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Case Study: How WeWork India tackled workspace myths using relatable work-life scenarios

The campaign aimed to redefine WeWork’s perception by using relatable office scenarios and innovative 2D+3D visuals for wider engagement. Here's a case study on the same.

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WeWork India introduced the 'Your Office, Your Way' campaign to address misconceptions about its workspace solutions and highlight its flexibility for businesses across industries. The campaign used relatable office scenarios paired with 2D+3D graphic treatments and life-size props to create visually engaging product windows. Released simultaneously in various formats across social media, it aimed to connect with a diverse audience and present a broader understanding of WeWork's offerings. This case study dives into what went behind crafting the campaign. 

Category introduction

At the start of FY ’24 - ’25, the sector’s market size stood at approximately US$ 3.5 billion, with a total of 167,700 seats leased in flexible spaces across India. Flex space offerings at the time encompassed roughly 61 million square feet of space. This is despite global macroeconomic challenges. The Indian office market in particular showed resilience, with new office leasing remaining strong. The current demand for flexible workspaces is being propelled by a range of sectors, including information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services (ITeS); banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI); consulting; e-commerce; manufacturing and emerging startups. This trend is forecasted to continue into 2025.

Brand Introduction 

WeWork has established itself as a name in India’s workspace sector, competing in a market alongside players like Smartworks, Awfis, Cowrks, Springboard, Regus, and Simpliwork. Catering to a wide spectrum of clients, from solo entrepreneurs to global Fortune 500 companies, the brand provides flexible office space solutions designed to meet diverse business requirements.

Objective

The company has often been associated with young, upwardly mobile professionals, frequently viewed as a workspace for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and startups. Known for its collaborative environment and appeal to entrepreneurs, the brand has since undergone a significant transformation. Over time, it has expanded its scope to serve not just startups but also large enterprises and Fortune 500 companies.

The job to be done was to tell the world that these office spaces weren’t the domain of a select few. It was to communicate a host of features and service offerings to office-goers across India and inform, educate and alter established notions. But there was one invisible thread holding them all together. And that’s what formed the cornerstone of the creative strategy which Fundamental, the agency behind the work, tabled long before the actual campaign was created.

Brief

The approach was simple enough, the company needed a myth-busting approach to bridge the gap between the public perception of its workspace offerings and the actual benefits it provided.

Creative idea

There are some truths about office life that transcend sectors and industries. No matter what it is you do, no matter how big or small your business, employees will be employees and employers, well, employers. These behavioural insights were used to craft a campaign relatable to all of India Inc. Slice-of-life moments from various corporate setups were juxtaposed against the company's wide and attractive array of offerings with the simple logic of 'There’s a lot you already know about offices. Now here’s something you didn’t know.'

Through the campaign, the company told its target audiences everything that they needed to know about the brand, but didn’t. Its ability to provide fully personalised workspaces was showcased, as was the option of diverging from the generic WeWork aesthetic to accommodate unique client needs. By drawing parallels with everyday office instances and using very identifiable characters and practices, the intent was to resonate with anyone who has ever worked in an office setting.

Execution

Of particular interest was the conceptualisation and execution of the product windows for the videos. Realising the vision behind them proved to be somewhat challenging, a study in craft. After toying with several ideas (miniatures, AI, etc.), WeWork’s real estate images were replicated using a 2D+3D graphic treatment that gave it an eyeball-grabbing visual appeal. Knowing that product windows were typically when audiences started to lose interest, this representation of the brand’s services made sure that curiosity didn’t flag when important information was being disclosed. An entire day of the shoot was dedicated to creating the product windows, a mix of CG and in-camera (life-size props painted black and white + people) shots, with a keen eye on keeping the perspectives just right. 

Another interesting execution strategy was that the campaign was deployed not in bursts, but all at once. 45-second edits, 30-second edits, and 15-second edits were released simultaneously across all social media platforms and each of them played their part in landing the core proposition of the campaign right from Day one. 

The campaign had a runtime between September to October 2024.

Customise Your Office

Flexible Solutions

End-to-End Solutions [Value for Money]

Your Brand, Front and Center

Results

Quantitative: 

  • The campaign resulted in a 1.3x reach of the initial target and a lift in brand awareness of 14%. Clicks were recorded at ~860k [1.7X of initial target], leading to a savings of ~25% on impression costs. 
  • Website traffic increased by approximately 60% compared to the same period in the previous year.
  • The average lead quality improved YoY by almost 100% as compared to the same period last year.

Debosmita Majumder, Chief Marketing Officer, WeWork India, said, “For a long time, WeWork India has been seen as startup-centric, but our clientele has fast evolved to become enterprise-led. However, market awareness of this shift has been limited, and we aim to change that with this brand campaign. As the needs of corporate India have evolved, enterprises and Fortune 500 companies are now seeking flexible real estate solutions that meet the unique demands of today’s workforce. WeWork India is equipped to provide productive workspaces, exceptional services, and scalable solutions for all office-goers across cities in India.”

Pallavi Chakravarti, Founder and CCO, Fundamental, added, “Sometimes you just have to tell it like it is. Given the sharpness of the problem we identified, the solution wrote itself. Our target audience spans interns to head honchos and everyone in between. Anyone who has spent any time at all in a professional environment understands all too well the tropes we’ve leaned into with this campaign. So while there are many things about office life they all know to be true, there are some truths they are oblivious to. Like how much sense it makes to take up office space at WeWork India.”

wework campaign wework india WeWork India Your Office, Your Way