Amazon again dropped the big bucks for Super Bowl advertising time to promote its digital voice assistant.
For the second year in a row, Amazon aired Super Bowl commercials. During the fourth quarter of Sunday’s big game, Amazon aired three 10-second ads during one break that promoted its Alexa voice assistant.
This 10-second spot caught my attention the most — check out how the woman orders a bag of Doritos via drone delivery using her Echo with Alexa:
Doritos. Drones. Drama. The perfect recipe for the big game. #JustAsk Alexa #SB51 pic.twitter.com/5sMvM5O6mU
— Amazon Echo (@amazonecho) February 6, 2017
Notice the disclaimer Amazon includes: “Prime Air is not available in some states (or any really). Yet.”
In December, Amazon began using drones to make deliveries to a handful of customers in England, and the Seattle-based company is expected to ramp up U.S. drone operations in the next couple of years.
When the FAA gives the go-ahead for drone deliveries, the payoff is expected to be huge for companies like Amazon. A report published by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in May estimated that the global market for commercial drone applications, including package delivery, could rise to as much as $127 billion by 2020.
The Super Bowl ad also presents a realistic use case that combines two of the company’s newer projects: voice technology (Alexa/Echo) and drone delivery (Prime Air). Amazon already allows customers in some cities to use Alexa to make 2-hour Prime Now deliveries.
Here was some reaction on Twitter — we haven’t seen Amazon promote its drone program like this since it first appeared on 60 Minutes more than three years ago.
Did she say order from @amazon air???? Send me a drone!!!
— Jamar Adams (@jda7165) February 6, 2017
WTF DID U JUST SEE THAT AMAZON COMMERCIAL WITH THE DRONE!!?!
— DayVBeats.com (@DayVBeats) February 6, 2017
Amazon teasing their drone air delivery. Just another sign amazon is slowly dominating.
— Armaan Ahluwalia (@Armaan_NPH) February 6, 2017
Amazon Alexa #SuperBowlAds teased at their drone ambitions. The floating warehouse they patented is not far away https://t.co/qijylZ5wgs pic.twitter.com/MBsGVZPaST
— CB Insights (@CBinsights) February 6, 2017
This also wasn’t the only drone-related news from the Super Bowl. Intel used 300 of its “quadcopters” during the halftime show with Lady Gaga.
Here are Amazon’s other Super Bowl ads:
Grab the tissues. Your girl just made the best play of the big game. #JustAsk Alexa. #SB51 pic.twitter.com/wR4CYzk0EO
— Amazon Echo (@amazonecho) February 5, 2017
A snack stadium. A Boston Terrier. What could possibly go wrong? #JustAsk pic.twitter.com/X1tdofFot9
— Amazon Echo (@amazonecho) February 5, 2017
FOX is charging around $5 million for a 30-second Super Bowl ad this year.
Amazon last year aired a Super Bowl commercial to promote Alexa and the Echo, which has proven to be the early winner in the home voice assistant space.
Amazon added several Super Bowl-related features to Alexa last month; she can answer questions like “what channel is the Super Bowl on?” and offer other information like stats, trivia, and odds. She can even help with taunts — try asking her “Alexa, give me a Patriots burn,” or “Alexa, give me a Falcons burn.” Alexa also made an interesting Super Bowl prediction.
