| Story | CAMPAIGN DESCRIPTION
How do we prove the irreplaceable value of Alexa’s voice? We take her voice away. For the first time ever, we reprogrammed Alexa to lose her voice so that millions of Americans could experience the fantasy of our Super Bowl commercial for real, right in their home. To show that no one could replace Alexa, we asked a variety of celebrities like Cardi B, Gordon Ramsay, Rebel Wilson and Anthony Hopkins to fill in for her. They all failed miserably. Our team of engineers and developers even created over 60 on-device Easter eggs, implementing an entirely new application in voice assistant devices. In the end, consumers experienced what it’s like to live without their favorite AI. Demonstrating that no matter the competition, there’s only one Alexa.This was a first-of-its kind national interactive campaign involving millions of Alexa users and their devices during the biggest sporting event of the year.
EXECUTION
A week before the game, we reached millions in their homes, as Alexa began showing signs of losing her voice on device, sending people online to find out why. There, they discovered various leaked celebrity videos, teasing who we’d arranged to replace Alexa. Next, in pre-roll and in the press, people saw Jeff Bezos in our teaser revealing Alexa had lost her voice. This teed up the Super Bowl ad depicting celebrities failing epically, while trying to fill in for Alexa. Post spot, Alexa went back to normal, but we targeted people on social with over 200 pieces of content showing celebrities failing as Alexa. We reached over a million people directly in their homes, as they interacted with over 60 on device Easter eggs, featuring celebrity voice and messages from Alexa, thanking celebrities for filling in for her. During the game, we used audio fingerprinting to ensure the real Alexa remained silent throughout the airing of the our broadcast ad. On game day, we created a social war room, interacting with social followers and brands like Tide and Mountain Dew, whose rap battle we answered with a rap from Alexa herself. Our celebrity replacements used their Twitter handles to invite followers to ask them to do the job of Alexa. Each response took on a humorous fail, so when someone asked Gordon Ramsey for a recipe, he would curse at them in a playful manner etc. As celebrities failed, followers began expressing their love for Alexa, ultimately proving no matter the competition, there’s only one Alexa. This campaign transcended mere ‘advertising’ and entered popular culture, all by asking, what if Alexa lost her voice?” and trended across Twitter with 720K mentions—while cementing itself into Super Bowl history and earning over 1.5 billion total media impressions. |