BACKGROUND

How do you grow a brand by over 200% in 12 months? How do you help make your brand the fastest-growing in its category? And how do you do all of that when you are outspent 50-to-1 in the category? Well, this exactly what we did for the brilliant challenger brand Work.Life.

THE CHALLENGE

Work. Life is a UK-based challenger brand on a mission to shake up the workspace category. Yet despite this noble ambition, they face a huge challenge. They are outspent 50-to-1 by the likes of WeWork and lag far behind on spontaneous awareness, one of the best indicators of brand fame. In light of this, we knew disruption was a necessity, not an option.

What we found

Looking across the category, one thing became immediately clear. It was boring. Predictable. Formulaic. Every brand looked and sounded the same, filled with images of “happy people” in generic “happy work” environments.

The irony was how completely out of touch this was with real life.

Because let’s be honest. Work is often anything but happy. It is full of corporate nonsense, politics, awkward dynamics, and offices that quietly drain your energy.

For a challenger brand, that kind of cultural disconnect is not a weakness. It is an opportunity.

While everyone else painted an unrealistic picture of working life, we chose to tell the truth. We leaned into culture. We called out the worst parts of office life. And we positioned Work.Life as the antidote to it.

That is what a true challenger brand does. It does not follow the category. It confronts it.

WHAT WE DID

While the category sounded increasingly saccharine and samey, we chose a different path. As a true challenger brand, we tackled the one thing no one else dared to: the parts of working life we all love to hate. We repositioned the brand as an antidote to workplace frustration, anchored in a simple idea:

“We remove the hard work from working happy.”

From there, we partnered with leading cartoonists and entertainment specialists to build a bold, irreverent brand world and distinctive IP. One filled with lovable, slightly unhinged characters that took on the worst parts of work life with humour and heart.

This new world was brought to life across out of home and every touchpoint, spanning all locations.

OUR RESULTS

Our long standing platform has now been live for over three years. In that time, we have helped the brand become the fastest growing in the UK coworking category. Brand awareness increased by over 200 percent in the first two years alone. A monumental achievement given the brand was outspent 50 to 1 by competitors such as WeWork.