“Hey, corporate types – will ya stop calling each other rockstars?” pleads Paul Stanley, the star-eyed lead singer/guitarist of KISS, at the start of Workday’s commercial for Super Bowl LVII. It appears that Paul isn’t the only rocker who is annoyed with the 9-to-5 world appropriating the “rockstar” term, especially when they don’t live up to the moniker. Billy Idol boasts how he’s “trashed hotel rooms in 43 countries,” while Joan, referencing her time in The Runaways, says she was “on the road since I was 16.” But, it’s the Prince of Darkness himself that delivers the great line. “I’ve done my share of bad things,” Ozzy Osbourne. “Also, your share of bad things.”
“We know that using Workday for finance and HR makes you great at your job,” says Paul. “That don’t make you a rockstar,” adds Gary Clark Jr. “Unless you work with an actual rockstar, “says Billy – before we see Gary and Ozzy in a corporate environment. “Hi, I’m Oswald,” says Ozzy, ditching his trademark coat and rings for a tie and a desktop computer. When someone tries to drop the “Rockstar” complement in a meeting, in comes a stern-looking Paul to shut that down.
In the teasers for the commercial, audiences were treated to environments where there really were corporate rockstars. In one preview, an 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. 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.”