• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, June 21, 2013

Every night, Cisco Systems calculates 5 million cookies that have been placed on consumers’ computers. So said Paula Wang, senior manager of marketing platforms at Cisco, as she waded into the company’s data strategy. “We can do a lot of fun things with that,” Wang said regarding the cookie data.

There are surefire ways to know whether consumers are in the market for certain products and services, Wang said. “If consumers are looking at price comparison charts… you know!” That’s how the company quantifies what it calls “engagement scoring,” Wang added. “We do in-campaign engagement scoring.” How does Cisco proceed from there? “Consumers will immediately get a welcome letter from us… We design lots of scenarios for the nurturing journey… Through that process, we score [consumers] … Depending on that score, we may call [consumers] or our feet on the street with knock on their door.”