Coco Robotics, an urban robot delivery company, partnered with Prime Video and Omnicom to promote The Pickup, a heist comedy film starring Eddie Murphy, Pete Davidson, and Keke Palmer.

Coco Robotics was founded in 2020 and brings zero-emission deliveries in the U.S. and Europe through robot delivery. In a new campaign, the robots will be doing double duty, serving as marketing devices for the new film.

Marketing with robot delivery

The campaign launched July 21 and repurposed Coco's Los Angeles fleet of “robocouriers,” which are urban delivery robots, into marketing bots on the streets of LA, or as they call them, “immersive mobile brand activations” that blend entertainment and technology.

As part of the campaign, Coco wrapped its LA-based mobile robots in Prime Video and film branding, designed “to evoke the film's iconic armored money trucks,” according to a press release.

The campaign is intended to play on the film's central theme while it turns the robots into an extension of the film's story. The robots play voice lines from the film when deliveries are picked up, “turning each vehicle into an in-world character that expands the cinematic universe from screen to sidewalk.”

So, Coco's robots deliver food, but also generate “broad exposure” that the company says rival traditional marketing methods, such as billboards. “Unlike static ads, Coco's robots draw eyes wherever they go - making them an attention-grabbing ad surface in any city that naturally sparks filming and sharing,” said the company in a press release.

 The visibility is powered by a combination of proprietary impression-tracking technology and OOH measurement tools.

"This campaign shows how our robots can amplify brand storytelling in real time," said Josh Dubin, Head of Ads at Coco Robotics. "It transforms routine deliveries into personal, one-to-one brand experiences that connect with consumers in a natural, memorable way."

This type of out-of-home advertising is something that some believe will be more common in the future.

"We're always looking for ways to push boundaries and create media moments that people haven't seen before," said Elizabeth Boone, Senior Associate in Emerging Platforms and Partnerships at Omnicom Media Group. "This campaign is a glimpse into the future of media. It's a perfect example of a unique integration of robotics, storytelling, and neighborhood-scale visibility that can come together to bring a movie to life in the real world."

The campaign also includes a custom commercial using Coco's delivery robots in a heist scene from The Pickup.

Source: Coco Robotics