The Naysayer Campaign

commercetools is a leading commerce platform. As a pioneer of “headless commerce,” which enables brands to create modern, adaptable retail experiences, the brand stands in stark opposition to legacy platforms that constrain innovation and leave leaders feeling trapped.

While competing with legacy giants, commercetools needed a campaign that boosted awareness of their platform among non-technical buyers. CTOs understand the value of headless commerce — but the rest of the C-Suite needed familiarity.

We grabbed attention with a campaign centered around the character of the “Naysayer” — the personification of legacy platforms who are always telling leaders “no.”

With famous curmudgeon Will Arnett in the titular role, the campaign scaled across the marketing funnel and included videos, OOH and digital ad placements, airport takeovers, a research report, and even a blog series from the perspective of the “No Man” himself.

As the lead writer, I collaborated with our team’s brilliant creatives from initial concepting, script writing, on-set script edits (some from our star improviser), ad copywriting, and more. By illustrating competitors as the embodiment of “no,” we boosted awareness of commercetools as the platform that says “yes” to big ideas.