Twinkly Lights Up the Season With Star Power

People have always been proud to have their neighborhood’s most spectacular holiday lights, but the advent of LED technology means today’s displays have more complexity, subtlety, and sheer “wow” factor than ever before. And remote light control app Twinkly is aiming to take festive displays to the next level, mapping lights onto your phone to create programmable displays that are easy to design, vary and operate.

Twinkly isn’t just a Christmas lights app – there are plenty of use cases for remote light displays beyond the holiday season. But there’s no question it’s picked the right time to make a big TV advertising splash, and it’s not surprising that the Twinkly website leans very heavily on its festive uses.

But for all that it’s a product that makes most sense at this time of year, Twinkly is still a new brand with a niche offering, and that means it needs to make a big impact with its ad while still explaining to viewers what the app actually does.

The solution? A famous face. Twinkly brought in Saturday Night Live legend Chevy Chase to demonstrate the app and bring a bit of star power to their ad. It’s a simple ad, with Chase just operating the app in front of a house and being delighted by the different effects Twinkly can produce, a clever nod to Clark Griswold’s fantastic Christmas display. So it’s still a product demonstration, but Chase’s infectious excitement at the effects he can get with Twinkly makes the ad entertaining in a way a voiceover simply wouldn’t.

Using a celebrity in a commercial isn’t always a route to effectiveness. While people like celebrities, there’s a gamble involved for brands – they don’t guarantee an entertaining ad, and they can distract from the brand. For a new brand like Twinkly, using a star name is a calculated risk – brand recognition is going to be low anyway, so they’re hoping that a celebrity appearance will boost emotional response and make people more motivated to investigate the brand.

And there’s good news for Twinkly – in the Test Your Ad results they score an exceptional 5.8-Stars, up there with the most entertaining and effective US holiday ads we’ve seen. The ad may not be complicated, but Chase’s pleasure at the light display makes viewers smile too. Sure, there’s a price to pay in Brand Fluency, where Twinkly’s score is only modest. But that’s to be expected for a first TV ad from a new brand. By investing in a celebrity and pushing for emotional response rather than dry introductions, Twinkly have made it far more likely their ad will lodge in viewers’ memories and lead to growth not just this holiday season, but in years to come.

Get Into the Holiday Spirit With Our Christmas Advertising Playlist!