Led Marketing for Cisco’s Live From Home Series, Earning a Cisco Giving Back Award Nomination

When COVID-19 shut down venues and disrupted a critical source of income for working artists, AppDynamics and Cisco Webex launched Live From Home: a free weekly virtual concert series that brought live music into people’s homes while raising money for arts nonprofits and creating paid opportunities for performers. The program began with $20,000 in funding to pay artists and was built around three goals: hire performers whose income had been disrupted, raise money for arts charities through audience donations and Cisco matching, and give community artists greater exposure by pairing them with established headliners.

I led the cross-functional marketing team across the full eight-week rollout. We began with a four-week employee beta to validate the concept, then expanded it into a four-week public series. My role spanned campaign and launch strategy, team and workstream leadership, Cisco and AppDynamics activation, messaging, creative and video development, artist and nonprofit amplification, and executive outreach, using weekly audience feedback to refine the campaign.

Coverage: Cisco Newsroom · Webex blog

The challenge was to make a corporate-hosted virtual event feel like a genuine cultural experience, not another webinar, while moving quickly enough to support artists during the shutdown. The approach centered on leading with entertainment and impact: themed concerts and established headliners gave audiences a reason to attend, while paid opportunities for performers and nonprofit fundraising gave the series a purpose beyond brand promotion.

The series began with a four-week internal beta on Webex before expanding into a four-week public series on Cisco’s Virtual Experience Hub. During the beta, my focus was on building the promotional foundation and learning what worked: establishing a consistent cadence around each show, refining messaging and creative, gathering audience feedback, and improving the approach week over week.

When the series moved public, my focus shifted to scaling that system for a much broader audience. I expanded promotion across Cisco corporate and business-unit channels, subsidiaries, AppDynamics, social platforms, artists, nonprofits, and community partners, while keeping each weekly event consistent and recognizable.

1. 1

   Led the cross-functional marketing team. I oversaw workstreams spanning internal employee outreach, executive communications, Cisco and AppDynamics social and paid activation, external communications, newsroom and blog coverage, artist outreach, nonprofit partnerships, and creative production. I set the weekly cadence and kept each team aligned around upcoming performers, deliverables, and launch dates.

2. 2

   Created a scalable campaign toolkit. Working with the AppDynamics creative team, I developed core messaging and a modular set of social kits, email banners, posters, weekly lineups, host and artist slides, and self-promotion assets that could be adapted for each performer, genre, nonprofit partner, audience, and channel.

   

   

   

   

   

   

3. 3

   Activated Cisco’s full internal and external ecosystem. Pre-event promotion included executive emails, a Cisco Employee Connection homepage takeover, regional listservs, Webex Teams messages, weekly lineup graphics, and a Cisco Store fundraiser that directed purchase proceeds to the featured nonprofit. During each show, the series was distributed through Cisco’s Virtual Experience Hub, Brightcove, and Cisco TV, then amplified through Cisco and AppDynamics social channels and LinkedIn Elevate. Cisco Newsroom, We Are Cisco, and executive blogs provided editorial coverage, while recap highlights and donation graphics extended the campaign after each performance.

4. 4

   Expanded promotion through artist and community networks. I worked with artists' personal and professional networks, managers, nonprofits, venues, and community partners to extend the series beyond Cisco-owned channels and give every performer and partner ready-to-share materials.

5. 5

   Developed content and used feedback to improve each week. I led Cisco social activation, partnered with agency Hi5 on launch and recap videos, contributed hands-on video editing, created a companion Spotify playlist, and translated pilot surveys, audience response, and artist feedback into recommendations for the next concert.