Watch above or read below.

Matthew Burns:
We talk about something called a random entry.

Stephen Semple:
Yes.

Matthew Burns:
Okay. And the reason why we talk about random entries and writing ads with a random entry is because you can turn any concept into the concept that you want to talk about. With any concept, you can talk about the subject matter that you want to talk about. They did the antithesis of rock stars and work being the same thing. They completely divided it and showed how ridiculous the entire thing was.

You’re a rockstar. And it’s like, no, you’re not. You’re Joe from accounting. And I was like, this is so funny because I mean, it allowed rock stars to probably give their true feelings.

That’s probably why everybody seems really authentic. But like Billie Idol in work clothes, Gwen Stefani looks good. They didn’t take the face paint off, which is brilliant. And nobody ever comments on the fact that he’s wearing face paint through the entire thing.

Stephen Semple:
Oh yeah. They just ignore it, right?

Matthew Burns:
Yeah, yeah.

 

Office Manager:
Who are my rock stars?

Office Staff:
We are!

Gwen Stefani:
Oh, so you corporate types are rock stars?

Billy Idol:
Oh well, that’s just as ridiculous as rock stars being corporate types.

Presenter At Front of Room:
I’ve got to say, Workday’s AI agents are making you all rock stars.

Billy Idol:
*Throws at screen* Sorry, habit, proceed.

Paul Stanley:
So that’s a slide. Any questions?

Woman At Table:
*murmuring* So many questions…

Paul Stanley:
Anybody?

Office Worker:
Has anybody ever told you who you look like?

Gwen Stefani:
Gwen Stefani?

Office Worker:
Gwen Stefani, no. Rachel, from HR.

Second Worker:
Rachel from HR! She’s a total rock star.

Gwen Stefani:
Rachel, from what?

Office Worker:
Gwen Stefani??

Second Worker:
What are you talking about…

Third Worker:
I can’t believe my AI agent scheduled all my meetings.

Paul Stanley:
Why are we doing this?

Fourth Worker:
Hey, rock star move to use Workday to handle all of our AI agents.

Gwen Stefani:
Well, watch me handle my agent. *dials phone* Gary, almonds, you know how many. *chuckles* Gary…

Billy Idol:
I love Workday’s AI thing.

Fifth Worker:
Like how it gives us visibility into all of our AI agents.

Sixth Worker:
Even the third-party ones.

Fifth Worker:
Right.

Billy Idol:
*shouts* Third party!

Group:
Yeah!

Seventh Worker:
And now with Workday, we can manage our people and digital workforce. I’m sorry. Who are they?

Gwen Stefani:
Oh, interns.

Bodyguard:
We’re interns.

Gwen Stefani:
Interns.

Seventh Worker:
Big interns.

Eighth Worker:
Shout out to Carmen for using Workday to manage our people and digital workforce.

Billy Idol:
What are we doing?

Gwen Stefani:
Just clap.

Ninth Worker:
So what did you do this weekend?

Paul Stanley:
The usual.

Gwen Stefani:
Tell you what. We’ll stay out of your world. You stay out of ours.

Tenth Worker:
*crowd surfing* Guys, I have a 2 o’clock. I’m going to be late to my 2 o’clock.

Paul Stanley:
Good night! I’ll see you tomorrow.

Eleventh Worker:
Good night.

Matthew Burns:
Those are big interns.

Stephen Semple:
Oh, she’s like, “Here’s how I manage my agent? Gary Almonds. You know how many.” *laughs*

Matthew Burns:
Okay, so this, I want to respond to this. This is your ad.

Stephen Semple:
What’s interesting is that it was what, a two-minute version? And they’ve actually cut that into, when you see it on television, that’s actually a series of 30-second ads that they sort of strung together. I’m just going to say my favorite one is, oh man, you look like Gwen Stefani. No, that’s not it.

So there’s the whole random entry, there’s the whole entertainment. But the other part is that they also tapped into common language. It is used in the business world. Oh, you rocked. Oh, you’re such a rock star. When you do something well and you do something good, it’s not uncommon for somebody to go, Oh, Dave rocks, right?

And as you said, now they leaned into it and said, let’s take that idea to the extreme. It’s the classic, let’s take the joke and let’s take it too far. That’s what makes it funny and ridiculous. And then let’s incorporate real rock stars. Who’s that? Interns, right?

Matthew Burns:
Billy Idol chucked a mug at the display and goes, oh, sorry. Habit. That’s on me, guys. Sorry about that. I’ll pay for another.

Stephen Semple:
Or the clapping. What are we doing? Just clap. Just clap. Just clap. Here’s the thing. I was not able to find any stats or anything like that on how well this ad works. But it has been running for quite a long time on things like CNBC and CNN. So, really serious shows and even a lot of the advertisers are very serious. And then in comes this absolute ridiculousness.

But here’s the interesting thing. They were still able to get their message out, like, “Oh my AI, I can’t believe my AI agent booked all my meetings for me. What are you doing this weekend? Oh, the usual.”

Matthew Burns:
It’s a bunch of ridiculousness.

Stephen Semple:
So they managed to string that whole thing up, taking common language, common desire. I want to be the rock star at work. I want to be seen that way.

Matthew Burns:
Exactly.

Stephen Semple:
Took it to the ridiculous, but did it in a manner in which they could still actually get their core message out that these are some of the services that we provide. Just enough curiosity that you go, maybe I need to look into this workday thing.

Matthew Burns:
Well, and with this long-form content. So this would be a good plan on YouTube, you’re going and searching for this to watch the entire thing. I’m thinking of the Harmon brothers when they did the Squatty Potty ads. So, what they did a really good; they took about 50% of the time you were being entertained, and they put inside of that entertainment about 50% of the time they were talking about actual features and benefits. And they were blending those two things, like you said, really well together. And it works really well in that long-form content. I honestly say I haven’t seen the smaller ads.

Stephen Semple:
I actually think the small ads almost work better.

Matthew Burns:
I would agree. Especially for something like television. I believe so as well. Now I’m going to have to go look and watch some of those. But just the comedy throughout it, all of the nuanced things that we would not think to do as regular people. But when we talk to ad creatives to go like, well, wait a second, rock stars, you behave like this. And we wouldn’t get this as normal humans.

So when we write for our clients, you’re a strategist 99% of the time. And so when you give instructions to somebody like me as a creative, you’re usually saying, okay, hey, listen, that was good, but how do you push it a little bit further? How do you put it all the way out there? And the biggest reason for that is because it’s so ridiculous that it’s now entertaining versus it’s not quite ridiculous enough that it’s hokey or somebody might take those stats wrong.

There are a lot of things when you just move past the needle, you haven’t really gone red line when you go ridiculous. And I love that they went completely ridiculous and allowed me to chuckle and giggle through the whole thing. And I thought it was just really entertaining. And I definitely know what their AI agents do way better.

Stephen Semple:
Now they also did one clever thing. So Gwen Stefani may not be somebody you would recognize. What I love was the whole, you look like Gwen Stefani, because then you’re like, oh, right, that’s who that is. Otherwise, your choice is not to do it or caption it. None of those things would’ve worked. So they also found this clever way of bringing her name in and just let it happen, which I thought was quite clever.

But yeah, it’s the leaning the whole way into it that made it fun, made it entertaining. They managed to get their message out, and yes, and the office people stayed office people, and the rock stars stayed rock stars.

Matthew Burns:
Yeah. I just love the absurdity on people’s faces. Whenever one of the managers, the middle manager, was like, you’re a rockstar. And they’re like, come on, I’m a rock star. Yeah, I’m a rockstar. This was really good. Again. So some of the takeaways for me are, guys, be interesting. Tell a funny story. Get into it. Lean all the way in. Don’t be afraid to be ridiculous.

Just make sure that when you do that in your advertising, you are remembering the core message. So the one thing that– I think the reason why you like the smaller ones better is because each one of those small messages, I guarantee, was about one of the things that the AI agents do.

Stephen Semple:
It was.

Matthew Burns:
So they were able to tell…

Stephen Semple:
Each one was a single idea. Which, to me, was that it was for me; it was interesting watching it as the full thing. I had never seen it as the full thing. I had only seen it in the individual commercials. I’m going to say it actually worked better as each one was an individual idea.

But it was also, we’ve talked about this before, it’s about a desire. What’s my desire at work? I want to be the rockstar, which is the reason why that language and positioning worked. And look, we know when we say we’re a rockstar at work, we know it has a different meaning. But still, that’s the language and the desire, and they leaned into it. Took it to the fun of ridiculous. I think it was brilliant.

Matthew Burns:
Yeah, no, I thought it was really good. So thank you. I appreciate you sharing that with me. On our next episode, I want to do something slightly different. Are you good with that?

Stephen Semple:
Absolutely. This is your gig, right?

Matthew Burns:
No, I get it. But I’m going to lean on you for some stuff. So guys, come back next week. Alright, we’ll see what we talk about. Okay. Thanks, buddy. I appreciate you.

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