Endless emails, forms or Excels are some of the symptoms of what Factorial, a Spanish business management software company, has called “Paperwork Syndrome”, a phenomenon that prevents teams from focusing on what really adds value, and which it portrays in its new campaign, designed by the agency Fuego Camina Conmigo.
“Paperwork” reflects the administrative loop in which many organizations are still immersed today, which prevents the effective application of human talent. The campaign highlights Factorial’s AI-powered automation solutions to help managers and HR teams intelligently and effectively manage time and resources.
The ad reflects this flow of excessive bureaucracy by resorting to repetition and absurdity and relying on a retro aesthetic that evokes the business ecosystem of decades ago and the frustration that the lack of automation can cause. That feeling is reinforced with an original song, which will be available on Spotify, that emphasizes the administrative chaos of an office.
It was produced by Veta and directed by Nicolás Vázquez and David Camarero.
“Paperwork syndrome is real, but no one had dared to call it by its name. At Factorial we believe that B2B brands can and should also connect emotionally“, commented Sara Carmona, Global Creative Director of Factorial, in a statement from the agency. “‘Papeleo’ is our way of telling anyone who works in a company that we understand them and that we exist to give them back the time that bureaucracy steals from them.”.
In this sense, the campaign aims to reinforce Factorial’s positioning as an ally of managers, with solutions that simplify administrative complexity so that professionals can focus on what really matters. Thus, the campaign connects emotionally with a cultural tension in the current world of work.
The intention of the spot, in this sense, has been to portray the tedium of repetitive procedures. “Paperwork syndrome can be like a bad trip. Everything becomes overwhelming, absurd, delirious and ridiculous“, explained Carles Gómez, Creative Director of Fuego Camina Conmigo. “That’s what we wanted the campaign to convey, that’s why we changed the category’s usual codes for a mix of digital psychedelia.”.
The campaign continues the line of communication started with “Pobres managers”, also designed by Fuego Camina Conmigo and launched in April 2025. It presented a mockumentary in a humorous way in which a manager was given a voice, who told the viewer how his job made him feel and the possible failures in management, thus highlighting Factorial’s solutions.
“Papeleo” will run during the months of May and June in Spain and Italy. The campaign will include activations on social networks, digital platforms, influencer marketing, outdoor advertising and special executions. Some of these have already been carried out, such as the one carried out during the Sant Jordi and Book Day celebrations in Barcelona.
It is the context you have chosen to “celebrate paper and to abolish paperwork“, as the company shared on LinkedIn. “Getting lost between pages of books, good. Getting lost between pages of Excel, bad. Imagine spending the 2 hours you waste a day solving problems or making calls that could have been an email, reading the book you bought today.”, he commented.
In addition, it created a series of micro-stories related to the day-to-day life of the office, to convey the time savings generated by its solutions.
