How Ciena Used Interactive Marketing to Double Global Usage of Its Mobile App

By Gavin Finn On Dec 27, 2018

Augmented and virtual reality allows products to be displayed within 3D environment

There are a lot of ways technology can solve a problem — whether it’s in our everyday lives or in business. But one unexpected fix that’s making waves in the enterprise is augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).

Piper Jaffray estimates that more than 500 million VR headsets could be sold by 2025. Many of those, then, are likely to be used in business settings as well. From neuroscience to workplace training to industrial manufacturing, AR and VR are increasing the ease of use for enterprise applications across the globe.

Take Ciena, for example. Ciena is a global telecommunications networking, equipment, software and services supplier with a large partner network comprised of IT solutions providers (companies that offer IT services at the enterprise level).

The Challenge

Ciena’s sales teams were focused on selling a singular product and needed a way to show its partners its entire vertical landscape of solutions. In other words, they needed a tool that would help elevate conversations with their 400+ global partner companies and speed up the sales cycle.

The Solution

According to comScore, mobile devices dominate total minutes spent online across the globe (71 percent in the United States). And though Ciena sells to businesses, at the end of the day, we’re all consumers. So, Ciena looked to mobile as a means for evolving its selling methodology to become more solution-based.

My company, Kaon Interactive, helped Ciena develop an interactive marketing application that made it faster and easier for its sales teams to learn, share and explore Ciena’s solutions like never before, from anywhere, anytime, on any device (including 3D augmented reality and WebVR). The SPEAR App allows sales teams, channel partners and marketers to demonstrate Ciena’s portfolio of products (data centers and operating systems, for example) at scale within a 3D virtual environment.

SPEAR features industry insights, collateral, training videos, multi-language support and a virtual drawing function. Users can view and walk around products from any angle, take a photo with a product and even interact with it. This enables sales teams to customize the experience for their end-users so they can answer questions, collaborate and close deals more quickly and effectively.

The Result

First launched in 2016, usage of the application doubled in just seven months. By the end of 2018, the hope is that the majority of Ciena’s global sales teams and engineers will use the application regularly to accelerate the sales process. Betsy Hansen, Ciena Director of Global Partner Communications, put it best, “The SPEAR App is a new way to do business.”

No matter your industry, it’s obvious that emerging technologies, whether it be AR/VR, robotics or predictive analytics, can have a measurable impact on the way business is conducted. And from games to the office, we have a whole new world to which to look ahead.