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Are you working alongside a rockstar? Are you a rockstar? Ozzy Osbourne is a bona fide metal icon, a living rock legend, and, apparently, someone you should call up when you’re dealing with payroll issues. In a teaser for Workday’s first-ever Super Bowl commercial, one office worker asks another, “Who’s the new guy?” “I don’t know, but he’s supposed to be some kind of rock star.” Cue Ozzy, 74, to swivel around from his workstation to ask, “Which one of you wants a piercing?”
The thing is, Ozzy’s not the only “rockstar” working in this company. Workday, the “enterprise software company that helps its customer community of 60M+ people adapt and thrive in a changing world,” enlisted the help of modern guitar god Gary Clark Jr., Joan Jett, and two additional rock icons for their game spot. In a second teaser, a woman tells a coworker they’re a “rock star.” Garry Clark Jr. happens to be standing there…but apparently, the woman meant the other guy.
The spot, directed by Jim Jenkins and developed by ad agency Ogilvy, is Workday’s attempt to raise awareness of how it can help businesses succeed in these modern times. “No matter what’s going on in the world, organizations can count on Workday’s enterprise management cloud to adapt and thrive in a changing world,” Workday writes in a blog announcing its foray into Super Bowl commercial world.
“More than 50% of the Fortune 500 rely on Workday every day to manage their two most important assets—their people and their money. We are the digital backbone for businesses and are mission critical in helping organizations transform and succeed. Put simply, at Workday we are shaping the new world of work.”
“This ad reflects the evolution of our brand over the past 17 years to where we are today, and supports the next stage of our growth,” says Pete Schlampp, Workday Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, in that blog post.” With more than 60 million people using our products, we are a household name. We see being part of the Big Game as an immense opportunity to show up for and entertain new and diverse audiences.”
“This is something we’ve been budgeting for and thinking about for a while,” Pete Schlampp says in an interview with Variety. “When there are economic slowdowns, we know that companies that invest in their brands get a great return on the other side. We feel confident about making this investment.”
As for getting rockers who found glory and fame ditching the 9-to-5 world as spokespersons for their work software to manage finances and human resources? “This is not what you’d expect from a typical enterprise software company,” Schlampp told Variety. “This is really fun and bold.”
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