Where the Buffalo Roam Creates Glassdoor Campaign Promoting Workplace Transparency, Belonging & Equity

Dec. 03, 2021

Creative production company Where the Buffalo Roam (WTBR) produced a new brand campaign for Glassdoor, the worldwide leader on insights about jobs and companies. Built around the theme of “You deserve a job that loves you back,” the campaign highlights the company’s commitment to radical transparency and how it helps people navigate and grow their best career. The campaign launched on November 15th, with two online spots, CTV and audio ads, editorial content, and social content. The campaign will continue through the end of year.

In the first spot, “Just Getting Started,” the camera zooms in on the life of a new mom who is returning to work – post-Covid and post-baby – who turns to Glassdoor for help. Inspired by the ongoing progress women have made in the workplace, we see historical headlines and footage integrated into her home environment. With Glassdoor, she finds important information she needs on salaries, company ratings, and even has an open conversation with a hiring professional about work-life balance. The mother eventually makes a counter-offer using the information she’s found on Glassdoor and accepts the role. 

In the second spot, “On the Other Side,” the same career mom who is one year into her new role pays it forward by helping others progressing in their career by sharing pay and demographic information on Glassdoor’s platform. The spot highlights the impact individual action can have in lifting up progress on pay conversations for all women in the workforce. 

Amanda Runner, Glassdoor Senior Vice President of Marketing, said:

“So many people are re-evaluating their relationship with work now. While our campaign focuses on the story of one mom, it represents a larger truth that many women are living in the aftermath of Covid. What they need is a supportive community that gives them insights into what it would really be like to work at a company and make progress in their career. That's where Glassdoor can help the most — for everyone.”

 

WTBR and Glassdoor made the spots character-driven to authentically capture the social and economic trend behind the current struggles people in the workforce face – and how Glassdoor’s tools foster greater pay transparency and promote equity across gender, race/ethnicity, parenting status, LGBTQ, disability, and more. 

Visually, WTBR made use of fluid, constantly-moving camera movements to ease into the woman’s life. The team used lighting to complement each film’s mood and show a clear change in the career path. “Just Getting Started” employs warm, cozy lighting, while “On the Other Side” has a bright afternoon vibe.

For the historical and news headlines, the WTBR team blended motion-tracked 2D graphics with actual projections to make them appear integrated and attached to the environmental surfaces. The Glassdoor and Fishbowl UI elements live in a similar world as the news headlines, but are presented as snappy and eye-catching 2D holograms floating in the scene. 

WTBR Creative Director Liza Dunning concluded:

“This story was intended to feel timeless in that the struggles women have faced in the workplace for decades, centuries even, are still very much at play. We’ve come so far in so many ways, and yet we have so much left to fix. What excites me most about Glassdoor and Fishbowl is their ability to not just help people be heard, but how to also negotiate smarter, to communicate openly with each other, and know their worth sooner in their careers — things that actually make equity possible.”