Social media use was central to the storytelling of “Sleep with Rain.” Instead of launching on Instagram or TikTok where our actors have millions of followers, we did what every business owner must do and started from the ground with 0 followers on LinkedIn. With a single post, Rainn Wilson quickly got thousands of followers and triggered big conversations, including from top executives and famous investors like Barbara Corcoran and Daymond John. After the cast joined the endeavor, a full ecosystem utilizing social media and our cast’s social voices launched the company and engaged the audience throughout the journey.

With small business enthusiasm at a 10-year low, AT&T Business did the unexpected: we reunited the cast of the worst-run office ever (The Office) and asked them to help calm the nerves of business owners. Since business owners reported suffering from sleep deprivation due to the worries related to their business, we launched a talking pillow filled with positive affirmations. Because if AT&T Business can help The Office cast run a small business, we can help anyone. Each cast member was responsible for a different business archetype — from ‘Expert’ to ‘Community Builder’ to ‘Visionary’ — and all business owners had their own custom track, created to help relieve small business anxiety. But a talking pillow and an album, connected seamlessly by a phone weren’t enough. We created a business that manufactured these talking pillows, to show that anyone can start their own business. Even Rainn, Craig, Jenna, Brian, Creed, and Kate. Our tagline summed up our strategy: You Can’t Dream If You Can’t Sleep.

Running a small business is hard. It’s full of challenges that keep owners and decision-makers up at night worried about a lot of things, from inflation to connectivity. And with small business enthusiasm at a 10-year low, AT&T Business did the unexpected: we reunited the group famous for being terrible at running a business and launched a new company with them. Because if we can help their dream of running a business come true, we can help anyone. While B2B campaigns are often unrealistically positive, we tapped into real business owners’ anxieties and transformed them into laughs and entertainment.

With small business confidence at record lows, AT&T Business knew we couldn’t run a typical B2B campaign. Instead, we launched a completely new business led by a group of people who have a history of running a terrible business (The Office). The missing piece: AT&T Business. We tapped into business decision-makers’ sleep deprivation behavior to create our product: a talking pillow, designed to help people sleep, with Rainn Wilson’s voice. When the hype about the new company run by Rainn Wilson, Jenna Fischer, Craig Robinson, Brian Baumgartner, Kate Flannery, and Creed Bratton was at its peak, we dropped our 6-minute episode showing the struggles and anxieties of ‘Launch Day’ — the same that business owners face every day. And how AT&T Business can have their backs and give them the confidence that, when it comes to connectivity, AT&T can help anyone succeed.

We knew the best way to shift business optimism wasn’t through the unrelatable positivity or serious approach commonly used in the B2B category. Instead of hiding the real fears and anxieties of running a business, we transformed these into entertainment and laughs. Because if business owners could see some of their favorite people, famous for being terrible at running a business, successfully starting a small company, they too could build back their confidence with the right partner. We didn’t just reunite America’s favorite TV colleagues. We put them in real situations that only AT&T Business could get them out of. They launched a product — a pillow with built-in speakers with Rainn Wilson’s voice — designed to help with sleep deprivation (a commonly reported struggle of running a small business). And a hilarious sleep audio album, with tracks created based on owners’ archetypes, that could be synced to the pillow.

First, we went where businesspeople talk business: LinkedIn. Instead of launching on Instagram or TikTok where our actors have millions of followers, we did what every business owner must do and started from the ground with 0 followers. With a single post, Rainn Wilson quickly got thousands of followers and triggered big conversations, including from top executives and famous investors like Barbara Corcoran and Daymond John. After the cast joined the endeavor, the product was announced: Sleep with Rain, a talking pillow with Rainn’s voice that helps people sleep. A full launch ecosystem for the company was created: a website where business owners could know everything and get their pillows, an infomercial, a Spotify album created based on different business archetypes narrated by the cast, and teasers. With the hype at its peak, we dropped a 6-minute film directed by the award-winning Mark Molloy showing their struggles.

In less than two weeks, the campaign became the most successful in the history of AT&T Business. It made a splash in pop culture, with over 2.5 billion impressions in high-impact publications such as Fast Company, USA Today, People, AdWeek, and Entertainment Weekly to name a few, ranging from Shanghai to Argentina. The films had 150 million+ views in just 7 days. With a 99% social sentiment score, not only were more people than ever engaging with the brand, but they were happy about it. Our owned social posts received 400% more engagements than the brand’s previous top-performing campaign and an impressive 7,720% increase in social impressions versus 2023. Paid social also outperformed numerous benchmarks. The video view completion rate for short-form social outpaced benchmarks by 57%. And the engaging creative also helped facilitate a more efficient media buy, which outpaced expected impressions by 37%.

B2B campaigns are often too serious or unrealistically positive. We wanted to tap into the real anxiety of business owners and inject it with levity. What better way to challenge the tone of the category than to use America’s most popular sitcom known for its business blunders. We wanted to prove that if they can succeed in starting a new venture, anyone can, while putting a smile on the faces of our target audience. While other B2B campaigns ran away from the real struggles of running a business, we invited the audience to laugh at it, and made entertainment and humor the strategy to give them back the optimism they were missing.