• by P.J. Bednarski  @pjbtweet, September 20, 2018

Lenovo’s Smart Display with Google Assistant makes a pretty simple value proposition: “#Seeing Is Better,” the main pitch in a series of new commercials.

The Smart Display includes a 10-inch or 8-inch touchscreen to display answers along with responses to voice commands for the Google Assistant.  It’s competing against Amazon’s Echo Show products. May the best mega-tech giant win.

The new spots, from the agency SuperHeroes NYC/Amsterdam and produced by the Good Company, are “hyper-hyper targeted” to consumers with a certain mindset, says Rob Zuurbier, partner and managing director, SuperHeroes.

The company went looking for You Tube audiences with special interests in cooking, fashion and parenting who are also tech enthusiasts. On top of that, Zuurbier says, “We wanted the next wave of buyers. We are looking for people who already own a voice assistant device who are already actively looking to upgrade. And YouTube can really provide that kind of data.”

One spot, titled “Black and White and Super Fuzzy,” shows a dad trying to decipher what animal his young daughter is talking about.

Another, “Unicorn Hair-Do," centers on the same dad watching a YouTube instructional video on his Lenovo Smart Display that shows how to create such a do, in response to his daughter's request.

A third commercial, like the others, shows the Lenovo Display as an ally rather than the all-knowing object on the shelf. Dad’s on the couch reciting a lemon pie recipe to his wife in the adjoining kitchen when his daughter interrupts by jumping all over him. His wife turns to her Lenovo unit to complete the step-by-step pie plan.

The Lenovo Display was introduced in July, with an 8-inch screen for $200, or a 10-inch screen for $250. Amazon’s 7-inch Echo Show right now is being discounted $100, down to $125.

A consumer adding up the pluses and minuses won’t get see every feature advertised in every commercial.

These Lenovo spots don’t showcase the video calls that are possible, nor the fact the Lenovo can be used in landscape or portrait mode.

Some critics say the Lenovo is better looking than the Amazon product, which Zuurbier says was important to his client who wanted to impress that the unit is really a piece of furniture. “It’s not meant to be something you pick up and take with you,” he says, noting that like the Amazon Echo Show, it needs to be plugged in.

Today, Amazon is hosting a show and tell, unveiling several new products. The one getting the most buzz is an Alexa-enabled microwave oven.