Indeed, the global matching and hiring platform, recently unveiled its new “The World Can Work Better” brand vision with an international advertising campaign amplifying how better work leads to better lives. The campaign is the first time Indeed has targeted jobseekers and employers in the same campaign and brings to life how Indeed connects workers looking for better work with the employers who offer what they need.
It spotlights how “better” is different for every person from being able to work flexibly and receiving fair pay to finding a job somewhere with a culture of belonging. The campaign aims to be provocative and create tension to show how Indeed can play a meaningful role in making a world where all people can achieve the better work they aspire to.
The “The World Can Work Better” creative was produced in partnership with 72andSunny and acclaimed director Ian Pons Jewell, whose previous credits include Disney+ “House of Disney”, Squarespace “Everything to sell anything” and Apple Watch “The future of workout”.
The campaign features relatable human scenarios that touch on a range of what better work really looks like for jobseekers and employers today. It's people seeking and finding flexible work; using salary transparency to close the gender pay gap; and measuring wellbeing at work and its shared benefits.
The 30-second “Without A Doubt” spot (below) poses the question “What if finding a new job wasn’t such a leap of faith?” It shows jobseekers consulting family and friends over their job search and using Indeed’s tools to navigate the old uncertainties of the experience and towards the better work they want; for example, knowing exactly what the pay is or whether it includes flexible working. We also see employers who are offering their version of better work, and how Indeed bridges the gap and brings them together.
What was the brief?
We were launching a new global brand platform and wanted to cement Indeed’s position as the world leader in connecting everyone to better work. The campaign had to be built on one of our core beliefs: when jobseekers looking for better work connect with employers offering it, the world works better.
How did the initial pitch/brainstorming phase go?
Brainstorming sessions are often exciting; it’s where great ideas are created. But for this campaign, the initial brainstorming was filled with extra passion, energy and excitement. You could feel how committed everyone was to this new brand platform, which reflects our strong purpose to help all people find better work. The brainstorming session allowed us to solidify our brand positioning, and from then, we were looking forward to bringing it to life through our communications.
What was the process behind ideating the concept?
The campaign had to be global in strategy but local in execution — reaching the UK, the US, France and the Netherlands — so our idea had to speak to universal human truths relevant in all countries the campaign would run in. Each labour market has its nuances but the essence of wanting to find better work transcends cultures and borders — this belief was our foundation for developing a truly global idea. From there, we’d landed on “The World Can Work Better.”
We’d also teamed up with 72andSunny, our fabulous advertising agency, working with its offices in LA and Amsterdam. We wanted their local expertise to guide our market executions, and the team helped us identify deep and relevant insights into each market’s relationship with work, their cultural differences and Indeed’s level of market maturity.
It can be easy to overlook local insights when developing a global campaigns, but they’re incredibly important. There are ample examples of companies launching a local campaign that is culturally tone-deaf, so the last thing we wanted to do was to create a slick, impressive campaign but fail to connect with different audiences. 72andSunny ensured our ideas spoke to all markets but also understood their nuances.
What was the production process like?
With two agencies - 72andSunny Amsterdam & LA,, the Indeed team who were spread across the US and Ireland. Then adding in the production companies, ProdCo and Blur, which were both based in Barcelona — it was a truly global effort.
Despite the juggling of multiple time zones, it made for a lot of fun. The blend of backgrounds and cultures within the whole team we had working on this was exactly what a global campaign needed to be executed successfully.
Having Spanish-based production teams meant travelling to sunny Barcelona, where we spent over 20 days on the ground for productions. 10 of these days were 14-hour shoots in and around the city, so we covered a lot of ground. But after post-production was handled in the UK and LA, we’d created 11 unique films and were delighted with the result and the hard work we’d put in throughout the production process.
What was the biggest challenge during production? How did you overcome it?
A key challenge of the campaign was ensuring that we authentically represented the cultural nuances and insights of each country's market at every level. This is a typical challenge for developing global campaigns and one we’re familiar with overcoming. As I mentioned earlier, the local insights our partner agencies offered were key to creating a global campaign that still felt local.
But with filming taking place entirely in and around Barcelona, our biggest challenge was ensuring we could visually represent our four country markets within the confines of one city. This meant our attention to detail had to be very high. In production, we had to make sure our casting, locations, styling and props were flexible enough to represent the UK, the US, France and the Netherlands, while also aspiring to remain efficient with our production plan.
While we have the freedom with casting and styling to adapt the adverts visually, we simply cannot bring the streets of New York on the road with us. This is where ProdCo’s local input worked wonders, as the team helped us determine that Barcelona would be the best city to provide us with a range of locations that would feel right at home in each of our country’s respective markets. And they were totally right!
What is one funny or notable thing that happened during production?
I’m going to have to highlight one man in answering this question. Because this was a massive production from the get-go, we knew we needed an even bigger character to steer the ship. Our director, Ian Pons Jewell delivered that in spades, proving why he’s one of the most entertaining and sought-after directors today.
From navigating 11 spots in 10 days, to his patented iPhone in a cup speaker hack during a PrePro, his collaborative spirit and passion for the work came through in every film. A real pleasure to work with - such a talented director.
What’s the main message of this project and why does it matter?
The message was that by connecting people with better work, the world works better. But to do this, we had to show the current reality of work for many employees and employers. Work is uncertain, some days feel inevitable, and many companies are stuck in the past. For some, better work feels impossible.
It was really important for this campaign to acknowledge this turbulence with honesty, positioning Indeed as the platform that reduces uncertainty by matching people who share the same vision for better work.
This message is so significant to us because it speaks to both jobseeker and employer audiences at once for the first time in Indeed's history. We’ve previously focused our campaigns to one audience at a time, but to deliver on our global matching platform — where job seekers and employers are better connected — this had to underline how better work benefits both and ultimately, society.
But the campaign doesn't end with just these assets — we see 'The World Can Work Better', or TWCWB for short, as a platform that will guide future creative and will have at least some infusion into all the work Indeed does.
There will be direct adaptations of this campaign in places like paid and social. It will also give indirect guidance for Indeed’s initiatives and programs, such as Rising Voices, which provides opportunities for aspiring filmmakers to elevate their work. Also Indeed’s work around Pride, working to put Pride into practice all year, every year — so everyone in the LGBTQIA+ community is welcomed into the workplace with open arms.
How long did it take from inception to delivery?
We began the development of our new brand platform in August 2022 and delivered the campaign in June 2023 — so the best part of a year. Once we had aligned on “The World Can Work Better” we jumped straight into creative campaign development and production, which was the most time-consuming portion of the process.
We also used System 1 throughout the process to predict and measure ad effectiveness along the way, so tweeking scripts and edits, making optimisations along the way which while time consuming, was extremely helpful to the end results.
What do you hope it achieves for the brand?
There are two things we were aiming to achieve. Firstly, from a consumer perspective, it's about inspiring hope that better work is out there. Secondly, it's the first step in uniting all of Indeed’s communications — such as job seeker, employee, global markets and ESG — all under one platform, so everything is laddering up to the same thought, “The World Can Work Better.”
Credit list for the work?
Indeed CMO
Jessica Jensen
VP, Global Brand & Advertising
Jennifer Warren
VP, Global Advertising & Media
Carmen Graf
Director, Global Brand & Advertising
Cliona Hayes
Senior Manager, Global Brand & Advertising (USA)
Federico Carcich
Senior Manager, Global Brand & Advertising, EMEA
Siobhan Reynolds
Director, Brand Strategy
Megan Bannon
Director, Brand Strategy
Jessica Estes
Manager, Brand & Advertising EMEA
Sarah Guckian
Manager, Brand & Advertising USA
Allie Salesman
72 & Sunny
Executive Creative Director (LA)
Zach Hilder
Executive Creative Director (AMS)
Mikey Farr
Creative Director (LA)
Ashton Rose
Creative Director (AMS)
Kyla Elliott
Creative Director (AMS)
Valeria Raimondi
Sr. Art Director (LA)
Elizabeth Lay
Sr. Art Director (AMS)
Yonca Yilmaz
Sr. Art Director (AMS)
Renée Lam
Sr. Writer (LA)
Natalie Warther
Sr. Writer (AMS)
Patrick Van Der Gronde
Sr. Writer (AMS)
Margot Noel
Sr. Writer (AMS)
Cyrielle Debrun
Group Brand Director (LA)
Ryan Warner
Group Brand Director (AMS)
Gaia Rossetti
Brand Director (LA)
Kayla Moe
Brand Director (AMS)
Victoria Turner
Sr. Brand Manager (AMS)
Belinda Harford
Brand Coordinator (LA)
Talia Quatraro
Executive Producer (LA)
Angelo Mazzamuto
Senior Producer (AMS)
Karen Whitehouse
Senior Producer (AMS)
Julie Bourges
Jr. Producer (LA)
Shareef Achekzai
Jr Producer (AMS)
Hayley Vair
Strategy Director (LA)
Antonio Guerrero
Strategy Director (AMS)
Rui Ferreira
Strategist (LA)
Kaylie Volpe
Strategist (AMS)
Pauline Stickel
Director of Partnerships & Legal (LA)
Vanessa Rivera
Business Affairs Director (AMS)
Melita Watt
Partnerships & Legal Manager (LA)
Marty Cole
Design Director (LA)
Natasha Cirisano
Business Affairs Coordinator (AMS)
Karina Goulding
Production Company
Director
EP / Founding Partner
EP
Producer
ProdCo
Ian Pons Jewell
Zico Judge
Maddi Carlton
Doochy Moult
Director of Photography
Mauro Chiarello
Post Production & VFX
Executive Producer
Producer
Production Coordinator
VFX Supervisors
CG Lead
Colorist
Animation & Design
Electric Theatre Collective
Antonia Vlasto
Oscar Wendt
Emily Coyne
Giles Cheetham & Thiago Dantas
Dorianne Fibleuil
Luke Morrison
Electric Studios
Editorial
Editor (Anthem, Table Talk, What the..)
Editor (The Stand-Off, The Walk & Talk)
Editor (Chocolat, Tomorrow I Quit)
Editor 2 (Big City Job, The Uniform, EMEA Anthems, Boy or Girl)
Asst. Editor(s)
Asst. Editor(s)- UK
Asst. Editor(s)- FR
Asst. Editor(s)- NL
AE
AE
Managing Partner / EP
Executive Producer
Producer
Producer (EUR)
The Den
Tobias Sumh
Katie Cali
Jon Echeveste
Joseph Taylor
Pieter Viljoen
Kayla Hashimoto
Joseph D'Ovidio
Louise Robert
Samantha Groesbeck
Joseph D'Ovidio
Tony Hurtado
Rachel Seitel
Jennifer Mersis
Amanda Ornelas
Liz Shook
Sound Design
String and Tins
Audio Company
Sound Engineer
Asst. Sound Engineer
Executive Producer
Producer
Sound Design and Mix EMEA
Foley
Music Composer (TIQ & Boy or Girl)
Music Composer (Anthem UK/FR):
Music Supervisors:
The Formosa Group
John Bolen
Noah Gomez
Lauren Cascio
Brendan Gates
Culum Simpson
Cobblestone Foley
Gregory Caron
Lorenzo Piggici, String and Tins
Mike Bamford, Laura-Leigh Smith, Jon Rust, Skip Curtis and Hywel Evans
