Home Improvement

It's time for some home improvements. Season 3 is just around the corner and FY’09 planning is in full swing right now.  Although we do this all the time there are many tweaks and improvements being considered for the show.  For the most part, I think we consider the ‘content’ of the show to be ‘on the mark.’  Two things we are working on now is 1. Structuring the team for growth (how do we produce more content with the same budget and team) and 2. How do we continue to grow our audience. 

I will address audience tactics in a later post so let me comment on it briefly here first.  Relatively speaking, we have been very successful so far when compared with Cisco programs of the past.   That is great and we are enjoying the accolades but if you compare our audience numbers with that of ‘total addressable audience, (all the IT people in the US?)  independent of previous Cisco results’ then we have a LONG way to go. Which is really pretty exciting.  More on this later.

There three areas in my mind that can give us immediate results in the area of ‘doing more with less’ as we move into Season 3.
1. Integrate with more Cisco product launches
2. Become more of a service.
3. Formalize our partnering strategy.

1.  Integrate with more Cisco Product Launches. I have often felt that one of the tough things about getting the word out when it comes to cool Cisco technologies or happenings we tend to get ‘lost in our own noise.’  Bottom line - we (Cisco) have a lot going on.  As a company this is why we get choosy about what gets the most funding and resources when it comes to product launches.  Video is not new at Cisco.  Cisco already produces a ton of videos, we have been doing corporate video long before it was ‘cool.’  Quantity in this sense however does not equal quality however and many of Cisco videos (internal generally) can be very informative but a little dull.  This is where TechWiseTV comes in.  We have a developed a brand, a loyal and growing audience and an experienced team that can take a product message, integrate it with the smartest technical minds from a given team and get noticed through the noise.   This also means that Jimmy Ray and I get to play with and talk about the coolest new tech stuff.

2. Become more of a service.  We need to do more shows that are joint funded by the teams whose products we are discussing.  One benefit:  Better access to the right people and the right equipment when it comes to preparing the right message.  When we drive 100% of our own show ideas, we have to spend a lot of time tracking down the right resources and convince them to give us some time.  When that same team is investing in us everything changes to the win/win angles we most enjoy.  ‘Here is our best TME’s for this subject.... we have already sent gear to Jimmy Ray in the code cave so he can break it down... here are some confidential documents to help build the story...’  That is what makes for a great show!   There is of course a drawback to this - and it comes up when we work on product launches:  Launches are very stressful events for all involved and by definition they represent new technologies that are not always ready at day 1.  Jimmy Ray is a true engineer and he won’t talk about something he can’t actually prove out through his own hands-on experience... this can be tricky to pull off when everyone is stressing to hit a launch date.  It is a fun time though and worth the trouble in our minds.

3. Formalize our Partnering Strategy.  The idea here is to do a better job of tapping into the fans of a non-Cisco technology featured on the show. It is amazing how many people follow a SolarWinds for example. We have played with this since episode 1 kicked off with great demos that included RSA and Trend Micro. We have since tried to always find good technology partners to help us round out a message on a given show.  This is in line with our sincere belief that our audience already knows we are going to talk about Cisco... we are not an independent voice... but we can certainly be responsible with a message and highlight the complimentary things that our technology partners are doing to provide more complete solutions.  Recent work by our Executive Producer Brad Murphy is starting to show a lot of promise in this area.  He has done the grunt work to get permission from Cisco to do joint sharing of the marketing info we generate that would be of value to our partner for a given show and help set up the proper quid pro quo that ensures we both get something out of working together.  This should continue to expand our audience.

There is more we are potentially looking at of course.  These are just the three I am most focused on right now.  We are in a great position right now with the popularity of the show and the internal accolades we are getting.  This is the best time to push forward however and redefine the category we have created.  The only way to do more shows without increasing headcount is to be smarter about how we use the resources that become temporarily part of our team each time we work on a new show. We are getting better and better at this and I look forward to what we will accomplish together.

Robb