Agency: Ogilvy West
Name of campaign: “The Human Network Effect”
Launch date: September 2008
Creative credits: Chief creative officer: Dan Burrier; group creative directors: Jeff Compton, Bob Strickland, Peter Kang; creative director: Johann Conforme; associate creative director: Sam Bergen; art directors: Noel Kouwenhoven, Sloan Smith; associate creative director/copywriter: Lisa Carey; copywriter: Ned Selover; UE director: Henry Kuo; general manager creative production services: Julie Salik. Production company: @Radical Media; executive producers: Frank Scherma, Tommy Turtle; director: Tarsem; DP: Brendan Galvin. Editorial company: Lost Planet; editor: Kim Bica; composer: John Lennon. Sound mix company: Ravenswork; sound mixer: Robert Feist
Why we liked it: This splendid integrated campaign, called “The Human Network Effect,” demonstrated the value of Cisco's Telepresence—the company's video conferencing product. The campaign, which focused on the recession and the subsequent cutback in business travel, used two key elements to get the point across that Cisco Telepresence saves money, is an improvement over previous teleconferencing technology and cuts back on the human inconvenience and disruptiveness of business travel. The first key element was a rich media ad for the product. When potential customers interacted with the ad, they could calculate the number of miles saved by not traveling from, say, New York to Shanghai (7,364) or Paris (3,859) or San Jose, Calif. (2,547). Each mileage calculation is accompanied by a short, humorous video. A businesswoman in the Paris video, for example, notes in a French accent that videoconferencing was supposed to change business and “perhaps it did if you enjoy awkward pauses.” The point is that Cisco's system has eliminated this technology issue. The other key element of the campaign is a well- executed TV spot that emphasizes the monotony of business travel. The spot features CEOs reciting the flight attendant safety spiel. It's deadpan advertising humor at its best and drives home the benefit of Cisco's Telepresence: “It's business travel without the travel.”
