Sonos wants to solve all your modern audio woes, especially when it comes to listening to music at home.
The wireless speaker brand is out with a new ad campaign from 72andSunny built around the myriad pitfalls of listening to tunes in the digital age, when songs may be plentiful but, the brand says, headache-free sound systems are not.
Fifteen-second spots showcase common frustrations like trying to play a banger—say, Skepta's "Shutdown"—on your laptop, but not being to squeeze out enough volume. Or maybe you're trying to put a date in the mood with some romantic music streamed from your phone to a Bluetooth speaker, and getting interrupted by a call from your mom. (Though in that case, your mom might actually be saving you, and your partner, and Sonos, from the incredibly explicit next line of Spank's "Lay You Down.")
Ten such commercials run the gamut from impossible assembly of a complex home stereo to poor compression on your home entertainment system—meaning when you turn up the volume to hear the dialogue on the movie you're watching, the surprise explosion in the next scene is guaranteed to wake your infant and ruin the tiny little island of relaxation you thought you'd carved out in your evening.
See the spots here:
"You're better than this," Sonos promises in the wake of each disaster, a phrase that's the campaign's title and not an altogether unconvincing proposition. A 60-second compilation of the shorter clips—including one starring Paul Rudd and Rashida Jones, borrowed from the 2009 comedy I Love You, Man—makes the same general point.
A longer, duller video reveals more of the thinking behind the strategy (while also showcasing the brand's voice control option), though further explanation isn't really necessary. Any music fan has experienced a version of at least one of the problems Sonos is targeting. Whether it can really solve them doesn't matter—that it says it can is enough to pique interest.
On some level, that says more about how spoiled the current audience is than anything else. Effortless, instantaneous, unhindered satisfaction isn't just what consumers expect these days, says Sonos—it's what's they deserve. Imagine the horrors of having to pull a 78 out of its sleeve and align the stylus—or, gasp, go see musicians play live—to hear a song. But that's besides the point. Reality being what it is, why not pursue the easiest effective technical solution?
Still, it'd be nice if Sonos would come in and design your entire house, too.
CREDITS
Client: Sonos
Chief Marketing Officer: Joy Howard
VP Global Brand, Creative Director: Dmitri Siegel
Director, Global Brand Design: Andrew Clark
Director, Global Campaign & Marketing: Lorrin Pascoe
Specialist, Campaign Marketing: Christen Fallon
Agency: 72andSunny
Chief Creative Officer: Glenn Cole
Group Creative Director: John Boiler
Group Creative Director: Gui Borchert
Creative Director: Jeremy Wirth
Lead Designer: Sean Matthews
Lead Writer: Lauren Ferreira
Designer: Jonay Urbina
Chief Production Officer: Tom Dunlap
Senior Film Producer: Nick Gaul
Group Strategy Director: John Graham
Senior Strategist: Anneliese Rapp
Group Brand Director: Yen Lovgren-Ho
Brand Director: Ryan Griffin
Sr. Brand Manager: Jessica Brewer
Brand Coordinator: Molly Mohr
Art Producer: Melissa Harris
Business Affairs Director: Jana Nauman
Production: HECHO EN 72
Sr. Producer: Jonny Edwards
Line Producer: Brian Armstrong
Director: Gui
Borchert
Director of Photography: Max Gutierrez
Print Credits:
Vendor: HECHO EN 72
Studio Designer: Frank Lucero
Retoucher: Franz Steiner
Producer: Jacqueline Kynoch
Executive Producer: Cindy Bohm
Post Production: HECHO EN 72
Editor: Thomas MacVicar
Assistant Editor: Ted Stanley
Post Producers: Becca
Purice & Ryan Curtis
Colorist: Michael Gossen
Motion Graphics Producer: Caroline Anguiano
Lead Animator/Designer: Jae Yoo
Animator: Joseph Moon
Audio Producer: Whitney Fromholtz
Mixer: Brian Naas
