270B is our digital agency for nine years, in 2023, 270B helped us to create AFM’s Sonic DNA®, an audible expression of the brand that incorporates core elements of the brand’s well-known jingle to evoke AFM’s joyful and energetic nature.
We have a storied history with Avocados From Mexico and the Big Game.
During our 5th Big Game with the brand in 2019, we leveraged IBM Watson’s machine learning. In 2020, we were the first brand to use the blockchain. In 2022, we adopted Web AR to bring our TV celebrities to everyone’s watch party.
But this year, our 9th Big Game campaign might be our most ambitious yet.
The objective for the 2023 Super Bowl is to build Avocados From Mexico brand awareness and recognition. The strategy was to take on a new frontier of branding: Sonic Branding.
The work began in partnership with AMP to expand the well-known jingle into a holistic Sonic DNA. Our job was to find technologies and tactics to engage users with this new Sonic Branding strategy online.
The result was two digital experiences that seek to combine technology and music in a way never leveraged by a (produce) brand: Genius Music Lab and Wink-a-Beat.
For Genius Music Lab, we were inspired by Spotify’s successful Year in Review campaigns they activate every year. In our activation, we used Spotify’s data to create a personalized music-making lab, powered by AI.
People came to our website and connected their Spotify accounts. Our AI read their listening behavior data and provided an AFM musical track customized to their top genre.
To take it a step further, we enabled people to add their own custom lyrics. We leveraged voice AI technology to then sing the custom lyrics onto the instrumental track to create a truly personalized song that people can proudly listen to, download, and share on social.
This activation pairs machine learning, AI, and voice AI all together in one experience. But the beauty is that it all operates behind the scenes to power a personalized branded experience.
In Wink-a-Beat, we launched a beat-making tool on Instagram and Facebook for our followers to create their own AFM-inspired beat.
For this activation, we leveraged facial recognition technology. But instead of using it in a 1984 style, we stayed true to AFM’s roots as a fun, quirky brand and used the technology to pair specific facial triggers with musical sounds. If you bob your head to the left, you play a percussion track. If you wink, you play a guitar riff. If you open your mouth, you play a bass line.
Across the four different genres of music available in our filter, you can use your face to create 9.6 billion unique beats. Both Wink-a-Beat and Genius Music Lab leverage new technologies to engage consumers in brand experiences.
No matter which of the infinite possibilities that they hear, one thing will be true: the sounds will all be born from the same Sonic DNA principles. The brand will always sound consistent, but never the same.