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How Cisco’s Tim Washer is lightening things up in social media by making a joke out of the conventional approach to marketing. (this first appeared on FastCompany.com)

The funny thing about comedy is that it works ridiculously well with viral videos. Yet in the it-isn’t-creative-unless-it-sells world of B2B marketing, humor is as rare as the one-armed paperhanger, disarming us with unexpected efficacy. Trying to sell in comedy at most B2B companies is like pushing Jell-O up a hill, a raucously sloppy affair, best left for masochists or the jauntiest of jesters.

One such jester is Tim Washer. Currently the Senior Manager of Social Media for Cisco’s Service Provider division, Washer has spent the last seven years gaining guffaws where few have dared to tread. A former stand-up, Washer’s approach is indeed laughable, helping him to stand out at BDI’s recent B2B Social Communications Forum, where he revealed these seven rules of viral videos you probably shouldn’t share with your boss.

1. Strategy is for Stooges
Washer’s first big viral success happened back in 2006 while he was at IBM promoting perhaps the unfunniest of all tech products: the mainframe computer. The series called “Mainframe: The Art of Sale” which brilliantly mocks typical sales training videos, garnered hundreds of thousands of views, terabytes of press coverage and unlikely interest among college students— a happy byproduct of this effort. Reported Washer with refreshing honesty, “I never did sit down and think okay–here’s the strategy for the video.”

2. There’s No Point in Copy Points
“For a comedy video to be successful it needs to be inspired by some artistic idea versus you sitting down with a PowerPoint and saying, ‘How do we create a video that does all this for us,’” explained Washer. Recalling the spark behind his first viral hit, which had nothing to do with copy points, Washer remembered, “One time I thought, these are million dollar machines, wouldn’t it be silly if a sales person was going through the white pages, cold calling to sell the mainframes.”

3. Forget About Closing the Sale
Acknowledging the long sales cycles of complex tech products, Washer is under no delusion that his viral efforts will lead directly to sales. “I don’t think we are going to sell any products because of this video [but] hopefully we piqued curiosity.” All kidding aside, Washer firmly believes that even in B2B sales, “you are still having a very human connection with somebody at a corporation,” thus more than justifying the need for ice-breaking comedy.

4. Lower Your Expectations
Despite having created a number of viral hits for both IBM and Cisco, one thing Washer can never be accused of is over-promising. Noted a straight-faced Washer, “It is important not to burden the project with too many expectations, such as a call to action.” Instead, he prescribes a more indirect approach: Driving video viewers to a companion site like a blog rather than to a product page. By continuing with the joke, the marketer increases the chances of ongoing engagement.

5. Metrics aren’t Important
Despite having racked up over a million views for his B2B videos including one that remains on ComedyCentral.com, Washer is not a big fan of hard metrics. “We are much more thrilled if an analyst who follows us tweets about the video and just says something positive,” he offered. This emphasis on the qualitative impact of comedy is truly what drives Washer. “One of the strongest human connections you can make is to make someone else laugh.” explained the all too happy Washer.

6. Don’t Take my Partner, Please.
Acknowledging the challenges of cranking out comedy on the cheap, Washer noted that his only flops were when he had to execute without his usual partner for budgetary reasons. “One thing I have learned is the importance of collaboration,” noted Washer, who usually teams up with, funny enough, Scott Teems. “We always come up with something much better together. It’s not just getting two funny people to work together; it’s got to be chemistry, and that’s tough to find.”

7. Strive for Silly; Root for Ridiculous
Explaining his most recent effort for Cisco, the TV Support Group, Washer imagined a world of depressed TVs who had been abandoned as families turned to other devices for entertainment. “Being ridiculous will get you attention on YouTube and help you stand out,” offered the conversation-seeking Washer. “Social media is for telling interesting stories; it is not the place to go with a direct marketing message.” added the momentarily serious Washer.

Final Note

From this writer’s perspective, creating laughs is a genuine service to humanity, one that opens the door to meaningful engagements between marketers and consumers. That said, being funny is hard and it is easy to miss the mark unless you are a professional like Washer. For more of his tips, see my extensive interview on earlier on TheDrewBlog.com

Just after the Marketing VP set the bar at 20,000 downloads in the first six months, Petra Neiger and the myPlanNet game team at Cisco wondered, “How the heck are we going to do that?” The marketing budget was well under $50,000, her team was tiny and each of them had other marketing responsibilities. Nonetheless, when I met Petra this May, the program was already a stunning success and being honored with BtoB’s Social Media Marketing Award for Best Integrated Campaign.

In fact, myPlanNet, a simulation game that “puts you in the shoes of a service provider CEO,” exceeded expectations at every turn. Launched in October 2009, the game surpassed the download goal by 3,200 the end of January and has gained at least 20,000 more players since then. The game has attracted over 60,000 fans on Facebook with players from at least 2500 different companies and over 130 different countries. With 5,000 new fans joining between mid May and mid June, myPlanNet is a case worth studying, revealing six game-changing steps to social media innovation.

1. Get Management Blessing

It’s a fundamental truth that innovation requires support in the highest offices of any company. Not surprisingly, the myPlanNet game concept was “formed out of an internal innovation contest,” noted Ms.Neiger. “The idea was to find an untraditional way to engage our customer and teach them about Cisco,” she added. “Cisco is very big on innovation, wanting to show the human network in action,” offered Petra. That said, management did not write a blank check and instead put a cap on financial resources, limiting the development budget to $200,000 thus requiring the team to make the most of every dollar. This hedging approach to innovation is not unusual and can inspire further creativity as it did with this program.

2. Channel Internal Energy

Often companies overlook the importance of encouraging widespread employee involvement in their innovative initiatives, particularly in social media. This was not the case with myPlanNet. First, noted Ms. Neiger, “we had an internal group that tested the game every step of the way.” This helped keep the program on budget. Then, added Ms. Neiger, “We launched the game internally 2-3 weeks before external launch because it’s a very robust game so we didn’t know how it would work once a lot of people started playing.” This had the added benefits of enhancing morale and as Petra noted, “started a trend inside the company where other groups are starting to play the game and are inspired to try more innovative approaches.”

3. Create Something Innovative

Admittedly, this sub-head may seem a little obvious, but the key word here is “Create” and you’d be amazed how often marketers seek social media success without actually creating something of genuine value for their target. In Cisco’s case, they created a simulation game that according to Petra, was “easy to play but difficult to master; you can play five minutes or you can play for an hour.” One sure sign of success that you’ve created something innovative is unplanned press attention. “We had no PR outreach whatsoever,” added Ms.Neiger, yet the Washington Post, The SF Chronicle, numerous magazines and blogs all reported on the game, which in turn fueled social media engagement.

4. Seed Your Efforts

Bestselling author Doug Ruskoff recently suggested that all a company needed to do was to create a superior product and, in the new world of social media communications, consumers would find out about it and beat a virtual trail to their door. This idealistic viewpoint may ultimately prove to be true but few marketers can or should take this chance right now. At a minimum, marketers need to jump-start the conversation, as was the case with myPlanNet. The game demoed at a big tradeshow in Geneva last October where, noted Ms. Neiger, “We had a camera to record people’s experiences and put these videos and images on our Game Support and Facebook fan pages.” Judiciously allocating their $30k launch budget to demos, welcome ads and content syndication, Cisco also spent $100 per day on Facebook to bring people to their fan page all of which helped spark interest in the game.

5. Keep on Experimenting

Given the dynamic nature of social media, it is essential that once you get started you keep adapting to consumer feedback and experiment as the opportunities present themselves. Noted Ms. Neiger, “six weeks after launch we started doing social media even more and experimenting a lot.” When they started seeing comments in foreign languages, they responded with a monthly report of fans by country. “People have national pride and are very into it so they passed along the link,” offered Petra who noted enthusiastically that users could be traced back to 130 different countries, thus fulfilling an important objective for this unique marketing initiative. Later on they added a holiday challenge, mini-online games and even a multiple choice quiz about the game, all of which increased fan engagement.

6. Think Small

Unfortunately, a lot of innovative programs, especially ambitious ones in the social media arena never see the light of day because their initial funding requirements are deemed to be too large by management. myPlanNet, the game, was built in 13 months with the help of external experts at a budget cap of $200,000. Though previous gaming efforts by Cisco had achieved some success, management still asked, “Why would this be different from what we’ve done before and how do we get the word out?” Petra and her team were quick with answers, having baked in a more “inclusive gaming experience” and social media-friendly elements like in-game testimonials and a dynamic leader board that allows players to see top scores by week, month and all-time. At the same time, Petra noted that “We would have loved to do more personalization within the game and to include a multiplayer aspect,” but that would have required more time and money, changes that might have prevented this winning game from launching in the first place.

Final note: Petra was quick to remind me that myPlanNet, “started as a side project.” Since then, she added, “The company realizes that the game is really good and really successful,” but she “still has a day job” as does the rest of her team–so much for award-winning marketing being all fun and games!

Tag: Cisco

Making a Joke Out of Viral Videos