Businesses of all kinds across industries continue to stress the importance of collaboration and idea sharing. In response, companies such as Microsoft and Facebook are introducing collaboration platforms similar to Slack. Slack knew that to continue to grow, they needed to raise awareness of Slack specifically and collaboration tools overall with the people who would be using them.

Our campaign strategy was grounded in two observations: there wasn’t a concise way to explain Slack, and the majority of people didn’t understand Slack until they experienced it. After exploring many metaphors, analogies and other words you haven’t heard since English class, we realized the key to explaining Slack lay in what it is: central to your organization. It’s a hub for collaboration.

We applied that same thinking to our creative executions. We wanted to let viewers experience Slack, complete with channels, reactions and file sharing—but in a more engaging way than a demo. Channels proved to be the key—to Slack and our creative approach. When you switch channels in Slack, your entire context shifts. We built on that idea—literally and figuratively. Previous Slack campaigns have focused on the magic the platform enables. As we were looking to engage a larger market, we wanted to keep the campaign grounded in everyday interactions but with a Slack twist. All the action takes place live, in person, including when the hero switches channels and is whisked to an entirely new environment. This was paired with elements of the Slack UI onscreen—and occasionally in person—to make the connection clear between feature and benefit. We took the Slack and channels message global, with adaptations for France, Germany and the U.K. And of course, online as well with a series of display ads, online video ads and social posts.