Google Home of the Whopper

To maximize the reach of a :15 TVC, we needed an idea that would set social media on fire with an engaging conversation. And to do it, we made our :15 enter a conversation that had already taken over the Internet – how advertisers would find their way into the new platform of voice-activated assistants Google Home and Amazon Alexa. These devices are influencers in living rooms worldwide, sharing a wealth of information from news to music history with the simple ask of a question. And while there had been times where these devices got activated by accident, we knew of no other instance where someone had consciously triggered one of these devices to promote a brand. However politely or un-politely, our :15 entered a conversation usually reserved for voice-activated Google Homes and their users – and became the newest topic in the conversation around advertisers and voice-activated devices.

We weren’t sure how long Google would allow our activation to work on their device, therefore everything was set to happen around a 24 hour period. The :15 commercial makes it clear our intention, to ask Google to tell the viewer about the Whopper through their Google Home device. This search is set off when our talent says into the camera “Okay Google” telling the device to react to what is said next “what is The Whopper burger?” At this point, any Google Home device within earshot would read aloud the Wikipedia entry for the Whopper. We first released the advert online, setting off a big internet response. So much so, Google blocked the specific audio clip hours later, ahead of our broadcast debut. But we were ready with other versions, so that Google wouldn’t have time to respond to block these and the Google Home was activating again.