Game On! - Cisco's latest Web 2.0 router marketing

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 25 February 2009 02:21

IT Industry - Market

Cisco is continuing to explore Web 2.0 based social network marketing techniques for its ASR series of high end routers after using these to drum up pre-launch interest in the product last March.

Cisco has just produced a humorous YouTube video to promote the ASR 9000 and in March 2008 announcement of the ASR was preceded by a series of humorous videos on the registration site for a webcast to announce a mystery new product.

Now, Cisco has launched an online game featuring the Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers giving players opportunities to win prizes over a two-week period. The Cisco Edge Quest 2 Tournament started Monday, February 23 and runs through Friday March 6 at www.cisco.com/go/edgequest.

It is Cisco's second such initiative for the ASR 9000. According to Doug Webster, senior director of service provider marketing for Cisco. "The customer response to our first Cisco Edge Quest tournament was so positive, with more than 40,000 players worldwide, that a tournament around Cisco Edge Quest 2 was easy to plan."

He added: "We've become a society where video and web 2.0 collaboration applications are shaping virtually all of the network experiences that we use throughout our daily lives. What we are attempting to do with the Cisco Edge Quest 2 tournament is to showcase the innovative Cisco ASR 9000 Series router that is one of the many ways that Cisco is enabling those connected life experiences."

According to Cisco, the game is fast and fun. "Players are encouraged to release the power of the Cisco ASR 9000...by manoeuvring a craft through various levels in order to handle the increasing demands on IP networks...You will have the chance to defend yourself against network intruders, repair damaged packets while striving to maintain a 99.999 percent uptime. It is fast and fun, and the learning comes through playing."