Honda and Amazon Ads put audiences in the driver’s seat with a personalized, AI-powered EV campaign

From the outset, Honda set their sights on developing a bold, boundary-pushing campaign to mark what would be a landmark vehicle release for the auto manufacturer. For that reason, they decided to work with the Amazon Ads Brand Innovation Lab—a global team of strategists, creatives, design technologists, and engineers who collaborate to create solutions customized to advertisers’ goals.

Phil Hruska, senior manager of marketing at Honda, says that the brand wanted to create “an innovative and engaging campaign for customers to enjoy befitting Honda’s first zero-emissions SUV.” He explains, “The launch of the all-new, all-electric Honda Prologue is a pivotal moment for the brand. So, we decided to utilize the creative prowess of the Amazon Ads Brand Innovation Lab to give shoppers and families a fun opportunity to bring their dreams and imagination to life with the Honda Dream Generator.”

Honda’s eagerness to test out new approaches and emerging technologies was an “inspiration” for the Amazon Ads team, according to Kate McCagg, director of the Brand Innovation Lab. She explains, “Honda’s willingness to roll up their sleeves with us on this creative journey is nothing short of incredible, and we’re so excited for customers to experience it.”

With more than 190 story variations, the Honda Dream Generator offers audiences the opportunity to craft a Honda Prologue adventure film that is truly unique. Audiences are able to choose criteria for the film creative, such as the characters (which include people of all ages, helping call attention to the Prologue’s family-friendly features), settings, and props, while watching Fire TV, scrolling their mobile phone, using their Echo Show device, or shopping Amazon on a computer. The Honda Dream Generator then combines these user-provided inputs with AI-generated visuals to create a two-minute-long animated video featuring the Prologue—all within a matter of seconds.

The project marks the first time that the Brand Innovation Lab has developed a campaign featuring creative that was produced using generative AI. To bring the idea to life, they collaborated with a team of illustrators, traditional animators, 3D artists, film directors, and AI developers led by production service 1stAveMachine, resulting in a bespoke application of animation techniques with new generative AI tools. The process involved merging more than 300 written prompts with more than 20 custom-built AI models and transposing 457 hand-drawn figures—resulting in a total of more than 500 animation hours and 3,837 AI renderings that allow customers to have endless fun while creating different adventure films.

As reported by Ad Age, Hruska says that “using generative AI allowed us to go from coming up with a handful of concepts to generating stories at a scale and consistency that is very high level.”¹

The campaign strategy also centered on providing visible opportunities to drive audiences to the Honda Dream Generator—including call-to-action banners and an Amazon.com homepage takeover on March 15, timed to the launch of the experience.

“Our team works to expand the Amazon canvas available to advertisers—and for this project, we were able to integrate a diverse mix of digital channels that included the Amazon store, Fire TV, and Amazon Echo devices,” says McCagg. “Through these many customer touchpoints, we wanted to help Honda reach and engage a broad audience that consumes content in different ways.”

Since its March launch, the campaign has helped drive engagement, consideration, and industry buzz for Honda. Consistent with their brand objectives, Honda saw lifts in perception of the Prologue as being family-friendly and environmentally friendly.² Overall, the campaign led to significant lifts across all key metrics, including unaided brand awareness and purchase consideration.³

“It’s been exciting to see such widespread audience engagement with the Honda Dream Generator,” says Hruska. “The reaction reaffirmed for us that our customers want opportunities to participate in highly personalized advertising experiences that they can help shape.”

McCagg is also enthusiastic about the impact of the collaboration, adding, “This project will undoubtedly help inform the Brand Innovation Lab’s work on future campaigns—and I look forward to seeing where we go next. We are always excited to embrace emerging technologies when they can be used to make advertising more meaningful for audiences.”