Tag: amazon

Expedia Launches Alexa Skill To Offer Travel Updates

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Travel site Expedia has launched an Alexa skill that let Amazon Echo users ask for updates on flights, hotel bookings, and rental car reservations without lifting a finger. Expedia customers can use it to check their loyalty points balance. At launch, the skill does not support booking flights or hotels via Alexa directly, but Expedia says it is working to add the feature soon.

This is not the first time Expedia has seeked to connect with travellers via conversational interfaces. In June, the popular travel booking site launched a Facebook Messenger bot, which allows users to search for hotels via chats and can direct them to the Expedia site to complete booking once an option is selected. At the moment, Expedia and its competitor Kayak remain some of the few skills in the Alexa Skills Marketplace that can track flight information and plan a trip.

What Brands Should Do
This serves as the latest example of how voice-based assistant services may transform customer experiences in hospitality. As Amazon continues to improve Alexa’s functionality and expand the underlying deep learning technologies to more services, it is time for brands seeking to stay ahead of the digital curve to start exploring how incorporating conversational interfaces may help improve the customer experience.

The Lab has extensive experience with building Alexa skills for brands. If you’re interested in learning more about this or have a client opportunity, please reach out to our Client Services Director Samantha Holland ([email protected]) to schedule a visit to the Lab.

 

Source: VentureBeat

Amazon Launches Bot Framework Lex To Extend Deep Learning To Developers

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Earlier today at its re:Invent developer event, Amazon announced a series of updates to its  Amazon Web Services (AWS), the biggest public cloud infrastructure provider at the moment. Most notably, the Seattle-based company also introduced Amazon Lex, a bot framework akin to the one Microsoft debuted earlier this year, to extend the deep learning technologies that power Alexa to developers. With Lex’s deep learning functionalities of automatic speech recognition (ASR) and natural language understanding (NLU),  brands can work with developers to build sophisticated conversational interfaces into any application using voice and text.

What Brands Should Do
What truly sets Amazon Lex apart from the existing bot-building frameworks is that it allows developers to tap into the deep learning technologies powering Alexa, Amazon’s leading voice-based personal assistant service. The ecommerce giant has reportedly sold more than 5 million Alexa-enabled Echo smart speakers since launch, and as the company continues to make strong pushes for its hardware products, more and more mainstream consumers will soon become reachable via Alexa. By leveraging Lex, brands will be able to build advanced applications with highly engaging user experiences and lifelike conversational interactions.

The Lab has extensive experience with building chatbots and Alexa skills for brands. The new Messenger bot we build in collaboration with Ansible for Kia delivers comprehensive product information about the all-new Niro model via friendly chats. We are very excited to explore the new possibilities that Amazon Lex is set to unleash and work with our clients to navigate the new realities that conversational interfaces are set to bring. If you’re interested in learning more about this or have a client opportunity, please reach out to our Client Services Director Samantha Holland ([email protected]) to schedule a visit to the Lab.

 

Source: VentureBeat

Amazon Launches eSports Tournament For Casual Mobile Gaming

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Amazon Appstore launching a new eSports tournament named Champions of Fire International for casual mobile gamers, as the ecommerce giant aims to bring eSports into mainstream consumer consciousness. The one-day tournament is scheduled for December 2 in Las and will feature sixteen gaming celebrities to battle over five popular casual mobile games such as Disney Crossy Road, Pac-Man 256, and Fruit Ninja. The event will be streamed live via Twitch, a popular eSports streaming site Amazon acquired in 2015. In addition, a two-hour special of the tournament will be broadcast nationwide by the CBS Sports Network on December 12.

What Brands Should Do
By extending eSports from desktop PC games to casual mobile games, Amazon is introducing the the world of competitive gaming to a wider audience, which should help Amazon drive more viewers to Twitch. The eSports industry has enjoyed rapid growth in the past few years, transforming from a nerdy niche into a legitimate new media segment that commands millions of eyeballs and drawing considerable attention from media companies and marketers.

Previously, Turner Media added eSports programming to primetime on TBS in an attempt to broaden its reach. Some early-adopting brands, such as Coca-Cola and Geico, have sponsored eSports events to reach its young, male-skewing audience. As media companies race to capture the vast eSports audience, brands, especially those seeking global recognition, should consider leveraging the massive reach of eSports events via sponsorships and ads.

 

Source: VentureBeat

Amazon To Lure Holiday Shoppers With Alexa-Exclusive Deals

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Amazon is set to lure more holiday shoppers to try out its Alexa-enabled Echo devices with exclusive deals. Starting with the upcoming Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and lasting until the rest of the year, Amazon will be offering customers special deals available only through its digital assistant service. In addition, Amazon is also offering customers who purchase an Alexa-exclusive deal between now and Cyber Monday a bonus $5 Amazon gift card. Earlier this year, the ecommerce giant offered similar Alexa-exclusive deals during its Prime Day sales event, which proved quite popular with Alexa users.

What Brands Should Do
As Amazon continues to integrate shopping capabilities into Alexa and incentivizing more shoppers to try it out, it is familiarizing millions of its customers with voice-based conversational commerce as well as locking in their customer loyalty. With Alexa-enabled devices gaining traction with mainstream consumers, voice ordering is something that retail and CPG brands need to look out for.

For other brands, the popularization of voice-based digital assistant devices like Echo or Google Home also opens up a new channel for brands to reach customers in their living rooms. For instance, Amazon recently created an audio game for Alexa to promote its upcoming original auto show The Grand Tour, showing the potential for companies to connect with customers through similar conversational branded content.

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 about our take on this topic, please reach out and schedule a visit to the Lab.

 

Source: AdWeek

Amazon Launches Web Portal For Alexa Skills Discovery

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Amazon is making it easier for Alexa users to discover new skills and managing existing ones via a new web portal named Alexa skills marketplace. Previously, Alexa users have to log into their Alexa app to find, enable, or disable specific Alexa skills. Each skill now has a dedicated URL, which allow brands and developers to drive users to their Alexa skills directly. Developers and brands can now also optimize their skill pages to improve organic discovery.

What Brands Should Do
In September, Amazon announced that the number of available Alexa skills has grown to over 3,000, which shows great interest from developers and brands as they race to conquer the era of voice-based brand-customer interactions. Early-adopting brands such as Hyundai, Patrón, and Capital One have created branded Alexa skills to reach customers via the digital assistant service.This new web portal can help more users discover and manage Alexa skills more easily while also giving brands a new channel to push their branded skills.

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: VentureBeat

Brands Are Jumping On Apple’s App Store Search Ads

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Several big-name brands have started using Apple’s recently launched Search Ads to drive download for their iOS apps. The app-install ads, officially rolled out in early October, which enables developers to promote their apps at the top of relevant search results in the App Store. So far, brands including Domino’s and Amazon have been using Search Ads to target users, especially those who search for their competitors’ apps. According to mobile marketing platform Singular, Search Ads has a mobile conversion rate of 4.9%, a much higher rate than regular app-install ads.

What Brands Should Do
By buying against competitor apps and relevant keywords, the aforementioned brands find a clever way to surface their apps to a targeted audience that is actively searching for products or services in their respective categories. In order to stand out in the over 2 million apps currently available in the App Store, brands seeking to engage mobile users via branded apps should consider buying Search Ads to give their apps a boost.

 

Source: AdWeek

A Stockholm Hotel Is Using Amazon’s Alexa As In-Suite Butlers

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
The Clarion Hotel Amaranten in Stockholm is the first in the world to incorporate Amazon’s voice-based, personal assistant Alexa into its suites. The hotel worked with Edge DNA to integrate hotel-specific functions into Alexa, which can help guests search for information, play music, or order a taxi. The hotel also plans to further integrate Alexa so that guests will soon be able to control the lights, lock the doors, or order room service simply by talking to Alexa.

What Brands Should Do
This is the latest example of how voice-based assistant services may transform customer experiences in hospitality. As Amazon continues to improve Alexa’s functionality and expand it to more devices to reach a bigger audience, brands that wish to stay ahead of the curve need to start working with developers to explore how incorporating conversational interfaces may help improve the customer experience.

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: Business Insider

Twitch Goes Ad-Free For Amazon Prime Members

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Amazon is once again expanding the perks of its Prime membership to include ad-free viewing on Twitch, the leading gameplay streaming site that Amazon acquired in 2014 for $970 million. In addition, Amazon is tapping into the gaming community on Twitch to sell more video games by offering discounts and special offers on copies sold on Amazon.com.

What Brands Need To Do
According to Amazon, Twitch has close to 10 million daily active users, and over 15,000 broadcasters on Twitch have signed on to the company’s partnership program to monetize their streams on a revenue-sharing basis. The move to support ad-free viewing on Twitch is one of the latest examples of media companies catering to consumers’ growing aversion to ads, which pushes brands to explore other forms of advertising, such as branded live content or sponsored gaming events, to reach Prime members on Twitch.

For more information on how brands should leverage interesting branded content to earn consumer eyeballs, check out the Ad Avoidance section of our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: The Verge

Amazon Updates Echo Dot With Cheaper Price And Wider Availability

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Amazon has refreshed its Echo Dot product with a cheaper price and wider availability as the ecommerce giant looks to push its digital assistant service Alexa into more homes. The updated Echo Dot is priced at just $49.99, down from $89.99 and it is now available to all U.S. consumers to purchase from Amazon’s website. Previously, Amazon limited Dot’s availability by only allowing users to order it via Alexa. Besides the U.S., Amazon will also release the full Echo lineup in the U.K. and Germany as well.

What Brands Should Do
On Wednesday morning, Amazon announced that the number of available Alexa Skills has grown by three times since June to over 3,000, which shows great interest from developers and brands as they race to conquer the era of voice-based brand-customer interactions. For additional insight on how brands can effectively reach consumers on conversational interfaces, please check out the first section of our Outlook 2016.

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 contact our Client Services Director Samantha Holland ([email protected]) to schedule a visit to the Lab.

 

Source: The Verge

Amazon Pushes Alexa To More Devices, Tests Notifications

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Amazon is integrating its digital assistant service Alexa into more devices, including its new Fire HD 8 tablets and third-party devices such as LG’s SmartThinQ Hub. Users of Amazon’s Fire TV devices can now also use Alexa for universal search across various streaming platforms such as Netflix, HBO GO, and Amazon Prime Video. In addition, The Information reports that Amazon is looking to add spoken notifications to Alexa, allowing it to speak up unprompted for helpful reminders and alerts.

What Brands Need To Do
As Amazon continues to improve Alexa’s functionality and expand it to more devices to reach a bigger audience, it is quickly establishing itself as a leader in the digital assistant market. The type of hands-free, voice-based interactions that Alexa enables are set to drastically change how consumers get information and interact with brands. For additional information on how brands can effectively reach consumers on conversational interfaces, please check out the first section of our Outlook 2016. If you’re interested in learning more, please reach out and schedule a visit to the Lab.

 

Sources: Various sites as linked in the article