Cisco’s “There’s Never Been a Better Time” was a global brand campaign announced on May 3, 2016—not a new 2026 launch. Cisco used the platform to argue that digitization could help organizations address business, civic and social problems. It combined customer and partner stories, digital and social distribution, channel-ready marketing assets and a high-profile advertising execution featuring Ewan McGregor.
The campaign mattered because it tried to move Cisco’s identity beyond networking equipment. Rather than promote one product, it presented Cisco as an enabler of connected infrastructure, modern operations and digital transformation.
What Cisco launched in 2016
Cisco’s original announcement described “There’s Never Been a Better Time” as a new brand campaign centered on technology optimism during rapid digitization. The announcement followed discussions with customers, partners, employees and influencers; Cisco said those groups remained optimistic about technology despite the disruption associated with digital change. Cisco’s May 3, 2016 announcement also promoted the hashtag #NeverBetter.
This was not a conventional product launch. Cisco connected the campaign to its solutions and services, but the primary job was to create a broader association: Cisco as a technology platform and transformation partner rather than simply a supplier of switches and routers.
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Why the slogan was deliberately provocative
“There’s never been a better time” sounds almost implausibly cheerful when placed against political, economic and social uncertainty. That tension was intentional. In coverage of the advertising work, Cisco and agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners described the line as a way to acknowledge anxiety while arguing that disruption created reasons for organizations to innovate rather than wait. The Drum’s June 17, 2016 report provides that creative context.
The phrase therefore worked as a persuasive reframing, not a literal claim that the world had become uniformly better. Its simplicity made it memorable; its ambiguity gave Cisco room to tell stories across industries.
What Cisco was really selling
The campaign’s sales function was brand-level preference. It linked Cisco with the infrastructure and capabilities that organizations were beginning to associate with “digital transformation” in 2016:
- Connected people, devices, buildings and public infrastructure.
- Digitized business processes and data-driven operations.
- Mobility, remote work and collaboration across locations.
- Security, resilience and smarter transportation systems.
- Technology-enabled social and environmental initiatives.
A story about safer work or a smarter city could create favorable associations with Cisco networking, security, collaboration, data-center, mobility and Internet of Things capabilities without becoming a technical product advertisement. The product connection was often indirect by design.
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The campaign’s story engine
Cisco’s launch material cited examples intended to make an infrastructure company’s value tangible. They included bringing water to communities without reliable access, making jobs safer, making cities smarter, saving human and animal lives, supporting conservation and improving transportation infrastructure. Cisco presented these as customer, partner or solution stories; the available material does not independently audit the outcomes or isolate Cisco technology’s causal contribution.
Examples Cisco highlighted
| Story area | How Cisco framed it | Evidence qualification |
|---|---|---|
| Water access | Connectivity and technology helping communities obtain water. | Cisco campaign example; no independent impact figures are established here. |
| Search and rescue | Technology supporting emergency response and life-saving work. | Referenced in Cisco partner campaign materials; outcomes are not independently audited in the cited sources. |
| Smart cities and transportation | Connected systems intended to improve urban services and infrastructure. | Cisco’s marketing framing, not a universal claim that Cisco delivered every result. |
| Conservation | Connected tools used to help protect endangered animals. | Presented in Cisco and partner storytelling; quantitative conservation results are not supplied. |
| Whirlpool | Network modernization, mobile-workforce support and global infrastructure improvements. | Described in a Cisco-published case-related post. |
Cisco later adapted the platform to industry narratives, including retail. Its retail post used the campaign to discuss reimagining customer and operating models through digitization: Cisco’s retail campaign post. A separate post about Whirlpool described network modernization and support for mobile and global operations: Cisco’s Whirlpool-related post. These should be read as Cisco-published case-study claims, not independently verified performance reports.
How the advertising brought the idea to life
The most visible creative component came from Goodby Silverstein & Partners and featured actor Ewan McGregor. According to The Drum, McGregor served as the campaign’s optimistic voice, and the “Pep Talk” spot ran during Game 6 of the 2016 NBA Finals. The execution used a human, conversational tone rather than technical language, expressing wonder about what connected technology could make possible.
That choice solved a familiar B2B-marketing problem: enterprise infrastructure is important but rarely emotionally legible. A recognizable storyteller and cinematic treatment made an abstract proposition—digital systems can help organizations act—easier to remember. The trade-off was reduced product specificity; viewers might remember the optimism without knowing which Cisco capability produced a particular result.
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This was an ecosystem campaign, not simply a television commercial. Cisco’s partner announcement described co-marketing resources distributed through its then-current partner-marketing systems, including social posts, digital assets, guidance and a playbook. It also promoted training and marketing education for partners. Cisco’s partner announcement shows how the company expected channel organizations to adapt the theme and distribute it through their own programs.
The model gave Cisco scale: partners supplied local credibility and customer access, while Cisco supplied a common narrative and reusable materials. It also introduced message-control risk. A broad slogan could be adapted inconsistently, and partner claims could be harder for Cisco to substantiate uniformly.
What “digital” meant in this 2016 context
In the campaign, “digital” was a broad strategic idea rather than a narrowly defined product category. It covered connected devices and infrastructure, redesigned business processes, data-informed decisions, mobile work, smart-city systems, security and cross-industry transformation. That reflects the enterprise-marketing usage of “digital transformation” at the time: changing business models, customer experiences, operations and underlying infrastructure, not merely moving files or services online.
It is important not to project every later meaning of digital transformation onto Cisco’s 2016 language. The campaign’s promise was intentionally expansive, allowing the same platform to travel from retail and manufacturing to public infrastructure and conservation.
Evaluating the campaign’s strategic trade-offs
| Dimension | Strength | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Optimism versus credibility | A distinctive, memorable response to uncertainty. | Can sound tone-deaf unless tied to concrete problems and evidence. |
| Human storytelling versus product detail | Makes complex infrastructure understandable and emotionally engaging. | May leave buyers unclear about the specific technology being offered. |
| Global platform versus local relevance | One adaptable idea can span countries, sectors and partners. | Broad execution can become generic without a specific customer problem. |
| Partner participation versus control | Extends distribution through trusted channel organizations. | Creates inconsistency and makes claims harder to govern. |
What the campaign says about B2B technology marketing
Infrastructure brands can be emotionally legible
Cisco used people, places and social outcomes to explain why networks matter. This is a useful alternative to leading with specifications alone.
Purpose needs proof
Social-impact stories broaden an enterprise brand’s relevance, but they are most credible when each story identifies the customer problem, the intervention and measurable evidence. Cisco’s materials supply the narrative examples; they do not, in the cited sources, supply independently audited campaign or impact metrics.
A flexible platform can support many industries
The line “Never Better” gave Cisco a common frame for retail, manufacturing, cities, emergency response and conservation. The same flexibility also makes disciplined attribution and local specificity essential.
Channel enablement can turn a campaign into a system
Playbooks, social content and co-branded assets let partners participate instead of merely repeating corporate advertising. For enterprise marketers, that distribution architecture may be as important as the hero commercial.
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- The available sources do not provide verified figures for reach, conversion, sales impact, brand lift or partner participation.
- Cisco’s customer and partner stories are not independent audits of social or operational outcomes.
- There is no basis here for saying the original campaign remains active in 2026.
- The original Partner Marketing Central materials, training courses and playbook may not still be available under the same names or interfaces.
- The campaign should not be confused with every later post that used #NeverBetter.
Bottom line for readers studying Cisco’s brand strategy
“There’s Never Been a Better Time” was a 2016 corporate-and-commercial platform that combined purpose-led stories, celebrity advertising, digital distribution and partner participation. Its significance lies less in the slogan by itself than in the way Cisco used optimism to reposition an infrastructure company as a participant in digital transformation. The approach was strongest when a broad promise was anchored to a specific customer problem; it was weakest when uplifting language outran independently verifiable evidence.
Frequently Asked Questions
Was Cisco’s “There’s Never Been a Better Time” campaign launched in 2026?
No. Cisco announced it on May 3, 2016. References to it as a new 2026 campaign are chronologically incorrect.
Was Ewan McGregor in the entire campaign?
McGregor was a prominent voice in the advertising work, including the “Pep Talk” spot. The broader campaign also included customer, partner, industry and channel-marketing content.
Did Cisco publish independently verified results from the campaign?
The cited Cisco and trade materials describe the strategy and examples but do not establish independently audited reach, sales, brand-lift or social-impact results.
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