What do pets do when their owners aren't around? While it's a neat idea for Universal's new animated film The Secret Life of Pets, it's also a possible selling point for Comcast to talk about Xfinity Home.
Comcast will launch a integrated marketing campaign around the Pets characters including a TV spot that mirror's the plot of the film, smart home tours and screenings in 12 markets before the movie officially opens on July 8. The tours will take customers through a fully set up smart home, showcasing Comcast's home security and automation platform, according to Marketing Daily.
“The premise [of the film] is all about the activities of pets, and what they do when the owners leave,” says Todd Arata, vice president of brand marketing for Comcast. “It seemed like a natural pairing with Xfinity Home. We thought it would be a way to talk about our home product that’s fun and relatable. It's how people are using the product already.”
Comcast has another fun element of the campaign planned. It has geared its voice-activated remote to respond when users bark, meow or even tweet like a bird. The system then activates original Secret Life of Pets content including alternate scenes, character bios and additional info.
The purpose of the campaign is to bring home automation into the mainstream and get users more comfortable with it.
“Home automation is still kind of confusing for people,” Arata says. “For us to leverage this property is a nice way to talk about a product that people don’t know a lot about.”
