• by Larissa Faw , August 2, 2018

Troy-Bilt and agency Marcus Thomas are attempting to differentiate the outdoor power and lawn equipment brand from competitors and "break through the monotony of the category" through voice-enabled assistants and weather-triggered ads. They're getting help from both Amazon's Alexa and IBM's Watson.

The creative builds off the fact that people need to know about weather and general user information in order to use the product. The "Ask Troy-Bilt" Alexa skill on Amazon Echo synchronizes with consumers’ personal calendars and real-time weather information to let them know, for example, best times to mow lawns. 

Also a partnership with IBM/Watson will introduce weather-triggered digital ads on Weather.com. 
The campaign also features an “Ask Troy” chatbot, as well as content distributed across YouTube, owned email, paid social placements and influencer collaborations.