Richard Carriere of Corel Corp.

Subservient chickens, boardroom babies and evil cat-eating cars.

Believe it or not, such wacky concepts are quickly becoming serious business for executives who realize viral marketing over the Internet can be an effective, low-cost way of spreading their message.

One of the latest examples of this phenomenon comes from Ottawa's own Corel Corp., which launched WordPerfect Office 12 earlier this month. Part of the launch consisted of a web site, seewhogotfired.com, featuring a handful of short movies designed to tickle the funny bones of viewers.

The key is that it's not immediately obvious what brand is behind the movie clips or what the overall point is. That way, the stealthy site is steeped in mystery and entices the user to figure out who put it together.

Usually, the content of viral sites is funny, taking the form of tongue-in-cheek "mockumentaries". Some material is provocative, while some is downright controversial. If all goes as planned, the site appeals to users, prompting them to send the link to their friends until it propagates like a virus.

In one Corel movie, The Napprentice, babies surround a boardroom table much like Donald Trump's reality TV show, The Apprentice. The four contestants are tasked with finding "the perfect office productivity suite". One contestant overspends, another buys an incompatible product and a third buys solely for the name. After hiring the winner, the remaining three are told by the gruff boss, "You're tired, go to bed".

"Now get me out of here before I pee my pants," the boss says. "... too late."

According to Richard Carriere, Corel's director of office productivity, the idea came from a saying Corel had heard time and time again: "Nobody gets fired from buying Microsoft".

"But we said, 'Hold on a second. There are viable alternatives out there. And if a CIO or IT manager does not at least consider the other types of software, they probably wouldn't deserve to keep their job or get a promotion'."

While Carriere could not comment on the exact percentage of users who go from Corel's viral site to its main site, he says "the click return rate" is high.

"Compared to any other type of online marketing tools that ask a person to click into a site, I've never seen such high returns. Significantly, a large percentage of the viral site's traffic comes from external references or isn't triggered by our own initiatives."

If a company's viral site catches on, it can be a very low cost campaign, he added, which is what Corel was looking for.

"A much larger company would just broadcast their ads and send them to mass audiences so they know they'll hit their target market one way or the other because they're paying big dollars. But we cannot afford to spend tens of millions of dollars on our advertising."

While a viral marketing effort can be cheaper than other avenues, a company must be careful that the message's meaning isn't misconstrued by the audience, said Michael Mulvey, assistant professor at the University of Ottawa's school of management.

If this happens, a viral campaign could do more harm than good, he said.

Mulvey recalls hearing about one vodka company out of New Zealand that featured testimonials from so-called employees on what it was like to work at the company. To the horror of many viewers, the employees said their working conditions weren't quite as bad as working in a sweatshop.

Recent controversy also surrounded a Ford SportKa movie clip that depicted a curious cat sticking its head through the sunroof of a parked car. Suddenly, the sunroof clamps down on the computer-generated feline, separating head from body. The limp, headless cat slides down the windshield, landing on the driveway with a thud. The tag line reads: "Ford SportKa, The Ka's evil twin", making reference to a popular model called the Ka.

Ford Motor Co. immediately distanced itself from the ad as groups against animal cruelty voiced their opposition.

Meanwhile, Burger King's subservientchicken.com has piqued the curiosity of some web surfers. Consistent with the restaurant chain's tag line, "Have it your way", the site has a guy in a chicken suit obeying hundreds of commands thrown at him by visitors.

While the chicken does a lot of things, there are, thankfully, some things it won't do, reads one web site that critiques online viral campaigns.

So far, a lot of the success of viral web sites is anecdotal, with several unsubstantiated reports claiming viral sites have been accessed by millions while travelling around the world three times over, Mulvey said. BMW, for example, claims its viral movie clips featuring Hollywood stars have attracted more than 30 million viewers since they were launched a few years ago.