In February of 2000, Siebel Systems was set to host their annual conference in the hustle of San Francisco. All of the nation’s top performing Marketers would be at this event, it was a can’t-miss conference that also doubled as massive PR value for the giant.
That was until a scrappy startup founded just up the road, that went by the name Salesforce, came to hijack all of the attention from Siebel Systems.
What did they do? Paid $50,000 to set up a booth in the Siebel Systems conference to sell their cloud-based CRM. They led a FAKE protest against software, right outside the doors of the conference.
Salesforce hired actors, gave them signs that read “The Cloud Must Go On”, and had them chant “The internet is really neat…software is obsolete”.
Benioff even hired a fake “Channel 22” news network to pull up to the front of the conference in their “news truck”, film the protest, and interview the actors.
The attraction was no longer the happy hour networking events inside the conference and became this startup pushing the agenda of a cloud-based CRM. The stunt was all over the news and Salesforce began to gain a little notoriety in the space.
Flash forward 24 years, Salesforce is larger than ever, they host their OWN conference each year in San Francisco (Dreamforce) for over 45,000 Marketers, but a competitor just gave them a taste of their OWN medicine…
Two weeks ago ClickUp attended Salesforce and took a HUGE swing.
ClickUp had just released their new chat feature that was set to become a direct competitor to Slack (which Salesforce happens to own).
And in the same genius that Marc Benioff and Salesforce ran with in 2000 but with the V12 engine of social media now behind them, ClickUp staged their very own protest outside of Dreamforce.
“Cut the slack” signs donned everywhere. An animated mob of actors. And an eye-catching scene that you can’t quite put your finger on if it’s satire or not.
That’s the genius of this move from ClickUp.
It’s playful enough to not get the authorities involved, but stepping on the toes of Salesforce and Slack just enough to let viewers know it’s “us or them”.
As you know, humans are tribal in nature. Just as much as we love to bond over a shared interest, we bond over shared dislikes.
(Most likely they’ll be banned from the conference in the future which will only pose as more publicity around their stunt.)
But back to the story…
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“Cut the Slack” is a pun on the name of Salesforce’s Slack, while also conveying a message that suggests replacing Slack (reducing inefficiency or switching to ClickUp).
This draws attention by creatively referencing the competitor, making it memorable and engaging, while also clearly communicating the intended message. It’s a perfect storm for ClickUp.
But it gets better.
ClickUp has been going INSANELY VIRAL with their new HR series on their socials, building all sorts of buzz around these two characters that starred in the “Cut the Slack”.
Why is this important?
The HR duo that is taking the world by storm had all eyes on them outside of Dreamforce as they were recording content.
The 2024 version of Salesforce hiring fake paparazzi to cover their protest, ClickUp’s HR duo had Marketers and content creators alike in awe recording their stunt.
Like content creator, Vin Matano below.
Meaning more eyeballs, more press, more impressions, more of what they wanted.
Oh, and one last thing. The signs all read “Cut the Slack.com”. I’ll save you the search and instead look where it takes you.
A landing page paying homage to the legendary Salesforce stunt back in 2000 paired with a comparison matrix between ClickUp’s new offer and Slack’s offering with a hint of that snarky humor ClickUp is known for via the 😂😂😂😂 emoji.
Marketing Besties, we’re watching masters at work over there at ClickUp showing us how to build attention on socials and turn it into intention down the funnel.
Remember, playing it safe with your Marketing, is a risk.
