Tag: Amazon Echo

Amazon Unveils Echo Show, An Alexa-Powered Smart Speaker With A Screen

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
On Tuesday, Amazon officially unveiled the latest addition to its Echo smart speaker line – Echo Show. A first for the Echo products, Echo Show features a 7-inch touch screen, which enables it to do things other Alexa-powered speakers can not, such as making video calls, playing online videos, and displaying lyrics of the songs being streamed. Echo Show is priced at $229.99, with pre-orders open now and a ship date set for June 28.

Despite having a touch screen, Echo Show is still very much intended to be primarily controlled via voice command with Alexa. Instead of repurposing their Fire OS or Android apps, brands will need to make third-party skills to get on Echo Show, just as they would do for other, screen-less Echo devices. However, developers will be able to incorporate the skill cards that already exist in on the Alexa app or a Fire tablet, as well as sending a video to the device via the built-in video player. Moreover, the Smart Home API for Alexa is also being extended to allow for easier smart home integrations.

What Brands Need To Do
The new addition introduces a visual component to Alexa-powered conversational interface of the Echo lineup, which, in turn, opens the door for brands to create new kind of voice experiences that can be supported and enhanced by additional texts, images, or videos. For example, a beauty brand’s Alexa skill will be able to surface makeup tutorial videos for users to follow, while a healthcare brand may create an Alexa skill that offers seniors live consultations via video calls. The possibilities are endless, and with Amazon Echo now dominating over 70% of the U.S. smart speaker market, it is up to brands to come up with an Alexa skill that can allow them to connect with customers at home.

How We Can Help
The Lab has extensive experience in building Alexa Skills and chatbots to reach consumers on conversational interfaces. So much so that we’ve built a dedicated conversational practice called Dialogue. The “Miller Time” Alexa Skill we developed with Drizly for Miller Lite is a good example of how Dialogue can help brands build a conversational customer experience, supercharged by our stack of technology partners with best-in-class solutions and an insights engine that extracts business intelligence from conversational data.

If you’d like to learn more about how to effectively reach consumers on conversational interfaces, or to leverage the Lab’s expertise to take on related client opportunities within the IPG Mediabrands, please contact our Client Services Director Samantha Barrett ([email protected]) to schedule a visit to the Lab.

 

Source: The Verge & TechCrunch

Images courtesy of Amazon’s product page

Fox Teams Up With Amazon To Promote “24” Reboot Via Echo

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Fox network has struck a deal with Amazon to promote the premiere of the franchise’s “24: Legacy” reboot, which will air immediately after Sunday’s Super Bowl game. As part of the promotion, Echo users can set their alarm sound to the trademark “24” ticking-clock sound effect starting this Monday. This is the first time Amazon has created a branded built-in function for the Echo devices. The Alexa alarm tie-in will also be featured on Amazon’s homepage as a top carousel ad this Sunday.

Moreover, starting Wednesday, March 1, Fox and Amazon will launch the “24: Legacy Daily Mission,” a mini-game that challenges Echo users with a 24-second-long challenge every day. Users will be quizzed with themed questioned or asked to perform quick exercise routines such as jumping jacks or push-ups by Alexa.

What Brands Need To Do
This is the latest example of brands exploring Amazon Echo speakers as a potential marketing channel, as well as a good example of how an entertainment brand can leverage Echo devices to reach customers in their living rooms. Last week, Sony Pictures created a cross-platform chatbot based on a character from its “ Resident Evil” franchise to promote its upcoming flick. While the “Daily Challenge” mini-game may seem trivial, it offers a good sticking point that will keep reminding viewers of the show and hopefully help with audience retention.

As a first attempt, Fox sets a clear path for other brands at employing Echo devices, Alexa, and Amazon’s online properties as part of an integrated marketing campaign. As more and more customers start to embrace conversational devices such as Amazon Echo or Google Home, their development as emerging marketing channels is something that all brands need to pay heed to.\

How We Can Help
The Lab has extensive experience in building branded chatbots to reach consumers on conversational interfaces, including the NiroBot we built in collaboration with Ansible for Kia. We’ve built a dedicated conversational practice called Dialogue, which aims to help brands build a chatbot experience supercharged by our stack of technology partners with best-in-class solutions and an insights engine that extracts business intelligence from conversational data.

If you’d like to learn more about how to effectively reach consumers on messaging apps and other conversational interfaces, or to leverage the Lab’s expertise to take on related clients and learning opportunities within the IPG Mediabrands, please contact our Client Services Director Samantha Holland ([email protected]) to schedule a visit to the Lab.

 

Source: Variety

Amazon Extends Alexa To Fire Tablets, Adds Visual Information Cards

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Amazon is extending its virtual assistant service Alexa to its tablet products, including the $49 Fire tablet and the two Fire HD models. With an over-the-air update, Fire tablet users can now long press the home button to activate Alexa, allowing them to make use of the over 3,000 “skills” that the voice-based personal assistant is currently capable of.

This update also adds a visual component to Alexa, as text-based information cards will now show up on the tablet screens to accompany Alexa’s answers for certain skills. Moreover, those who own a Fire tablet and an Echo device will be able to sync up Alexa across devices so that they can enjoy the typical hands-free experience of summoning Alexa while also receiving supporting visual information on their tablet.

What Brands Should Do
As Amazon continues to improve Alexa’s functionality and expand it to more devices, it is quickly establishing itself as a leader in the digital assistant market. The addition of information cards allows developers and brands to incorporate a visual component into their Alexa skills and enhance the user experience. For instance, this feature should be helpful for Alexa-assisted shopping as it can provide customers with product previews. Boosted by the addition of visuals, the type of conversation-based interactions that Alexa enables is poised to drastically change how consumers get information and interact with brands.

The Lab has extensive experience with building Alexa skills and helping brands navigate the new realities that conversational interfaces are set to bring. If you’re interested in learning more, please reach out and schedule a visit to the Lab. For additional information on how brands can effectively reach consumers on conversational interfaces, please check out the first section of our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: The Verge

Header image is a promotional image courtesy of Amazon

Amazon Makes It Easier To Discover Alexa Skills

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa is getting new skills every day, but it hasn’t been very easy for users to find and activate the skills they want for their Echo devices. This pain point was largely alleviated as Amazon revamped the skills section of the Alexa mobile app, putting all skills into 20 browsable categories – including Connected Car, Smart Home, Shopping, and Travel & Transportation – and adding new search tools to make Alexa skills more discoverable. In addition, Amazon is allowing users to activate new Alexa skills by voice command. Users can now access their previously enabled skills via a new “Your Skills” section.

Since its low-key launch in November 2014, Amazon Echo has turned out to be a sleeper hit, ushering voice-based conversational interfaces into smart home devices. Early adopting brands such as Capital One, Domino’s, Kayak, and StubHub have already created branded Alexa skills to better serve customers at home. In fact, Amazon says now there are more than 1,400 skills available for Alexa users to explore.

Why Brands Should Care
As the list of Alexa skills grows longer, it was getting increasingly difficult for branded skills to cut through the clutter and stand out, and this revamp brings some much-needed structure and search capabilities for Alexa skills. Therefore, it is important for brands to properly name and tag their Alexa skills, make sure their skills are filed under the right category, and keep a close eye on this development to ensure the discoverability of their Alexa skills.

For more information on how brands can develop authentic brand voices and navigate the new interface, check out the Conversational Interfaces section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: Amazon Developers

Header image courtesy of  Amazon Developers

 

Fitbit Becomes The First Wearable Company To Integrate With Amazon’s Alexa

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Another day, another new skill added to Amazon’s virtual assistant service Alexa. Today, Fitbit unveiled its integration with Alexa, which allows users to get their daily fitness stats, such as steps taken and heart rates, simply by asking their Alexa-enabled Amazon devices. The fitness wearable maker also designed some contextual messages so that Alexa can offer users words of encouragement throughout the day.

What Brands Need To Do
While Fitbit is the first wearable company to integrate with Alexa, it is not the first one to add a conversational touch to fitness wearables. Moov, for example, created a fitness tracker that talks to you during workouts via wireless earbuds to guide you through the exercises and reads you key biometric stats. Nevertheless, by integrating with Alexa, Fitbit has added another dimension to its product and a new touchpoint to engage users. As Amazon and the developer community continue to build out Alexa’s capabilities and make it an increasingly brand-friendly platform to reach consumers at home, brands would be smart to get on board with those devices via integrations or partnerships.

For more information on how brands can develop authentic brand voices and navigate the new rules of discovery, check out the Conversational Interfaces section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: CNet

SXSW 2016: Quaker Oats Integrates With Alexa To Offer User Recipes

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Quaker is tapping Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa to help customers easily find trendy recipes for making overnight oats, the long-standing, household brand announced at SXSW today. Working with agency partner Organic, Quaker has created its first app for Alexa, which is available through Amazon products such as the Echo speakers. The company is also planning a launch campaign to promote the Echo app when it becomes available to the public this summer.

What Brands Need To Do
Hands-free interactions enabled by voice interfaces are a natural fit for the kitchen, where it is more convenient for users to give commands by speaking rather than touch. So it makes sense for Quaker to integrate with Alexa to add a futuristic sheen to its 135-year-old brand. As Amazon and the developer community continue to build out Alexa’s capabilities and make it an increasingly brand-friendly platform to reach consumers at home, brands would be smart to get on board with those devices via integrations or partnerships.

For more information on how brands can develop authentic brand voices and navigate the new rules of discovery, check out the Conversational Interfaces section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: AdWeek

Capital One Customers Can Now Bank With Alexa

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Alexa keeps getting smarter as it adds basic banking to its long list of skills today. Capital One announced at SXSW the integration of its banking app with Amazon’s voice-activated virtual assistant. The new skill allows users of Alexa-enabled devices to ask Alexa to check their account balances, review recent transactions, and even pay their bills with pre-linked accounts. All they need to do is to enable the skill in the Alexa mobile app, then link Alexa with Capital One accounts.

What Brands Need To Do
As Amazon and their developer community continue to build out Alexa’s capabilities, the Echo is becoming an increasingly business-friendly platform for brands to connect with consumers via a conversational interface. As Amazon expands the Echo family and makes push for Alexa integrations, brands will need to be proactive in getting on board with those devices via deep integrations or partnerships.

For more information on how brands can develop authentic brand voices and navigate the new rules of discovery, check out the Conversational Interfaces section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: The Verge

Amazon Diversifies The Echo Product Line With Echo Dot And Tap

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Following its Super Bowl campaign for Echo, Amazon is doubling down on its smart loudspeaker by expanding the product line. The company unveiled two new variations of Echo on Wednesday: the $130 Amazon Tap, an Alexa-enabled, battery-powered portable bluetooth speaker, and the $90 Echo Dot, a mini-speaker that adds Alexa support to other speakers. Curiously, the Echo Dot is currently available for pre-ordering only through Alexa, which means you would have to already have an Echo or a Alexa-enabled Fire TV to get one. In related news, Alexa will also start supporting smart thermostats from Nest and Honeywell later this month.

What Brands Need To Do
As Amazon pushes for Echo and, more importantly, Alexa presence in every room of the house, it creates an omnipresent convenience that should create more use cases for brands to explore. Diversifying its product line with different price tiers should also help with Echo’s adoption rate, furthering the proliferation of conversational interfaces. For brands, this kind of interface presents new challenges in discovery because they only present limited options upon requests. Therefore, brands should be proactive in experimenting with voice-activated devices via deep integrations or partnerships.

For more information on how brands can utilize Echo and other conversational interfaces to reach customers, check out the Conversational Interfaces section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: Wall Street Journal

Header image courtesy of Amazon’s YouTube video

How Warner Bros. Taps Alexa To Promote New Batman Movie

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Alexa, Amazon’s voice-based, virtual assistant service, is becoming even more fun as it adds a new capability – interactive audio gameplay. To help Warner Bros. and DC Comics promote the upcoming “Batman vs. Superman,” production company Cruel & Unusual Films developed a choose-your-own-adventure game for Amazon Echo and Fire TV, which lets users follow audio cues from Alexa and investigate the murder of Bruce Wayne’s parents. At the end of the game, users can ask Alexa for showtimes for “Batman vs. Superman.”

What Brands Need To Do
As Alexa continues to evolve and develop new capabilities, it is also becoming an increasingly brand-friendly tool that can help brands engage with customers. This unusual promotion provides a great example in how brands can experiment with voice-activated interfaces to come up with new ways to reach audiences.

For more information on how brands can develop authentic brand voices and navigate the new interface, check out the Conversational Interfaces section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: Variety

Echo Gains Uber Integration As Amazon Readies Super Bowl Push

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Amazon took advantage of Uber’s API and integrated the on-demand car service into its smart speaker Echo. After enabling the Uber skill in the Echo app, users will be able to simply request an Uber ride simply by asking Alexa, the AI-powered virtual assistant embedded in Echo. You can also talk with Alexa to find out when your ride will be arriving or to cancel the ride.

Earlier this week, Echo also integrated Domino’s app to give Alexa the ability to order pizzas and track delivery, while adding support for streaming music (and ads for free-tier users) from Spotify. Amazon will be making its Super Bowl debut this Sunday with a celebrity-studded spot for Echo, and adding these useful skills certainly makes for a strong case as the company gets ready to push Echo into mainstream consumer market.

What Brands Need To Do
As Alexa’s list of skills continues to grow, Amazon Echo is becoming an increasingly business-friendly platform for brands to connect with consumers via a conversational interface. For brands, this kind of interface presents new challenges in discovery because they only give out limited options upon requests. Therefore, brands will need to be active in getting on board with those voice-activated devices via deep integrations or partnerships.

For more information on how brands can develop authentic brand voices and navigate the new rules of discovery, check out the Conversational Interfaces section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: The Verge

 

Header image courtesy of Amazon on YouTube