The challenge: introducing a brand new product that you couldn't sum up in one sentence. So, instead, we created a product demo. But not your usual product demo.

We gave film actress Ellen Page and her seven closest friends a Cisco ūmi and let them explore. And we filmed the results. There were no scripts. No camera tricks. No one-line zingers crafted by teams of writers. Just real friends. Using a real product. Having real conversations.

Because the best way to advertise a product that enables real, human connection, is to show some real, human connection.

Ellen and her friends spent over two days with ūmi, leading to more than twenty hours of footage – enough to create almost thirty commercials. Some spots appeared on TV, others showed up online. We even built custom experiences for the iPad. Print and rich media banners also supported the launch.

The campaign spread virally, receiving scores of mentions across the web. The Cisco ūmi Facebook page has since attracted over 23,000 followers, offering previews of upcoming commercials. The ūmi site itself received over 400,000 visitors, eager to see the promise of this new breakthrough product.