The Big Meeting

Slack’s new features come to life with song and dance in “The Big Meeting,” an eye-popping comedic musical that charmingly illustrates how the popular workplace communications platform makes productivity easier. Brand New School developed the creative concept by working directly with the brand, rooting the creative in Slack’s specific goals and brand identity while taking ambitious creative swings.

In the film, directed and co-written by Brand New School’s Chris Dooley, a sales team uses Slack to prepare for a customer meeting, and a central character insists on making it a big production - literally - lyrically calling for fancy graphs, searching through files and emails, and gathering the stats - and sparkling water - he believes will make the meeting successful. Meanwhile, his co-workers use Slack’s tools and features to get work done, with the film coming to a close as the lead realizes that all he needs is Slack.

Dooley says of the collaboration, “We’ve been working directly with Slack for about three years, so we have a deeply personal insight into the platform, the wonderful people running it, and their priorities. When they said they wanted to focus on productivity, we identified early on that there is a misconception that peak productivity requires non-stop work. Based on this insight, we pitched a musical that playfully illustrates the fallacy of constant work leading to optimal productivity, and Slack was on board with it; it represented the tone, voice, and strategy everyone wanted.”

Emphasizing automation, knowledge, and collaboration, the spot is set to increase Slack’s salience across a broader range of product features. Breaking free from its misassociation as just a direct message tool, Slack is the AI-powered productivity platform. The bold film resolves the mistaken belief that peak productivity means non-stop work. Rather, Slack enables a more pleasant way to accelerate productivity to propel businesses forward without the extraneous fuss. Tying into this message, the tagline “productivity without the big production” cinches off the commercial as a punchline with a point.

“Brand New School are exceptional creative partners whose breadth and depth of creativity and production capabilities know no bounds," says Colin McRae, VP of Global Brand Marketing & Creative Strategy at Slack. "With 'The Big Meeting,' we wanted to showcase Slack's latest innovations, enabling effortless productivity in a delightfully unexpected way. This clever musical film playfully brings to life how features like automation, search, and integrations reduce busywork while improving team collaboration - all through a whimsical spirit true to Slack.”