Barrett brightens the office with easy to use business software spots
Freshworks, Inc., a business software company dedicated to making accessible, easy to use software for companies of any size, has launched a new Barrett-created brand campaign that aims to show how people feel when they work with software that they actually love to use.
The two 30-second spots, and their 15 and 06 second cutdowns, along with accompanying digital assets are part of a US-focused media strategy that includes partnerships with Bloomberg, Entrepreneur, Fast Company and The Wall Street Journal, high impact display, podcasts, strategic OOH and a programmatic program with CTV. In addition, the work will appear on Freshworks own media channels. It builds on Barrett’s first campaign for the brand following its IPO last January, and focuses on how easy (and fun) work can feel with Freshworks software.
Freshworks has a suite of products for CRM, ITSM, sales, marketing and customer support that work for businesses big and small. The new campaign reframes Freshworks as a one-stop shop alternative to legacy software for all of a company’s business needs. The tagline: “Ridiculously easy software for business.”
Pushing against bloated, expensive solutions and outdated software systems that can feel like they work against and not for employees, Freshworks’ campaign shows how their business software can empower the people who power your business–whether that’s a company of three or 30,000.
“We wanted to show Freshworks’ ridiculously easy software by creating a ridiculously simple visual solution,” explained Todd Eisner, ECD at Barrett. “Our spots have a simple premise – don’t fight with your software – and a clear visual language that reinforces that message in a way that can easily translate across industries and cultures.”
Wanting to break the mould of typical B2B software advertising, both client and agency decided not to discuss specific product features or show interfaces on screen, which are often heavily relied upon. Instead, the campaign uses humour to show the difference employees feel between Freshworks and competitors’ software. In the spots, employees sick of (literally) fighting their software take action and the space is transformed into a Freshworks world inspired by the brand’s logo and colours, where everyone can work the way they always imagined.
“The pandemic and the great resignation have put so much focus on employee experience that companies are now in arms races over perks and benefits to make their people happier,” said Stacey Epstein, Freshworks’ CMO. “But what about improving the work itself? We envision a world where people love using business software. If that sounds crazy, it’s only because of the predominance of bad business software out there. Happy employees make happy customers.”
CLIENT
CLIENT: Freshworks
CMO: Stacey Epstein
VP, GLOBAL BRAND MARKETING: Vasken Guiragossian
HEAD OF GLOBAL BRAND STRATEGY: Cate Newsom
HEAD OF GLOBAL BRAND CREATIVE: Mick Sutter
AGENCY
AGENCY: Barrett
EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Jamie Barrett
EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Todd Eisner
CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Brad Kayal
CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Julie Blakley
HEAD OF PRODUCTION: Conor Duignan
PRODUCER: Marianne Lawlor
HEAD OF ACCOUNTS: Robert Woods
ACCOUNT SUPERVISOR: Corinne Santoro
PRODUCTION
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Where the Buffalo Roam
DIRECTOR: Michelle Pak
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Tim Pries
LINE PRODUCER: Hillary Bergmann
EDIT
EDIT: Where the Buffalo Roam
EDITOR: Jonathan Flookes
POST PRODUCER: Eden Cooney
ANIMATORS: Jess Gibson, Jake Pryor, TJ Sochor, Jonathan Corriveau, Jordan Taylor
COLOUR
COLOUR: Roast N Post
COLOURIST: Sean Wells
MIX AND SOUND
MIX + SOUND DESIGN: M Squared
SOUND ENGINEER: Mark Pitchford
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