B2B advertising can be boring and uninspired. Since our competitors haven’t traditionally run Super Bowl ads, it presented a rare opportunity to insert Workday into a larger conversation and claim a bit of the national spotlight. Activating around a universal insight - the use of the term ‘rock star’ in business - made Workday relevant. Putting rock stars in a corporate setting made for fertile comedic ground, as did delivering product messaging in an authentic way. It paid off in tracking and brand health measurements. Humanity and humor - two things B2B advertising sorely lacks - won the day.

Workday is a finance and HR company with 50% of the Fortune 500 as customers. While it has grown massively since its founding in 2005, it struggles with brand awareness among prospective buyers: C-suite executives. To meet its goal of reaching $10 billion in annual revenue by 2025, Workday had to think big. They needed to make everyone, not just senior professionals, care about a B2B brand. That’s because while those senior professionals are Workday’s customers, the brand must also appeal to a much wider group: shareholders, analysts, prospective employees, and 60 million users.

“You’re such a rock star!” Inside the halls of many offices, this is the ultimate compliment for a job well done. But ever think how that makes real rock stars feel? The legends who have trained, toured and lived the hard rocker life to earn the title? Workday, the finance and HR company responsible for creating more rock stars than any other, enlisted five rock legends to send a message to the corporate world: Stop calling each other rock stars. These rock stars banded together and showed up wherever ‘corporate’ types are to let their feelings be known. From social media, to the Wall Street Journal, to the biggest stage - the Super bowl, “Rock Star’ takes a simple universal insight - something said every day in every office - and turns up the volume on the usual B2B conversation.

Workday has a global presence, marketing in six key markets around the globe and competing with B2B juggernauts the likes of Oracle, SAP and Microsoft Dynamics for attention and consideration from software decision makers. While those senior professionals represent the core of Workday’s customers, Workday’s brand must appeal to a much wider group in order to grow - including shareholders, analysts, prospective employees, and 60 million users. Claiming a universal insight - the use of the term ‘rock star’ in business - was something that made Workday relevant to a broader audience with a simple, familiar phrase. Using humor and nostalgia was key to break through the usual corporate jargon. And since our competitors do not traditionally run ads around the Super Bowl, it was a rare opportunity to insert Workday into a larger conversation and claim a piece of the national spotlight.

‘Rock Star’ brought together five legends of music: Ozzy Osborne, Paul Stanley, Joan Jett, Billy Idol and Gary Clark Jr. with a message to the corporate world: Stop calling each other Rock stars. The process began with finding the right mix of talent to fully represent the rock and roll community. Each scene was crafted to represent the true nature the artist, from Joan Jett’s tour bus, to Billy Idol’s custom leather jacket, to the iconic Kiss sign on stage. With high rock star energy, our unlikely spokespeople teased the campaign on Linked in and Twitter, then took the biggest stage ever, the Superbowl to reach a broader audience. From our teaser campaign to the promotional activities organized within the halls of Workday, the campaign was crafted to embody rock star rebellion.

‘Rockstar’ outperformed our legacy messaging and audiences showed increased positive sentiments towards Workday on brand perception attributes including trust, adaptability, product knowledge and innovation. The campaign’s performance, depending on channel, ranged 2-10x more impactful than what we see for a typical Workday campaign. Our earned media efforts secured 4.35B+ earned media impressions, while the buzz for Workday on game day across organic social (Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook) drove 3.1M+ engagements, 141M+ social impressions, and 10K+ mentions. We exceeded expectations for follower growth with 15K net-new followers and an overall 93.6% positive sentiment. Aside from growth in site traffic, Workday’s owned digital experience drove dramatic engagement: YouTube +70% views, and our Rockstar.com landing page +4.5x engagement.