Goodby Silverstein & Partners is back to partnering with a big technology client: The S.F. agency, which ended its relationship with Hewlett-Packard last fall has been tapped by Cisco Systems Inc. The shift ends the networking giant’s relationship with OgilvyWest, L.A. which worked with the company for the past 10 years.
It could not immediately be determined if a review had been conducted for the business.
This year the San Jose, Calif.-based marketer returned to its networking core message and “Human Network” positioning after branching out into consumer offerings like the videoconferencing system featured in the 2011 humorous ads fronted by Juno actress Ellen Page. In a new OgilvyWest campaign at the start of the year, Cisco returned to the b-to-b space as it talked to its enterprise customer base and once again presented itself as a technology thought leader in the face of a growing number of rivals.
In discussing the agency change in a blog post, Blair Christie, Cisco’s chief marketing officer, claimed the company is now one of the top 20 global brands in the world and said: “While we are proud of our global brand position, we have more work to do to help people understand the role that Cisco plays in bringing powerful connections to the world. To that end, we are pleased to begin a new relationship with Goodby, Silverstein & Partners as our branding and advertising partner moving forward.”