Pick a term to describe B2B advertising. People usually think that it's not very interesting. Perhaps it's predictable. Or, could it be filled with a sense of wonder, reflecting the unique gifts that talent brings to a business? With Hollywood legend Barry Sonnenfeld (Men In Black, Pushing Daisies) leading the work, Fairytale Workplace came to life with ambitious visuals and production design to tell a breath-of-fresh-air narrative about why work matters.

The :30s ad subverts the bedtime story tradition as it opens with a young girl reading at bedtime to her dad. While the story’s rhyme scheme is traditional, as the reader turns the pages, viewers are brought into a dreamy world of vibrant CG scenarios that bring to life the power of the unique UKG Life-work Technology™ approach in a colorful and fantastical way.

As a leading provider of HR, payroll, and workforce management solutions for all people, UKG’s mission is to create great places to work—and this campaign opens up a joyous, colorful world of possibilities that's a real-life fairytale.

As a new merged entity, we were starting with low brand awareness and even lower brand perception. We needed to do everything we could to bring the UKG brand to life and stand out in a category that’s constantly innovating and increasingly talking about people-focused solutions. So, we set out to create a spot that shows just how magical your workplace can be with a little help from UKG.

The campaign launched with a splash during the opening game of the World Series, and features different work environments in a fairytale landscape, showing key decision makers that, with an HR partner like UKG, your fairytale workplace can become a reality.

Ambitious visuals and production design play a crucial role in telling a breath-of-fresh-air narrative about why work matters. Precise details in every phase ensured that the bold vision was clear.

The camera was used not as a recording device, but as a storytelling device, creating work that appears seamless. This required a tremendous amount of structure and trust that design and all other production elements would come together—especially in a finite 30 seconds—to purposefully create a far-from-real world brought to life straight out of a storybook.

Everything is hyped up and bigger than reality to come from the imaginative fantasy of a young child. The ad is full of wonderment, exaggerations and vibrant colors, resulting in something that was as visually interesting and adorable as possible.

A recent survey of 2,000 workers and 2,000 managers in the U.S. and the U.K. proves that there’s a major disconnect between workers and business leaders. While almost 90% of employees feel connected to direct colleagues, less than 15% feel connected to HQ. Even worse, just 3% feel connected to their C-suite. About 50% of workers admitted they feel voiceless and don’t share ideas with senior team members. That disconnect affects everything from the employee experience to the bottom line.