Cross-promotions are an established practice in the marketing industry and these days, brands are as likely to mutually promote each other as they’ve ever been. This trend isn’t hard to explain as cross-promotions have been proven to work time and time again. That’s especially true when businesses are looking to increase brand awareness and aren’t just marketing specific products. The latest collaboration between Google and Amazon is better described as the former than the latter, but that doesn’t mean these two tech giants didn’t get creative.
Namely, as of today, the Google-owned navigation app Waze features voice support for Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May, stars of Amazon’s latest Prime Video show ‘The Grand Tour’. More specifically, Waze users can now opt to have the famous trio guide them through the busy streets of their home cities with the goal of evading as many traffic jams as possible. As anyone who has ever used the mobile app already knows, efficient navigation is pretty much the main idea behind Waze. Unlike many of its competitors, Waze prides itself on the plethora of different language options. Speaking of which, this cross-promotion certainly isn’t the first of its kind that Waze has debuted. Earlier this year, the Google-owned app featured the voice of Morgan Freeman who was promoting his latest blockbuster ‘London Has Fallen’. In recent years, the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Kevin Hart have also lent their voices to the popular service.
Just like it was the case with all other cross-promotions of this kind, the voices of Clarkson, Hammond, and May will only be available in Waze for a limited time, with the deal between Google and Amazon set to last until February 5th. While the official announcement on the Waze Blog makes no mention of limited availability, it does seem as though the cross-promotion isn’t available in all territories. From the looks of it, the voices of Clarkson, Hammond, and May are only available to Waze users in countries that residents can subscribe to Amazon Prime Video. To find out whether you’re eligible to listen to this trio guide you through traffic, download the latest version of Waze, open it, go to Settings, and select Voice Language under the Sound menu. On the next screen, try to find the “(US) Clarkson, Hammond & May” option – which should be located near the top of the list.