Mixing Business with Humor

With the current state of the economy, everyone could use a little bit of humor — even corporate America. A lot of business owners, however, may think that comedy has no place in their companies, especially in marketing. But Tim Washer, social media manager at Cisco Systems, disagrees and is coming Stamford this Wednesday to explain why.

“The Business Case for Nonsense: Late Night Comedy Meets Corporate Social Media at Cisco” networking event, which is sponsored by The Fairfield County PR Association, will feature Washer as the keynote speaker. The program will be held at and starts at 7:30 a.m.

Before joining Cisco, Washer’s career took some interesting twists and turns. He had been working in corporate communications for years, when, in 1998, he decided to take some improv classes under SNL alum Amy Poheler at UCB Theater. His experience performing with Poheler eventually led him quit his job to begin writing a screenplay.  

“I did okay,” he told Patch, “But then my daughter was born and I had to go back and get a job. So I joined IBM as a speechwriter, but I was still writing jokes for David Letterman and getting to know Conan [O’Brien]. I continued to do that for a while, but I wasn’t able to do it full-time.”

In 2004, Washer was able to convince IBM to allow him to incorporate some of his humor into messaging for the company. His first piece was an internal video, and by 2006, he was creating videos that were being posted YouTube. Washer was then offered a position at Cisco as social media manager, where he’s in charge of producing social media content and viral videos to promote the company’s products.

“Before you go off and start doing Facebook and Twitter, you have to have a good story to share,” he said. “The story has to be entertaining and contain knowledge that people will want to share. If you lack either of those, it’s not going to work. And the most effective approach to entertainment is comedy. If you can make somebody laugh, they’re grateful for that. And that’s what I try to do — something that’s funny and will hopefully make our community stick around a bit longer.”

One of Washer’s most recent projects was to promote Cisco’s Videoscape Media Suite, which allows consumers to bring together content from pay TV, online, and on-demand sources. Washer and his team came up with a humorous online video [which can be viewed in the gallery above] to show consumers how lonely their TVs have been since they've been spending so much time with their computers and mobile devices.

“We wanted to show how TVs are feeling lonely and abandoned,” he said. “So, in the video, we had them to go to a TV support group. You see all of these televisions sitting around talking about their struggles. It’s ridiculous, but that’s what makes it fun.”

Washer also hopes get the message across on Wednesday that small businesses are uniquely positioned to use humor in their messaging.

“You don’t need a huge budget,” he said. “But you do need someone that can write comedy. Find a local film school in or around Stamford and talk to one of the professors, so that they can point out the students that have a good sense of humor. Those students might be willing to do an internship and create the content for you. Smaller companies, in general, are more agile and have a little bit more freedom."

Washer also finds that humor works well with internal communications. With the amount of emails that employees receive growing day-by-day, using humor might be the key to getting more of them to open and read the messages. “If you add humor, you improve their attention span and comprehension,” he said. “Humor can be tremendously powerful.”

There’s always a thin line, however, between making people laugh and offending them, especially in corporate America. Washer said that while the creative process he uses to write for late-night TV and for Cisco is pretty much the same, he always has to be a little bit more careful about what he writes for his company.

“I definitely use more sensitivity when writing for corporate America,” he said. “I mean, my material has always been clean, even when I do stand-up in New York City. I even perform at my church. But when working for a corporation, you always have to try to keep the humor just as funny as you’d see it on late night, but be a little bit more cautious.”

Wednesday's event is $35 for pre-registered members, $45 for pre-registered non-members and $50 at the door. For more information, visit http://www.fcpra.org/.