There is something poignant about a company that became so ubiquitous during the pandemic that its name replaced the generic act it described, now finding itself in need of an advertising campaign to explain that it does other things, too.
Zoom, the video conferencing platform that for a time in 2020 seemed to be the only place where human interaction occurred, has enlisted Kate McKinnon, the "Saturday Night Live" alumna, to star in a new commercial that positions the company as a purveyor of artificial intelligence workplace tools rather than merely the rectangle grid where your colleagues appeared during lockdown.
In the spot, titled "Zoom Got It Done," Ms. McKinnon plays what the company describes as an "evil CEO" intent on destroying Zoom, only to be converted by the software's capabilities. The premise allows Zoom to demonstrate features like automated note-taking and slide deck creation — tasks that the company hopes will redefine its identity in what has become an increasingly crowded field of A.I.-forward productivity suites.
The commercial was produced by No Notes Productions, the production company of Colin Jost, Ms. McKinnon's former castmate at "S.N.L." Mr. Jost, in a statement, said he enjoyed living out his dream of being an evil chief executive vicariously through Ms. McKinnon. (One suspects the actual evil chief executives of the world require fewer surrogates.)
The campaign continues Zoom's "Zoom Ahead" brand positioning, which uses the phrase "conversation to completion" to describe its ambitions. Whether the company can successfully pivot from being a verb people use reflexively to a platform people choose deliberately remains, as these things often do, a matter of execution.
At minimum, Zoom appears to have gotten the casting done.
Original story published in campaignlive.com: "Zoom ‘gets it done’ in latest play to showcase its AI capabilities | Campaign US"