Lizzo Goes Down A Tech-Enabled ‘Rabbit Hole’ In New Campaign For Logitech

In a video featuring her brand new single, Grammy Award-winning rapper, singer and flutist Lizzo works at a computer clad in yellow, matching her equally bright mouse. Seconds later, she leans forward into a web cam, transporting her through an internet-enabled looking glass as the song begins.

Down the rabbit hole, Lizzo dances atop a giant black and yellow keyboard before diving through another camera lens and into a realm of faces on screens, falling deeper and deeper before landing back on the keyboard.

But this isn’t an ordinary music video. It’s a new campaign for Logitech, which debuts today featuring the pop star as the main character.

Speaking with Forbes about the campaign, Lizzo—whose real name is Melissa Jefferson—said the video “definitely made me feel like I was Alice in Wonderland…The analog girl in a digital, literal world.”

“It’s like this whole really cool rabbit hole of an experience about the world that we’re building digitally,” she said in an interview. “I’ve used it obviously to my advantage: I love social media, I connect with my fans and I connect with myself through it. I think anything is possible in this new world.”

There’s also an irony in Lizzo starring in a campaign for Logitech: Although she describes herself as “so bad at technology,” she’s also savvy with it. She joked that it’s only “the hardware and me don’t get along.”

“It’s what happens, it’s the world that technology creates that I just really get and understand and can speak the language of,” she said. “So it was really a great metaphor of me being like ‘How do you work this camera,’ and then I get swooped into this world to be free and then dance and then fly into the sky and bear witness to all of these other great creators and connect with them and be in wonder with them.”

Despite the upbeat tone of the music, array of bright colors that are indeed trippy enough to be from Lewis Carroll’s classic story, the lyrics also bring an honest message that has nothing to do with technology:

“Woke up this morning to somebody in a video talking about something I posted in the video. 

Fame is pretty new but I’ve been used to people judging me.

That’s why I moved away, I moved and why I’m so in love with me.

I’m used to feeling alone.

So I thought that I’d let you know. 

In case nobody told you today you’re special. 

In case nobody made you believe you’re special.”

According to Lizzo, Logitech’s campaign was “treading into new waters, a new frontier, especially when it was like this is how things used to be.”

“I feel like I definitely represent a lot of the ‘new’ version of things,” Lizzo said. “The new beauty standard, the new pop star, you know, the new rule breaker, and how there’s just no rules anymore. I definitely identify with and represent those things, and it was nice to align myself with a campaign that was here to break the rules with me.”

The multi-million-dollar campaign is part of Logitech’s plan to market its cameras, keyboards, microphones and mice to the masses. While the company has typically focused marketing on particular products, it’s making a concerted effort to reach younger and more diverse audiences. The campaign—called “Defy Logic”—will appear across cable, connected TV, online video, out-of-home ads, digital media and social platforms.

According to Logitech Global Chief Marketing Officer Najoh Tita-Reid, Lizzo has “defied logic from the day she stepped on the stage.” 

“The way we approached Lizzo was really understanding her passions and how we could play a role in enabling that and understanding her ‘why’ passions—not just her art, but also the impact that she works to have on the world,” Tita-Reid said.

The commercial also aims to show how jobs are different from what they used to look like—whether that’s entertaining fans, making art without a paint brush, coding for music instead of just for a job, working from anywhere, or defining what it means to a CEO beyond the status-quo.

“It really is about juxtaposition and how the old ways and the old world really does require us to rewrite the world,” Tita-Reid said. “This new generation is doing that. They’re rewriting the rules, they’re rewriting the world on their own terms, and they really have shown us that.”

When asked about her new song and how it fits in with Logitech’s campaign, Lizzo declined to comment. Tita-Reid also declined to comment other than to say “we are really inspired by Lizzo and all of her music…She really is defying logic in her lyrics, in her music.”

So what was it about Logitech that appealed to Lizzo?

“I get hit with a loooooot of offers,” Lizzo said. “There was something about this one that made me feel appreciated and seen. It made me feel like, ‘Damn, I’m finally getting celebrated for celebrating myself.”

This isn’t Lizzo’s first time working with a brand on a campaign. In 2018, she worked with ModCloth, and in 2019 partnered with Urban Decay as her first major beauty brand partnership. In 2020, she collaborated with the Australian eyewear brand Quay to promote voting in the U.S. while also raising money for Feeding America. Last year, she partnered with Dove for the Unilever brand’s Self-Esteem Project, posting an “unedited” selfie to promote body positivity. 

When asked how she picks brands to work with, Lizzo said “I look for the heart.”

“With Logitech, talking to the CMO and how she truly cares about me as a Black woman as a Black creator, me as a pop star, it felt warm and real,” she said. 

Along with Lizzo, Logitech is working with several others for the “Defy Logic” campaign including the comedian Elsa Majimbo, social media personality Bretman Rock, coder-producer DJ_Dave, gamer Danucd, digital artist Defaced and fashion designer Kheris Rogers. (Lizzo pointed out that Bretman Rock is one of her favorite creators.)

“The thread that ties all of them together is that they’re all creators that are challenging the status quo,” Tita-Reid said. “They’re all paving the way for all people to be able to pursue their passions and for the right and ability to pursue your passion.”

This is the second year for Logitech’s “Defy Logitech,” following its first Super Bowl commercial last year, which starred Lil Nas X and previewed his song “Montero (Call Me By Your Name).” When asked why Logitech is debuting the new campaign before next months’ Super Bowl rather than make a return appearance, Tita-Reid said the company is working on running more consistent advertising and also wanted to preempt the Winter Olympics and Super Bowl LVI.

“I feel like I definitely represent a lot of the ‘new’ version of things. The new beauty standard, the new pop star, you know, the new rule breaker, and how there’s just no rules anymore. I definitely identify with and represent those things.

Over the past two years, Logitech has increasingly worked with creators to promote its products. In October, the company debuted a new campaign featuring Miley Cyrus, comedians Rhett & Link, pop duo The Veronicas and musician Wowkie Da. A separate campaign last year celebrated dozens of diverse creators while also raising money for charities.

“The difference is the respect that people are giving this community and understanding that they are an economy in themselves,” Tita-Reid said. “As opposed to leveraging them and supporting their own ambition, it really should be flipping if you want to be relevant, and it should be about how do you enable their success and what is your role in enabling them versus them just enabling your success.”

Although the company wouldn’t disclose specifics about the total cost or what the company is paying Lizzo or any of the other partners, Tita-Reid said it’s “probably the biggest brand campaign we’ve done,” adding that the bigger brand campaigns in recent years are “more justified” as the company has widened its range of audiences.

“When you look at Logitech, people might have thought about us as being more for office workers in the past,” Tita-Reid said. “And now we are really working to support the business-to-business community, people who are working in offices, people who are working hybrid, people who are in education, people who are creators.”

Spending Millions More On Marketing, Logitech Boosts Its Brand

Logitech has steadily increased investments in marketing spending. According to the company’s third-quarter 2022 results released this week, Logitech spent $779 million during the first nine months of the past year compared to $496.5 million during the same period a year prior. Since spending $182 billion on advertising in 2016, Logitech has increased spending by between $20 million and $40 million each year, according to the research firm research firm Statista. (The firm estimated that advertising costs for 2021 were around $450 million, up from $299 million in 2020.)

Logitech is one of the many companies that have benefited from the remote-work boom over the past two years as people stock up supplies for home offices. Earlier this week, the company beat Wall Street’s expectations for its third-quarter 2022 results with $1.63 billion in revenue. During the company’s earnings call on Tuesday, Logitech Chief Financial Officer Nate Olmstead said “we still have a lot of opportunity with just increasing the awareness of how nice these products are, and what a great experience it is.”

“I think our strategy for the last few years and continues to be, let’s try to rely less on promotion to drive the top line to drive the business and let’s invest in marketing and drive the awareness,” Olmstead said. “And I think that’s a healthier way to grow over the long-term. So, both in the short-term and the long-term, that’s our strategy.”

Much of the tech features in the film will be familiar to anyone who has spent the past two years working, studying otherwise living from home during the Covid-19 pandemic.

When asked about how her own relationship with tech has changed during the era of isolation, she said “we have to be careful this strange dependency.” 

“I think it’s a beautiful thing, but as human beings we also know that what we do best is out here in nature, with ourselves and the physical world,” Lizzo said. “But I think it’s great that we’ve built these new kinds of precedents with technology. Like a conference room is now on my laptop and I can wear sweat pants underneath and a Gucci button down on top and call it a day…If we do it the right way, this could be so expansive for us and how we relate with each other.”