CE Companies Tap Into Spirit of Grammy Awards to Advertise Audio Gear
Consumer electronics companies tapped the Grammy Awards this week in efforts to steer music fans into audio gear purchases. A Sony brand campaign that launched this week, Lost in Music, combines music and virtual reality, and will feature a VR music video for the Chainsmokers’ single, "Paris," that’s being produced exclusively for PlayStationVR, Sony said in a Tuesday announcement. The Chainsmokers won a Grammy for best dance recording Sunday.
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The Sony VR video will premiere at South by Southwest on March 15, before availability at the PlayStation Store in the spring, Sony said. Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai said Lost in Music is an extension of the company’s VR efforts that demonstrates "a completely new dimension of entertainment” in which VR technology makes fans “feel like they are part of the performance." Sony also will collaborate with emerging artists creating “new music experiences” combining music and VR, he said.
Sonos, meanwhile, launched its 2017 TV ad campaign during the Grammy Awards Sunday with a commercial themed “Wake Up the Silent Home.” The commercial begins gloomily with window views into various households where family members, some under headphones, are being entertained individually by their mobile devices. “It wasn’t always like this,” says the somber voice of a teenage girl, who calls the behavior “a new sickness.” She continues: “Everyone’s together … all alone.”
The girl then hurls a Sonos Play:1 speaker through a window unleashing energetic music and shots of happy families, friends and couples enjoying each other’s company with music coming from various Sonos speakers in different scenarios. The ad ends with the tagline: Sonos, the Home Sound System. A Sonos blog post, “Causes and Conditions of the Silent Home,” referenced a study Sonos conducted last year on how playing music out loud at home “could affect relationships. We showed that homes filled with music were happier, closer, more loving,” said the wireless audio company.
A Google commercial for the Pixel smartphone that ran during the Grammy Awards showed Pixel users singing lyrics from Prince’s "Nothing Compares 2 U" in a tribute montage made up of music videos created on the Pixel.