Flippy’s about to hit the big time.
That’s because the fast food robot from Miso that’s in service in places like White Castle is going to be the focus of a new nationally televised commercial.
The commercial, which can be seen below, is a 30 second ad that introduces Flippy to a TV audience.
Introducing Flippy | National Television Commercial from Miso Robotics on Vimeo.
The ad opens with Flippy making fries in the kitchen of a fast food restaurant while a voiceover actor proclaims “Nothing hits the spot quite like good food, made fast.”
From there the 30 second spot toggles back and forth between a mother and daughter happily eating food and Flippy making fries back in the kitchen.
The voiceover continues: “The taste you grew up on, now made more consistent, more efficient, and dare we say, more delicous. Introducing Flippy, the world’s first AI kitchen assistant.”
The narrator brings the pitch home with the tag line, “Let the robots do the robotic work, so people can do the people work.”
I’m not sure where the ad will play and what the audience will be – I reached out to the folks at Miso and haven’t heard back – but it’s interesting to me that they have decided to pay for a national TV spot introducing a food service robot to a general audience. It’s certainly a new direction for a company that has largely stuck to programmatic social media ads for their crowdfunding campaigns.
Here are a few thoughts as to why the company went in this direction.
The company wants to reach a new audience outside of it traditional marketing campaigns. Miso traditionally uses programmatic cookie-driven web advertising on social media and websites to appeal to potential investors. The TV spot ends with a call to action to visit Meetflippy.com, where visitors get a general overview of the robot, can get on a mailing list, and can hit a “Become a Customer” button for more info. My guess is the company believes they will reach a new audience that is less tech-savvy, but could be potential customers or even potential new investors.
Miso is beginning the “robots are our friends” messaging. There’s no doubt that as robotics become more mainstream in food service and other jobs, there will be some pushback from those that see them as job-stealers. The tagline, “Let the robots do the robotic work, so people can do the people work” seems intended to possibly get in front of the anti-robot trend.
The company is looking to time ad to coincide with its Hulu spotlight. If you watch the hero reel preview of the upcoming David Chang Hulu food show that is heavily focused on food tech, Wavemaker – the robot-focused investment vehicle closely affiliated with Miso – gets a star turn on the show. The preview features Miso Robotics Chairman Buck Jordan talking to Chang while it shows the Flippy in action. This ad spot might even be intended to play during Chang’s Hulu show.
Whatever the reason, you got to give Miso credit. The launch of a national TV commercial to push a fry-making robot is definitely a first.
Editor Update: Miso Robotics CFO Kevin Morris responded to my inquiry the following comment: “We want to make Flippy as well known to the masses as possible and doing a commercial increases its national exposure exponentially. The more eyeballs that see the commercial, the greater likelihood we can attract additional innovation partners.”
