Connecting golf with high-speed technology
How MVT turned Cisco's USGA partnership into Read the Line — a social-first video franchise that explains enterprise technology through golf analogies, starring the game's biggest names.
A growing golf footprint in search of an ownable story
Cisco is increasing their footprint in the world of professional golf, with a roster of world-class golf ambassadors and official partnerships with the USGA and The R&A. The company wanted to evolve their content approach into something more strategic, memorable and ownable.
Read the Line: golf analogies for enterprise technology
Utilizing Cisco's partnership with the USGA, MVT developed a series of social media videos that explained Cisco technology's real-world impact at the U.S. Open through golf analogies. The Read the Line series played off the accessible, fourth-wall-breaking explainer style popularized by The Big Short — simplifying the complexities of Cisco technology into lighthearted videos starring Cisco's ambassadors.
Filmed on location at the U.S. Women's Open and U.S. Open.
Recognizable golfers, real championship locations
Each episode paired a Cisco ambassador with a real corner of the championship grounds, where they used simple golf analogies to “read the line” on the Cisco technologies powering the USGA behind the scenes — a format that made complex enterprise solutions feel authentic to both the athletes and the setting.
A format built for two championships
Rather than simply placing professional golfers on-site to discuss Cisco technology, we set out to create a format that would make complex enterprise solutions approachable for a broad audience while still resonating with business decision-makers. From the outset, the strategy centered on treating both the U.S. Women's Open and U.S. Open as complementary storytelling opportunities — ensuring equal representation across Cisco's male and female ambassador roster while aligning each athlete with a technology that naturally connected to their environment on the course.
Whether discussing secure networking, Wi-Fi, collaboration, observability or AI, each video translated highly technical solutions into concise, engaging stories that felt authentic to both the athletes and the setting. By filming on location throughout the U.S. Women's Open and U.S. Open with Nelly Korda, Hannah Green, Jess Korda, Maverick McNealy, Cameron Young and Viktor Hovland, the series gave audiences a behind-the-scenes look at how Cisco enables a world-class championship experience while displaying different areas of the course grounds.
"Read the Line solved a challenge we'd been working toward for years — it made our technology genuinely relevant inside live sports, in a format we can run again and again."
[Client Name] — [Title], Cisco
A scalable content franchise
The concept quickly generated significant excitement across Cisco's internal stakeholder groups because it solved a challenge the partnership had been working toward for several years: making enterprise technology relevant within the context of live sports. The format gave product marketers, partnership teams and social channels a repeatable creative platform capable of showcasing multiple technologies through a consistent visual identity, while giving ambassadors a natural, personality-driven role that felt genuine rather than scripted. The result was a scalable content franchise that elevated Cisco's presence throughout championship season, reinforced the value of its partnership with the USGA and demonstrated how thoughtful creative strategy can turn complex technology messaging into engaging, social-first storytelling.
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