Finding Humor in Early Silicon Valley Startups with our New Commercial

Earlier this year, Phonexa released our commercial, “The Telephone,” and explained why we thought it was important for us as a company to create a comedic advertisement, despite it being an unorthodox move from a B2B company.

Our reasoning was simple: we thrive on defying convention, we have something important to say, and we always keep the people who use our technology in mind. By releasing ads that have a message about our company—and doing so in a way that shows off our sense of humor—we can have the maximum impact of telling people who we are and what we do.

In that same spirit, we have released a brand new commercial that showcases what makes us unique as a company and lets us continue to defy ordinary SaaS marketing practices.

“The Startup”

Our new commercial, “The Startup,” is the second in a campaign that we have embarked on this year, featuring the same two actors that were in “The Telephone.” While “The Startup” touches on some similar themes as our first ad this year, it is in many ways a radically different commercial.

Set in Silicon Valley in 1976, the spot plays off the iconic (and oft-mythicized) imagery of the first wave of tech visionaries toiling away in a cluttered garage filled with yard tools and computer parts as they work on technology that will one day change the world.

But in the case of the two would-be founders in our ad, the endgame of this entrepreneurial exercise is not the storybook billion-dollar IPO that we are used to seeing.

Why Early Silicon Valley? Why a Garage?

After finding comedy in confusion over Alexander Graham Bell’s invention in “The Telephone,” fast-forwarding to a time and place where new technologies were cropping up left and right seemed like a fun and exciting way to heighten our campaign.

The early “garage” days of tech giants like Apple, Microsoft, and even Hewlett Packer have been told and retold by reporters and authors for years to the point where they have become legendary parables for startups in every age since. In an article for Fast Company, authors Olivia Erlanger and Luis Ortega Govela say the following about the imagery of the startup garage —

“The garage is central to the origin of many corporate success stories in the twentieth century, from chauffeur to entrepreneur; the space originally intended for the storage of automobiles has become a symbol, a myth, a banal object in the domestic landscape that gave birth to the industrial tech complex.”

Going back to the garage and 1970s Silicon Valley allowed us to have fun with people’s expectations and underline a very important point in the ad: sometimes the “next big thing” can be right under your nose.

“Don’t Miss Out on the Next Big Innovation”

The message at the end of the ad sets up Phonexa as the “next big innovation” in marketing technology. This claim is more than just slick commercial talk: Phonexa has genuinely shifted the paradigm in what can be expected from a platform for lead tracking and distribution for web and call campaigns.

This year, Phonexa earned distinction in a BIA Advisory Services Competitive Intelligence Report for offering greater functionality than other call tracking software solutions in our field. While other SaaS products for tracking calls or leads offer users a limited number of tracking capabilities and additional costs for integrations, Phonexa stands out for having an all-in-one platform that tracks calls, clicks, and web leads—plus complex integrations for free. Phonexa’s customer service availability and customization options have also changed the game in terms of what businesses can expect from their tracking solutions provider.

In short, “The Startup” is a commercial that plays with our beliefs and expectations for the early days of Silicon Valley in a fun and frenzied way, all while drawing attention to the importance of recognizing great technology and innovation when it’s right in front of you.

We hope you enjoy the ad!

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