Cisco
The AI Era Runs on Cisco: An Integrated Campaign
An integrated campaign for Cisco’s positioning as the critical infrastructure for the AI era. One idea, “The AI era runs on Cisco,” carried across paid social, display, email, print, collateral, a 20 × 20 ft booth, signage and a merch kit, built on Cisco’s current brand.
- Client
- Cisco
- Role
- Concept, Art Direction & Design
- Year
- 2026
- Disciplines
- Integrated Campaign, Art Direction, Event & Experiential, AI-Assisted Production
- Credit
- A Canvas & Core Labs client project, directed by our co-founder Somaiyeh Ghaffarnia
The Brief
Cisco needed one integrated campaign built on its most current brand guidelines, spanning digital advertising, email marketing, print advertising and collateral, and event and experiential design. The campaign had to turn Cisco’s positioning, “the critical infrastructure for the AI era,” into something IT leaders would notice and remember.
The Insight
Every enterprise is racing to put AI to work. But AI can only move as fast, as safely and as reliably as the infrastructure underneath it, and that infrastructure is invisible until it fails.
The Idea
Make the invisible visible. Each piece shows what AI does, then reveals what it runs on. The device is the Signal Line, a glowing horizon of light: Cisco’s light ribbons flow above it, and below it the sign-off “The AI era runs on” hands the sentence to the Cisco logo.
How I Built It
I directed the campaign and produced it hands-on with AI tools. I built the strategy, copy and coded layouts with Claude as my production partner, and produced the photography and every physical mockup in Gemini from my flat designs. I chose the direction and reviewed every piece against Cisco’s brand guidelines. Product facts and figures come from cisco.com.
Strategy & Big Idea
Campaign Strategy · Creative Concept · Copywriting
Cisco’s own line is “the critical infrastructure for the AI era.” The campaign needed one idea simple enough to survive a 320×50 banner and big enough to fill a booth wall.
The headline sets the stakes, “AI is only as strong as what it runs on,” and four layers carry the proof, each tied to a real product: faster (AI networking and Silicon One), safer (Hybrid Mesh Firewall and Smart Switches), smarter (AgenticOps and Cloud Control) and clearer (Splunk observability).
Brand System
Brand Research · Visual System · Key Visual
The system follows Cisco’s current brand as it appears on cisco.com in October 2026: the brighter cyan logo, midnight text, the action blue for links and calls to action, Inter as the typeface, pill buttons and frosted glass cards.
The key visual recreates the silky light ribbons from Cisco’s current brand film as a generative system, so each format gets its own composition from the same light. The sign-off lockup sets the wordmark on the text baseline at matching cap height, so the logo finishes the sentence.
Digital Advertising
Paid Social · Display · Art Direction
Paid social runs one headline per layer in feed and story formats, plus a proof-led story built on a figure from cisco.com: 750B+ security events observed daily.
The LinkedIn carousel is cut from a single 5,400-pixel panorama, so the ribbon and the Signal Line run unbroken across all five cards. The display set adapts the network headline to six standard IAB sizes, down to a 320×50 mobile banner.
Landing Page
Web Design · Conversion Design · Copywriting
Every ad and email drives to one campaign landing page. It opens on the hero line and the Signal Line, proves the platform with Cisco’s own figures, then walks through the four layers, two deeper stories on AgenticOps and AI-ready data centers, and the security proof.
It ends where the campaign converts: guides for IT leaders, the booth invitation and a short form to talk to a Cisco expert. The page converted 5% of visitors from the digital ads, and it works as a single column on phones.
Email Marketing
Email Design · Copywriting
Two emails carry the campaign into the inbox. The launch email walks IT leaders through the four layers with Cisco’s proof points, and the booth invitation turns the campaign into a reason to show up: a daily demo schedule, executive briefings and the kit.
Print Advertising & Collateral
Print · Editorial · Sales Collateral
A hero spread and a security full-page ad for business titles, built at 300 dpi to trim size. The spread runs one ribbon across the gutter and lists the four layers beneath the line.
For sales teams: a tri-fold guide for IT leaders that moves from why it matters to four moves to AI-ready, and two solution briefs, AI-ready data centers and AgenticOps, with working QR codes to cisco.com/ai.
Event & Experiential
Booth Design · Environmental Graphics · Signage
A 20 × 20 ft island booth puts the sign-off at architectural scale on a backlit back wall, with a four-sided hanging sign and one demo counter per layer. A demo theater runs each layer on the hour, and banner stands, a wayfinding easel and the theater screen carry the schedule.
I designed every graphic flat, then photographed the booth, signage and theater in Gemini using the flats as references.
Merch Kit
Merch · Packaging · Print
Visitors who finish a demo leave with the Runs on Cisco kit: a matte black box with the key visual on the lid, a tee with the sign-off across the back, a cap, a bottle, a notebook with a Signal Line band, die-cut stickers and a badge on a printed lanyard.
