Amazon Alexa presents an enormous opportunity for brands to connect directly with consumers in their homes. But creating an engaging voice-first experience also has its challenges. Ricki Harris of WIRED discusses this topic in a new article featuring XAPPmedia CEO Pat Higbie and other voice industry leaders’ opinions on why brands should embrace a screenless future. Harris points out that while consumers are rapidly embracing voice assistant enabled devices, many brands have yet to get on board. One reason is that creating a voice-first experience is daunting to many companies. It is completely different than other screen-first marketing tactics.
This also presents another obstacle, writes Harris, “Brands seeking to reach us on our devices have defaulted to the same method: interruption.” Advertising, or interruptions, on Alexa are currently prohibited by Amazon. However, custom Alexa skills are one way around this. Brands can promote their products within their voice app while also providing something of value to the consumer, whether it be daily tips or dinner recipes. And unlike advertising, when a user engages with a brand’s skill on Alexa, it is more meaningful as the consumer has asked for the brand specifically. Harris also highlights how companies are getting creative, citing XAPPmedia’s recent custom voice apps for Progressive and National Geographic. But many industry insiders, like XAPPmedia’s Pat Higbie, believe a new ecosystem and new monetization opportunities are on the horizon for voice assistants. “You’ll see more and more monetization things happening in 2018,” Higbie says, “And then it will be a full-on gold rush in 2019.”
To read the full article, “Alexa Wants You to Talk to Your Ads”, click here or on the image above.
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