By Mark Stenberg THE AD: Amazon’s Ring ad begins with a candid vertical video of a young girl being reunited with her dog, before then jumping to a fictionalized depiction of a dog gone missing. Against narration provided by Ring founder Jamie Siminoff, the ad explains that while 10 million dogs go missing every year, the way we look for them has hardly changed. A montage ensues, featuring missing dog posters stapled to telephone poles.
Luckily, Siminoff intones, there is a better way: the new Search Party for Dogs feature, offered by Ring. The spot then speeds through an explanation, featuring a snippet of the user experience, houses using their Rings to scan for the missing pet, and the lost dog, Milo, returning home—all thanks to a neighborhood hero.
MY HOT TAKE: Amazon had a simple job here—convey the emotional arc of losing, then being reunited with, your dog—but it uses too complex of a structure to do it effectively.
In my opinion, a short narrative sequence would have been far more powerful than the variety of shots, tones, and storylines the spot stitches together. A dog goes missing, a family is distraught, they turn to their Ring app for help, and a good Samaritan saves the day.
Some of the data points included in the piece are compelling on their own—the 10 million lost dogs, Ring reuniting a dog a day since launching last fall—but could have served better at the end of the ad, sitting silently against a backdrop like the moving epilogue of a true story.
The product feature is so evidently beneficial that drawing attention to it, in any capacity, will no doubt spur adoption. But the chasm between what this ad is and what it could have been is frustratingly wide.
Watch Ring’s Super Bowl 60 ad, “Search Party for Dogs,” below.
Mark Stenberg
Mark Stenberg is ADWEEK's senior media reporter.
@markstenberg3| mark.stenberg@adweek.comBig Game Live Show
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