Chosen ad: Amazon’s Alexa Featuring Ellen DeGeneres.
- Planning and Development
- Which element(s) of creativity are used here? Explain.
Innovation and Emotional Involvement: An ad or any creative process may not be appealing to the audience if it does not involve a great deal of emotional energy and innovation. Notably, the creative process is made up of several decisions, some being big while others considerably smaller. However, all these are tied to emotions and rationality. Ideally, it is for this very reason that the video shows the evocation of emotions that come with the innovation of Amazon’s Alexa. Before Alexa, the ad depicts a life that was considerably harder for the performance of smaller tasks. However, the emergency of Alexa changed almost all things.
Progression and Development: Creativity is not linear but rather a continuous process that keeps changing and going in different directions. Sometimes, it includes going back to the beginning and recreating things right from scratch, and regardless of the fact that it takes time, the satisfaction that comes from the results is usually rewarding. In other words, creativity is a process of refinement and repetition. There are very few cases of ultimate completion due to the fact that new ideas come and times change as well. This is evident in the ad as the chat between Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi as well as her eventual command to Alexa depicting modern life. The ad then takes one back to life before Alexa, which depicts a life without an assistant that can execute commands to perfection the way Alexa does.
- Which of the two major selling ideas is utilized? Explain.
The selling idea that the ad utilized is the fact that technology has changed the world and becoming a necessity. In the past, without a pint of technology, it would be hard to have duties perfectly executed even when one hard an always-on assistant. For instance, when it came to reducing the temperature, the assistant chose to get a log out of the house burner and threw it away. She ended up breaking the window, and perhaps, she was not able to put the house to the required temperature. Had it been in the times like now when there is Alexa, the execution of this particular activity can be done without any damage.
- Implementation
- What kind of appeal is being used? Explain.
In the ad, emotional appeal is primarily utilized. Notably, the ad wishes to evoke the emotions of the views on how life would be without Alexa. Evidently, life is a mess. It is almost impossible to have duties executed to the dot, and at times, it comes with damages, misunderstandings, and disappointments. In fact, making mistakes in such a case is quite inevitable. However, Alexa simplifies all this. With just a verbal command, a person can have whatever he or she likes done with a high degree of precision.
- Does the appeal align with the major selling idea? Explain.
Yes, the appeal is in line with the major selling idea. In other words, the emotional appeal utilized in this ad precisely aligns with how easy and less tedious technology has made life become. Considering how hard different activities were to perform in the past, it was not only strenuous but also considerably hard achieving a reasonable degree of perfection was. Looking at the ad, the emotions of a person are evoked to how life can become easy if he or she upgrades their technology to the use of Alexa. In this way, one may not have to leave the comfort of their seat to perform different duties. In the end, it is impossible for the emotions of the view not to be triggered by how much technology has advanced.
- What kind of execution technique is used? Explain.
The kind of execution technique used in the ad is slice of life. This is a technique of advertising in which everyday life is dramatized to show how easy the lives of people would become if they integrated the product into their lives. In the video, there are primarily two parts; one in which Amazon’s Alexa is used, and one before Alexa was developed. By dramatizing both parts, it becomes quite clear that it is not only easy to integrate Alexa into one’s life, but also life becomes considerably less tedious when Alexa is used.
- Does the execution technique match with the appeal? Explain.
Yes, there is a precise alignment of the execution technique with the appeal. Apparently, before Amazon’s Alexa, people lived their lives, and regardless of the difficulties, it was never regarded as something crucial because there was no way they would deal away with such mistakes of life. However, the emergency of Alexa opens the yes of the people now to how simple life can become if one has this product. In such a way, the comparison of two ends of life, dramatizing them and showing how easy the introduction of a new product can make life evokes the viewer’s emotions and would undoubtedly make him want to purchase the product.
- Overall Thoughts
- Would you have changed anything about this ad in order to give it a stronger overall message? Explain.
There are a few things that I would have changed about this ad to make its message considerably stronger and more appealing to the viewers. One of these aspects would have been revealing more instances of how easy life becomes after Alexa has been integrated into a person’s life. Apparently, the ad primarily concentrates on the mess that there is in life without Alexa. Even though this opens the mind of the viewer to the need to have Alexa, having more exposure to the uses of this product would give more reasons for a person to purchase it. As well, I find the ad controversial for the fact that it seems to suggest that we can talk to our human assistants the same way we command voice assistants. As such, I would rather use other things such as animals in place of human assistants.
- If you were the company, would you have spent $5 million for this ad, or would your money have been better used elsewhere, on other advertising mediums? Explain.
In case I was the company, I would have gladly spent $5 million on this ad. The first reason for this is because it features celebrities such as Ellen DeGeneres and her lover Portia de Rossi. Notably, this is a kind of endorsement that implies that the ad will reach far and, as a result, generate more sales. This is based on the premise that several people only buy products that are endorsed by celebrities as they consider those as authentic. Secondly, this is a Superbowl ad. Superbowl 2020 was watched by about 100 million people all over the world. With this ad featuring, it would imply that the product would get a promotional mileage that would cost considerably higher than 5 million dollars if other promotion media are used to reach such a huge audience, As such, I consider this cost as a relatively fair bargain for the company.