Viral videos generate buzz for Cisco, other B2B firms

Sneaker manufacturers and video game makers are no longer the only companies wooing the YouTube masses with provocative videos. Now even firms like San Jose networking giant Cisco Systems -- a company that primarily sells to other businesses -- are producing edgy clips to generate buzz.

"B2B companies weren't in early because they presumed the kinds of things that went viral weren't mature and respectable enough to be appropriate for business customers," said Courtney Buechert, president of San Francisco ad agency Eleven Inc. "But now they see it as a way to create awareness that the product or company exists."

Cisco put out a video this summer to generate interest in its communications and telephony offerings, which aren't as well known as Cisco's core business- switches and routers used to link data networks. Buechert said Eleven's corporate clients -- such as BEA Systems and Business Objects, both in San Jose -- are considering viral videos as well.

That type of attitude shift is contributing to the growth of online video, which accounted for 2.4 percent or $410 million of the $16.9 billion spent in online ads in the United States in 2006, according to eMarketer. That percentage is expected to leap up to 9.8 percent in 2011 as advertisers are predicted to spend $4.3 million in online video ads out of the total $44 billion earmarked for online advertising.

The campaigns are cost efficient, particularly because posting the clips on social networking and video sites costs very little compared to the millions spent for placement on TV or in magazines. And, unlike traditional campaigns, many of these mock amateur segments are designed to keep viewers guessing at their origins.

"We decided to put it out there and see what happened," said Rick Moran, Cisco's vice-president of product and technology marketing. The company released a clip of a businessman ostensibly having a riotous meltdown in a hotel lobby after being unable to reach a colleague, find an electrical outlet, or get a cup of coffee. "It started the controversy, 'Is it real or is it fake?' which is always good on the web." The Cisco clip, which has attracted

2 million unique viewers since it hit the web in late May, appears to be shot by hotel security cameras. It takes three minutes, with no mention of Cisco, to get to the segment's end, where a web address is posted. Those who go to the site -- so far, about 45,000 -- find Dr. Mimi, a beige-clad virtual life coach, explaining the toll poor business communications systems have on one's mental health, eventually offering a phone number to Mimi's "partners" at Cisco.

"It's a delicate balance, between being as entertaining as possible and trying to be honest as to who you are," said Bill Firing, senior partner of the ad's creator, Ogilvy West, which employs 200 in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

And another risk, said Moran: "If it doesn't work, you can't make it disappear quickly."

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