Upwork’s Award-Winning TikTok Lab

The Client: As the world’s greatest freelance platform, Upwork wants to show the benefits of working remote, working with flexible hours, and working freelance.

The Ask: Upwork came to us to bring this message on TikTok by reacting to trends in realtime.

Our Solution: We built a custom, content creation engine, where my team—and often myself—ideate, shoot, and perform in TikToks. Sometimes we get work out in a matter of hours. Below are a handful of our recent favorites. And yes, I’m the blond guy in some of them.

Recognition: Our work won a Silver Shorty in B2B and was a Webby Nominee.

Spot it:
The “making a TikTok from my desk” is a trend you see on the platform over and over again. We wanted to subvert this trend.

Our Response:

Spot It:
Video call tips and tricks are all over TikTok. Here was our spin on a video call tip.

Our Response:

Spot It:
Summer Fridays = balancing getting work done and starting the weekend early.

Our Response:

Spot it:
Mark Zuckerberg released the “Twitter-killer” Threads during the July 4th week when many people were taking time off.

Our Response:

Spot it:
Return to office mandates have rolled out across the world. But people continue to love the Work From Anywhere life, and join freelance networks like Upwork leaving bosses in offices feeling pretty… emo.
Our response:

Spot it:
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice came out in 2024’s spooky season. We responded by showing what happens when you say “Upwork” three times.
Our Response:

Spot It:
We are always listening for trending sounds to hop on. The “I can’t believe we’re at Hogwarts” sounds was a perfect in to promote a misconception about Upwork.

Our Response:

Spot It:
The “If I were a fish” TikTok song went super viral. We used it as a way to highlight the tapped-in energy of our creative community.

Our Response:

Spot It:
As companies continue to ask people to return to dead offices, workers wonder “why?”

Our Response: