Paycom’s Campaign on LinkedIn and Other Platforms Aims to Bring Humour and Insight to HR Challenges

Actor Shemar Moore, known for his roles in S.W.A.T. and Criminal Minds, has joined forces with Paycom for an unconventional marketing campaign. Departing from his typical roles, Moore takes on the persona of the “Unnecessary Action Hero,” combatting the daily HR challenges encountered by employees.

In a twist, the campaign introduces a villainous character portrayed by Wayne Knight, adding depth and humor to the narrative. Through daring stunts and Paycom’s innovative HCM technology, the ad presents a lighthearted yet informative take on addressing HR needs.

The brand’s overarching goal with this campaign is to strike a balance between humor and engagement while effectively conveying promotional messaging and highlighting pain points relevant to HR and payroll professionals.

This campaign builds upon Paycom’s March initiative, aiming to further strengthen its messaging and reinforce its brand presence in the market. By leveraging the momentum generated by the previous campaign, Paycom seeks to continue making strides in reaching its target audience and achieving its marketing objectives.

Casey Twenter, Senior Director of Brand and Creative at Paycom, said the brand is advertising its ad spot on platforms like YouTube, LinkedIn, and various streaming apps as it seeks to reach its target audience where they are most active, maximizing exposure and impact. Through this multi-platform approach, the campaign endeavors to not only entertain but also educate and inspire action within the HR and payroll community, which is what the brand also did with its March campaign.

“With Nemesis, we’re trying to capture audiences’ attention with humor and use that attention to then deliver messaging about the pain points of manual HR processes,” said Twenter, adding that the brand casted Wayne Knight as he is recognized in pop culture as a nemesis from his roles as Newman in Seinfeld and Dennis Nedry in Jurassic Park. “We’re approaching our branding and marketing the same way and we want our marketing to have an impact and be able to break through the noise of other advertisements.”

Compared to their traditional ad spots, the Nemesis campaign is tailored for digital platforms. Some of the Nemesis commercials are the longest ads produced for Paycom. Twenter said the focus is on creating lengthy and captivating content to engage audiences across multiple platforms, including LinkedIn. 

LinkedIn has seen a surge in usage for experiential marketing campaigns and social media content creation, particularly with the rise of LinkedIn influencers this year. This trend suggests that marketers may find value in allocating their advertising budget to this platform and investing in the creator economy. Although Paycom had advertised on LinkedIn prior to the trend gaining traction, Twenter indicated that the brand will now explore additional opportunities for campaigns following this successful endeavor.

Twenter said TV spots don’t always offer the most direct route to reach their targeted buyers, unlike in B2C marketing. Instead, Paycom opted to push content on LinkedIn, recognizing it as a business-centered social media platform. On LinkedIn, individuals tend to adopt a professional mindset, which aligns well with Paycom’s target audience. By presenting their content to users while they’re in this business-oriented mindset, Paycom increases the likelihood that their message will resonate and effectively break through to their intended buyers.

“We have had a lot of success on LinkedIn. We have very high rates of view-through in our LinkedIn ads, which shows the new campaign is resonating with our LinkedIn audiences,” said Twenter. “If you think about what users are seeing on LinkedIn — job postings, conference photos, motivational quotes, news articles — a Nemesis-style video is great at grabbing attention from our target groups. Audiences [aren’t] expecting to see a spot like that on LinkedIn, which helps with message break through.”