did most of the marketing for us. Word of mouth, buzz, and organic growth carried us a long way. Then they started to plateau, and when we took a hard look at the brand, it wasn’t as undeniable as the products.

Our brand marketing manager put it plainly: sentiment was great, and awareness was lower than it should be. We could lean on Cisco to signal-boost, and we did. But parent brands and sub-brands have a tricky relationship, and Meraki needed a voice of its own. So we made a big bet on Meraki’s first-ever brand awareness campaign.

A brand is more than a punchy palette and nifty typography. It’s an emotional connection wrapped in a sly moment of recognition. We had to get our recognition game way up.

02 — The idea

Networking pros aren’t punchlines.

Pop culture loves to cast network engineers as socially awkward nerds who fix computers. Our customers are passionate about what they do, and they’ve seen that cliché plenty. So we steered away from it and told stories rooted in real personalities.

The positioning: Meraki is the ally who gets it, and a great networking solution too. With BX Films, a local production house, we cast a diverse group of local actors and set the day-to-day payoff of using Meraki against a lively, irreverent office. I produced the spots and directed the creative.

Security Consultant · 60 sec

Team Happiness Day · 30 sec

The Duel · 30 sec

03 — The media

Aimed, not sprayed.

We ran the spots as premium streaming TV on Hulu and used its targeting to reach our key audiences, so the same impression could build brand perception and drive B2B sales at once.

Meraki’s first print campaign ran in targeted niche magazines, and a programmatic digital push carried the story everywhere else.

04 — Beyond the spots

A landing page, print, and swag people actually wanted.

My team built the print ads and a landing page to carry the story past the 30 seconds. We also made swag to fire up our sales team and give reseller partners a reason to promote the campaign. The Work Simple tee became one of our most popular branded items.

05 — Results

→Meraki’s first brand awareness campaign, live across streaming TV, print, and programmatic

→Three spots that cast networking pros as heroes, not punchlines

→Work Simple swag became one of Meraki’s most popular branded items

Credits

Chris D and Simon T, Brand · BX Films, production