Dive Brief:
- Amazon launched a holiday campaign that features actor Adam Driver reading real-life reviews left by the e-commerce giant’s customers, per details shared with sister publication Marketing Dive.
- Driver turns the “deeply personal” reviews into theatrical monologues in 10 different 30- and 60-second ads running across paid social, premium online video and Amazon’s owned channels.
- Timed to Black Friday and Cyber Monday deal events, the campaign brings a touch of Hollywood and holiday spirit to user-generated content.
Dive Insight:
Amazon is taking a novel approach to product-focused advertising and user-generated content by having a “real serious actor” reimagine memorable reviews in the style of a one-man show. The ads were produced by Amazon’s internal creative team and will be refreshed to highlight additional reviews through early December.
“What these reviews have shown us is that some of our best writers are our customers, and we love how this campaign brings them into the spotlight,” Jo Shoesmith, Amazon’s global chief creative officer, said in a statement.
In three of the campaign’s initial spots, Driver narrates reviews of a plush seal, a Dutch oven and — in a minute-plus ad — a banana slicer that has found viral success over the years. In the ads, a suited Driver sits on a leather chair in front of a Christmas tree, Amazon boxes and a pianist playing a version of “O Tannenbaum” reminiscent of the Vince Guaraldi Trio's iconic take on the holiday tune.
“What’s more compelling than the deeply personal, yet very public, Amazon review? Immortalized readings of the marriage saving qualities of a banana slicer? The nuances of rubber duck collecting? Nothing says the holidays like grabbing a glass of something and telling people what you really think,” Driver said in a statement.
The ads will run across paid social (TikTok, Meta and Snapchat), premium online video (across a variety of streamers, including “Thursday Night Football” on Amazon Prime Video), and the company’s own Instagram, Facebook and YouTube accounts. The ads are timed to Black Friday and Cyber Monday deal events running from Thursday to Dec. 2.
The campaign follows the debut of Amazon’s 2024 holiday marketing campaign, a more traditional effort that leans on uplifting themes and centers on the classic Burt Bacharach and Hal David song “What the World Needs Now Is Love.”
Driver, best known as Kylo Ren from the “Star Wars” sequel trilogy and the star of Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis,” is no stranger to advertising. The actor appeared in Snickers’ 2017 Super Bowl campaign that notched 1.5 billion organic impressions and returned to the big game in 2023 for Squarespace.
