The Ad
The ad, Love, Unlove, sees a teenage boy clearly pleased as he receives a notification on his phone. His grandmother looks over to the boy’s younger sister for an explanation. She shares that probably a girl he likes, has accepted his request to connect online. The elderly lady then asks Alexa (Amazon’s virtual assistant that runs Echo) to play a romantic song. The boy, now having had the time to go over the girl’s online profile, shares that she already has a boyfriend. On learning this, his younger sister suggests a melancholic song for Alexa to play.
Target Audience
NCCS A families that are technology-friendly and are willing to spend for convenience.
Business Objective
To establish a category of voice-controlled devices to enable customers to simplify their lives.
The Appeal
Functional – tick
Emotional – tick
Sensorial – no
The fact that the brand is finally talking about Echo on television will attract eyeballs, generate curiosity and hopefully for the brand, generate queries outside of that segment which is already aware of smart speakers.
Competitive Edge
By sheer virtue of the nascent nature of the category in India, Amazon currently has the first-mover advantage in advertising its smart speakers on TV.
Tone of Voice
Amusing
Verdict
We can finally see some advertising on smart speakers in India and it should not come as a surprise that Amazon is the one to start this off. #JustAsk, the ad for Amazon Echo, and probably some campaigns in the future will be tasked with educating the target segment about the concept of smart speakers, what it can or cannot do and what can it connect with. In more ways than one, ‘smart’ is the new Holy Grail. The spectrum of smart connected devices is wide and smart speakers can be one of the ways to control elements of a connected ecosystem — be it at home, office or anywhere else. Until use of such technologies becomes commonplace, the role of advertising in this space will, by default, be educational to introduce masses to the category by beginning to breed familiarity with the product. This is exactly what the TVC in question accomplishes. It keeps the focus on one aspect of the product — playing music — and sticks with it through a very simple storyline that will be easy for a viewer to grasp while she gets introduced to the smart speaker category.
The ad could have also been executed in a way that typical tech products like new smartphones or televisions or even automobiles are — extremely stylised and with a laundry list of features. Amazon’s treatment is unique in that sense and conforms to the style that consumers are used to receiving from the brand. In that, the company has taken a simple slice of life moment to show how Amazon Echo can fit into a consumer’s daily life. Amazon announced Echo in India in October last year. However, its adoption will be a tall order as the brand also very actively advertises for its Prime service, something that probably is close to being hygiene among its consumers in other digitally developed markets.
Rating: 6.5/10
@shinminbali