LinkedIn Trades Corporate Polish for Laughs in New Brand Platform

The world is pretty heavy right now, and LinkedIn knows it. So the platform is taking a different approach: it’s getting funny. 

To reach employees and employers alike, LinkedIn has launched a new campaign that tells a unified story about its products and brand.

“The Network That Works For You” focuses on two key areas for LinkedIn users: career growth and business owners. A series of spots — the first work for the brand by agency McCann NY — features comedic workplace vignettes paired with a relevant LinkedIn product.

In “Grow Your Business,” a small business owner uses LinkedIn to run her company while her employees spend their lunch break sparring with robot vacuums.

In “Cat,” an employee uses LinkedIn Premium to find a new job after a co-worker brings his cat to work — tucked into his shirt.

In a third spot, a medical professional navigates the timeless confusion of a hospital gown: front or back? The moment, according to chief brand officer Heather Hopkins Freeland, was designed to stretch beyond any single profession: “Even if you’re not in the medical profession, you get that joke,” she said.

“We built this campaign to break through in a different way,” Freeland told ADWEEK. “We’ve often gone to market with kind of very high altitude, lofty concepts, and what we really wanted to do was ground us as being a part of the reality of the day-to-day of work.”

The spots will run in the U.S. and U.K. across TV, OLV, social, display, out-of-home, and audio.

Comedy as connection

In previous campaigns, LinkedIn used a professional tone, but the social media site wanted to adapt to changing times. Freeland said humor is a way to connect with people authentically and show that LinkedIn can make their lives a little better.

“When we think about what our brand stands for, it is optimism and positivity,” she said. “Humor was our way of saying, ‘Hey, we get you and we have products that are going to help you.’”

While the brainstorming sessions were full of funny personal stories, Freeland said the team wanted to capture moments that felt universal — ones that could make the campaign stretch even further than just the verticals and roles they were covering.

To ensure the humor landed, the creative team tested scripts, storyboards, and rough cuts with internal groups. Many jokes ended up on the cutting room floor.

“We said, ‘Unless we’re going to elicit a little smile and head nod,’ or ‘Unless we’re going to elicit an LOL moment for people,’ it’s not good enough and we’ll keep pushing,’” Freeland explained.

Knowing your audience

That unified comedic voice serves a strategic purpose: reaching the full range of roles LinkedIn’s users occupy. A LinkedIn member could be a premium subscriber, a manager, and a buyer of ads all at once. It was important to Freeland and her team to see their audience as a whole, rather than split them up.

“Having a singular way that we’re showing up ultimately lets every impression work harder,” Freeland said.

And at a time when social networks are facing controversy, LinkedIn wanted to highlight its platform’s virtues. Because it’s an environment that focuses on career growth and professional connection, users are incentivized to be authentic, she added.

“We’re a network of the people who you have met or looked up to or aspire to be,” Freeland said. “It really can be a place where people can feel inspired and optimistic about their careers or their businesses. We see that as a huge differentiator for us and really want to lean into that in our advertising as well.”