La-Z-Boy rolls out AI-powered ‘decliner’ as part of brand refresh

Dive Brief:

• La-Z-Boy launched a new marketing platform, “Long Live The Lazy,” to reclaim the term “lazy,” according to a press release. A national ad campaign will begin airing this week across broadcast, digital, streaming, social media and mobile gaming. 
• Additionally, the furniture brand has created a prototype model called The Decliner, an artificial intelligence-powered recliner that generates a cancellation excuse via SMS by pulling its handle. La-Z-Boy will make three Decliners available via an online and social media contest.
• The marketing platform will feature the first look at a modernized brand identity, bringing La-Z-Boy in line with an industry-wide trend that sees marketers updating their brands for new and evolving consumers.

Dive Insight:

La-Z-Boy’s new marketing platform and national ad campaign aim to reclaim “lazy” and empower consumers to embrace what it calls the “transformational power of comfort.” The shift in focus and tone comes as consumers’ post-pandemic normals have evolved to include more self-care and relaxation, especially amid a fraught socioeconomic climate and a host of global crises.

“Our ‘Long Live the Lazy’ platform reflects the reality that everyone occasionally needs the time and space to power down, kick up their feet and make comfort their top priority,” said Christy Hoskins, vice president and CMO at La-Z-Boy, in a statement.

The campaign centers on “We The Lazy,” a 30-second spot that mimics direct-to-camera political ads. The creative focuses on a diverse set of consumers, each with their own concerns and challenges, who are standing up for their right to be lazy by sitting down and reclining back. The effort seeks to reach a broader set of consumers and sees the brand showing up in new channels, including sports networks, streaming music and mobile gaming, Hoskins explained.

In addition to the spot, La-Z-Boy will give away three of its The Decliner prototypes, which use AI to generate a cancellation excuse — a video spot features “I’m helping the neighbor look for their runaway llama” — that is delivered through text. Consumers can enter to win a Decliner by sending in creative cancellation excuses through TheDecliner.com, tagging the brand and including the hashtags #LongLiveTheLazy and #contest on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or TikTok, or by posting on the brand’s social media posts through Sept. 11.

The platform also entails a refresh that spans new branding elements that were designed to convey comfort and the brand’s iconic furniture. The marketing world has been awash with similar revamps this year as marketers look to engage with new and evolving consumer groups. “Long Live the Lazy” was developed by ad agency RPA, while The Decliner and branding refresh were developed by creative agency Colle McVoy and its boutique public relations and design agencies, Exponent and 10 Thousand Design.