Cisco and bees. Bees? Yeah, you read that right. Bees had a little promotional stint at Cisco Live 2022 in Las Vegas, so let’s dive in and find out why.
Cisco Live is Cisco’s biggest annual conference, providing Cisco customers and partners access to many talks, educational content, and networking opportunities. In 2022, Cisco Live took place as a hybrid conference, creating event experiences in Las Vegas and online.
Attendees of the physical conference in Las Vegas got a chance to get their hands on a Bee Revival Kit, an emergency helper for exhausted bees that need a little boost.
Cisco Smart Workspaces inspired by bee hives
The Bee Revival Kit was part of #CiscoWellBEEing, a promotional hashtag campaign by MD Services, a Dutch company specialising in promotion and merchandising. MD Services partnered with UK company BEEVIVE, the creators of the Bee Revival Kit, to promote Cisco Smart Workspaces, a cloud-based platform for hybrid workspaces, during Cisco Live and various upcoming Cisco events.
We talked to Elaine Heaney from MD Services. Elaine is the Project Manager behind #CiscoWellBEEing and the Bee Revival Kit promotion, so I’ll let her explain why MD Services chose something bee-related to promote Cisco Smart Workspaces.
What are Cisco WellBEEing and Cisco Smart Workspaces, and how are they connected?
Cisco Spaces developed a solution to create a safer and smarter workspace for its employees: Cisco Smart Workspaces. Via sensors and WIFI, employees can see in an app where the best air quality, humidity, and population levels are in their building. This way, they can make educated decisions about their preferred work location.
This is very similar to how bees naturally monitor and maintain a healthy environment in their beehive. So Cisco WellBEEing was created to promote Cisco Smart Workspaces (powered by Cisco Spaces) as well as create awareness of our ever-decreasing bee populations and the importance of taking action to improve their numbers.
Could you tell us about the Bee Revival Kit and the partnership with BEEVIVE?
The Bee Revival Kit provides an emergency solution for a tired bee to help it continue its mission of pollinating planet Earth. It contains a specifically formulated bee food syrup to help revive tired bees encountered on the ground.You simply remove the cork from the bottle and allow the tired bee to drink some of the solution so it can regain its strength and continue on its journey. It was invented by BEEVIVE, a company on a mission to save the bees, so they were the natural choice to partner with for our campaign. I’ve used mine a few times in the summer, and it felt so good to see the tired bees revive themselves and fly away!
Cisco Live is the renowned global networking technology brand’s annual conference for customers, partners, prospects, technology innovators etc., to gather for education, networking and inspiration. It offers technical sessions, meetings with Cisco experts, and robust online education offerings. It is the place to transform one’s outlook, career and potential through direct learning from Cisco’s best and brightest.
During the event in Las Vegas, the Bee Revive Kit was handed out to attendees (the same will happen when Cisco Live comes to Amsterdam in February 2023) by our Bee Brigade, who also did a flash mob bee dance. Upon scanning the QR code attached to the keyring tag, they’re sent to the campaign website and encouraged to post a picture on social media using #CiscoWellBEEing.
This not only creates awareness of Cisco Smart Workspaces (powered by Cisco Spaces) and the plight of our bee population. The more posts that appear on the social wall using the hashtag, the more interest is created, and the word is spread.
Where did you show the wall, and how did people react to it?
The social media wall is embedded on the campaign website and has created great interest in our campaign. We created the campaign website and wall to promote Cisco Smart Workspaces (powered by Cisco Spaces) and bees during each major Cisco event.
We’re still nailing down the plans for Cisco Live here in Amsterdam, there may be an opportunity to display it during the event, but nothing has been finalized yet.
Engage attendees with a social wall before, during and after your event!
The hashtag and social wall are promoted by distributing the Bee Revival Kit keyring and internal Cisco communications surrounding the events.
Our Takeaways
Combining a hashtag campaign with a promotional goodie such as the Bee Revival Kit is an excellent way to get attention at a busy event and make an impact. MD Services rounded out the experience by designing the entire booth around it, including the Bee Brigade, swag, and a dance flash mob.
Another great idea is to tie a hashtag campaign to a good cause. It’s important that the tie-in is natural, as it is with the bees and how Cisco Smart Workspaces works. It shouldn’t feel forced. And through the partnership with BEEVIVE, MD Services and Cisco are ensuring that they’re getting everything right regarding the bees and the best tools to help them.
Ideally, the product and the campaign create a promotional loop: The Bee Revival Kit has a little tag with a QR code which leads people to the social wall and landing page. And the posts on the social wall lead Cisco Live attendees to learn about the promotional goodie.
And the best thing is that the #CiscoWellBEEing campaign spans multiple events, from Cisco Live and onwards, so the campaign can gain momentum from event to event. And if someone doesn’t manage to snag a Bee Revival Kit at an event, they can always order one directly on the #CiscoWelLBEEing campaign page!
I also really love that the landing page includes cute little gimmicks, such as a “What type of bee are you?” quiz (for the record, I’m a bumblebee). Things like that tie everything together so neatly.
