By Alexys Coronel, Head of U.S. Entertainment and Telecommunications
When Toy Story hit theaters in 1995, it became a phenomenon, inspiring critically-acclaimed blockbuster sequels and spawning one of the highest-grossing movie franchises.
On June 17, Disney and Pixar are releasing Lightyear in theaters, which traces the origin story of Buzz Lightyear, the legendary space ranger (voiced by Chris Evans) who inspired the toy.
Ahead of the movie’s launch, Disney and Pixar wanted to excite moviegoers in ways that felt on-brand and authentic for their space adventure film. To help achieve this goal, they worked with Amazon Ads’ Brand Innovation Lab to create a custom marketing experience.
Brand Innovation Lab works closely with brand advertisers to produce custom activations that captivate customers’ attention and imagination with creative, tailor-made experiences. While collaborating on campaign ideas, Amazon Ads and Disney discovered a surprising parallel that fit perfectly with Buzz’s famous mantra of going “to infinity and beyond.” Just as Lightyear is preparing for liftoff, so is Alexa.
Earlier this year, Amazon announced that Alexa is heading to the Moon as part of an innovative technology demonstration. The goal of the project is to explore how technologies like Alexa can help astronauts on future missions to space, and customers are able to follow along and set alerts on mission milestones by saying “Alexa, take me to the Moon.”
Inspired by this outer orbit adventure, Amazon Ads’ Brand Innovation Lab team created a custom video highlighting Buzz and Alexa’s respective launches. The video shows Alexa taking inspiration from the iconic space ranger while preparing for her first mission to space.
Back on Earth, Amazon Ads also launched surprise and delight experiences for fans in Amazon’s store. When shoppers type in #Lightyear on Amazon, they’ll see Buzz slice through the page with his laser sword, revealing a destination with new clips, behind-the-scenes featurettes, tickets and a link to Lightyear’s Store with a selection of new toys inspired by the movie. Be sure to try it yourself.
The Disney and Amazon Ads collaboration for Lightyear shows how innovation can take campaigns “To infinity and beyond.”
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