
The Magic of a Smart Home
The Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association (CEDIA) announced on Tuesday that it is launching its first-ever consumer advertising campaign – something members have been asking it to do for years. The campaign is a professionally conceived, created, produced, and now distributed advertisement that includes, amongst other things, a 60-second video that educates consumers on the “magic” of a well-designed smart home and the need for a professional installer.
Learn more about the new CEDIA Magic of Smart Home consumer campaign
CEDIA calls itself “the Association for Smart Home Professionals,” and it has now officially rolled out a well-designed consumer advertising campaign that makes that point to end-users. Included is a 60-second video advertisement that the organization says “…highlights the magic of smart home automation and the technology integrators who make it a reality.”
The ad is a slice-of-life concept that centers around a day in the life of a typical American family that happens to own a smart home. It opens with a young girl in her fantasy tent, taking a branch and turning it into what she imagines to be a magic wand. She swings it in the air, and suddenly sparkles emanate from the wand – the sign of magic. She runs past her Dad, who is busy interacting with a smart home installation specialist who is showing him a control app on a tablet, and finds her Mom to show her what she’s discovered.
The Magic of a Smart Home Demonstrated
The little girl and Mom repair to the family room, and with a swish of the wand, a movie starts on the screen. Soon, Dad walks in and announces that it’s bedtime. We cut to a scene with the little girl sleeping in her bed. Mom slips the wand out of her sleeping hand and with another swish…the lights all go off. We cut to additional scenes of other lights around the home going off, automated shades closing, the temperature getting adjusted on the smart thermostat, and exterior lights extinguishing…fade to black and a CEDIA logo, with the phrase “Find a Smart Home Professional at CEDIA.org.”
To my eyes, the “magic” theme gets a little over-baked in this, but I’m not going to quibble. The commercial is well done and makes the point…in 60 seconds.
Video Available for Use by Members…Can Be Customized for Member Brand
CEDIA is making the video available to members, many of whom do not possess the wherewithal to produce something of this quality on their own. Not only that, but CEDIA says it will customize the video by inserting the member’s logo and website address. With this, the ad doesn’t just serve to raise general awareness of the benefits of smart homes – but it transforms into a tool to attract attention to what your operation does in your community.
The trade association encourages members to take advantage of this tool to power up their marketing efforts, such as their company website, social media, direct email campaigns, paid advertisements, and customer presentations. Not only does CEDIA offer this slickly produced video, but they have also designed and produced collateral material such as print advertisements, images optimized for social media, and digital video clips.

CEDIA Launching Its Own National Awareness Campaign
The Association also notes that it will launch an “ongoing consumer awareness campaign” that will serve as a national umbrella campaign in support of members’ local initiatives – directly tying into a consistent and integrated messaging with the use of these coordinated materials. This campaign will run through the rest of 2025, and Christine DeJoy tells me it will include OTT (over-the-top) ads that run within the streaming content of providers such as Hulu, Roku, and other internet-based platforms.
CEDIA is also targeting display ads, paid search ads, and video ads (i.e., YouTube), “…and more.” DeJoy tells me that this is a serious branding initiative, “…one aimed at driving real business impact.”
Effective marketing is about storytelling, and this campaign tells a compelling story about the magic of smart home technology and the value of professional integration. We’re excited to give our members access to valuable resources that resonate with homeowners and builds their customer base.
Christine DeJoy, CEDIA Vice President of Communications
Moving the Consumer Market is a Tall Order
Influencing a consumer population of 300 million people (U.S.) is not an easy or inexpensive proposition. The organization did not share the size of its advertising budget. It also didn’t answer my questions about the frequency of the ad runs or the specific placements it has planned. So it is impossible to offer my perspective on whether this is a winning campaign.
However, I congratulate the Association for this well-thought-out effort. Any attempt to influence the consumer market is better than no effort. Who knows, maybe this creative approach will magically catch the imagination of consumers everywhere, spark their curiosity, and motivate them to reach out to their nearest custom integration company.
In that event…everyone wins!

Learn More Here…
If you are a CEDIA member, you can learn more about this program by visiting cedia.org and logging in to your membership account.
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