Waze collaborates with Netflix to provide Sea Beast-inspired driving experience

Waze has collaborated with Netflix to bring Netflix’s newest movie The Sea Beast to its platform. The movie tells a story of a girl and a sea monster navigating through the seas and will be released on 8 July on Netflix. This fits in perfectly with Waze's navigational capabilities and the platform is offering three different moods comprising of the characters in the movie that drivers can choose to represent their feeling on the road. 

Drivers can also swap their vehicle icons for a Lifeboat. The inspired content will be available for a limited time in English. Meanwhile, Netflix will also be hosting a series of experiences at locations across the US comprising aquariums and museums to celebrate the launch of The Sea Beast. MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to Waze and Netflix for additional information on the partnership.

Previously in 2020, Warner Bros Consumer Products (WBCP) and DC had tied up with Waze to spice up consumers' travel on the road ahead of Batman Day on 21 September, with Batman and The Riddler to help users navigate. Waze had also tied up with Spotify to create the Waze and DC superhero or super villain playlists, which could be played via the Waze audio player feature.  In the same year, it had also tapped on the voice of Malaysian entertainment personality Yasmin Yusuff for an additional voice navigation option in Bahasa Malaysia on the app known as "Bahasa Malaysia - Yasmin". 

Other than Waze, brands and agencies have also launched their own creative voice assistants. In April, Unilever beauty brand LUX launched an initiative called “Shut Up Sexism”, which aimed to equip female virtual voice assistants with ready-made verbal comebacks, especially when encountering sexist behaviour. The campaign was created in collaboration with creative agency Wunderman Thompson Singapore and was to highlight the unquestioned nature of sexist encounters female virtual voice assistants have had to encounter.

In 2019, VIRTUE, the creative agency by VICE Media, developed the world’s first genderless voice named ‘Q’ .VIRTUE teamed up with Anna Jørgensen, Linguist and researcher at the University of Copenhagen, to define the parameters for a gender neutral voice through her academic research and consultation.

Related articles:
Warner Bros and Waze tap Batman and The Riddler for immersive navigation experience
Waze taps iconic voice of MY entertainer Yasmin Yusuff for navigation option
LUX 'hacks' voice assistants with sassy comebacks to shut down sexist behaviour
VICE Media creates genderless AI voice assistant to tackle bias and stereotype