Cisco Systems extends its #LoveWhereYouWork contest to add ‘May the 4th’ element

Cisco Systems’ #WeAreCisco recruiting effort has always been composed completely from employee-generated content. Part of its 2017 effort included the second annual #LoveWhereYouWork contest, which encourages employee sharing about why they think Cisco is a great place to work. It’s the winner in the “Talent Recruitment” category of PR Daily’s 2017 Content Marketing Awards.

The contest was held in February, but a second installment took place in May. That contest started with a single question at the final all-employee meeting of 2016, in which an employee asked the CEO if Cisco could show off its geek pride by celebrating #Maythe4th. (For those unacquainted with this unofficial geek holiday, the full Star Wars-themed expression is “May the 4th be with you.”) The CEO agreed and assigned an executive sponsor to the effort. 

The contest featured employees sharing their reasons why Cisco is a great place to work, this time replete with Star Wars costumes and props. The event commenced with the ringing of the opening bell at NASDAQ, which shared some employee posts on its Times Square tower. Local employees posed for some of their photos in Times Square. 

Two Facebook Live events added momentum, along with content on Snapchat and Instagram Stories. There was even a faux job description for a Jedi Knight, which attracted 25,500 visits and 103 actual replies (generating responses from Cisco, which added the candidates’ information to its database). 

Overall, the campaign inspired more than 400 employee entries to share the relevant hashtags. @WeAreCisco trended on May 4th. 

For a truly innovative recruitment campaign, congratulations to Macy Andrews, Carmen Collins, Casie Shimansky, Anjali Bhatia, Katie Metzler, Sarah McCall, Nan Davis, Ally Taylor, Rowan Trollope and Danna Christensen.