There’s no denying it, the era of voice experiences, voice content, and voice commerce is here—and so far, it looks like it’s here to stay.
Voice is, undeniably, on the rise. Without even acknowledging the other features and factors of voice technology, consider the sheer number of Americans who now own a smart speaker. According to data from Edison Research in 2019, that number topped more than 53 million people—an increase that roughly totaled to 14 million people in a single year.
Think about that for a moment—the number of people who brought Amazon Echo, Google Home, and other voice-controlled devices into their homes increased by 36 percent in a single year—that makes voice assistants and smart speakers one of the fastest-adopted technologies in human history.
But the voice trend doesn’t start and stop with smart speakers, either. As a result of this boom, now is the time for voice-activated content and experiences.
Your Favorite Brands Now on Voice
With consumers spending even more time at home as a result of the pandemic, they’re looking for new, virtual entertainment and customer experiences that are fresh, exciting, and cutting-edge. Enter the perfect opportunity for voice experiences to make a name for itself.
Recently, FanDuel came out with a voice-enabled weekly fantasy football league, giving users the ability to compete in Sunday/ Monday night football pick ’em games and offering them the chance to win prizes.
Health Magazine now has a new Amazon Alexa Skill that takes users on a 14-day affirmation journey to increase mindfulness during the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic. TED Talks has a voice experience. Even Simon & Schuster rolled out a voice experience that allows users to choose from various adventures which then helps them select the best Stephen King novel for their tastes.
So, what exactly do all of these voice experiences have in common? They were all built by voice agency Skilled Creative.
Quickly becoming the go-to voice agency for the world’s top brands, Skilled Creative helps brands diversify their media portfolio by leveraging bleeding-edge technologies in new ways.
Skilled Creative reports that as of 2019, nearly 100 million voice devices were distributed. Further, they suggest that 50% of digital searches will be done via voice by 2020 and that nearly $40 billion will be invested in voice commerce by 2020.
“Voice is the fastest growing digital channel ever,” said Brandon Kaplan, CEO of Skilled Creative. “It has grown faster than [even] the smartphone.”
“Over 250 Million voice devices distributed in homes today,” he said, “with that type of distribution, voice experiences are on the rise purely based on how much of a user base there is.”
For Kaplan, the emerging power of voice has been a long-time coming. When he attended an Alexa demonstration in NYC in 2016, the experience “melted my brain,” he said. He’d already been researching artificial intelligence, but it quickly became clear to him that voice was going to be the leading touchpoint for engaging with AI.
“We like to say that Alexa is the face of artificial intelligence,” he said. “It was clear to me that voice was going to shift human behavior in ways we hadn’t seen since the iPhone.”
The voice experience era was growing on its own, but now, with the pandemic and consumers forced into quarantine, it’s booming more than ever.
“Voice has grown with quarantines around the world,” Kaplan said. “People are using their voice devices more frequently as Alexa and Google assistant have become a centerpiece to their quarantine homes. Every family member has developed a different relationship with their smart assistant.”
The Possibilities of Voice
As voice experiences, voice content, and voice devices continue to boom and expand into our daily lives, the concept of voice has an undeniable and unavoidable effect on the way we view entertainment.
For Kaplan, it’s a renovated look at how we view voice as a controller in our lives.
“Humans are conversational in nature. You don’t remember a baby’s first tweet, you remember their first word,” he said. “The beauty of voice is that it can do anything the internet or a mobile app can do. The most exciting experience features of voice so far relate to its hands-free nature.”
Kaplan believes you can take any experience on the internet—whether its storytelling, gaming, commerce, or social media—and voice can provide that same experience through a conversation.
“Utilities like music streaming, timers, smart home control, and checking weather have dominated user behaviors so far,” he said, “but the coolest experiences are the ones testing where voice can expand beyond pure utility. It will take true creatives to expand the boundaries of what people expect from their voice assistants.”
That’s the gap Kaplan and Skilled Creative are trying to fill.
Further, Kaplan believes voice is truly behind the shift in consumer behavior, as opposed to other emergent technologies that act more as gimmicks or activations.
“Ask anyone with an Alexa in their house when the last time they took their phone out of their pockets to check the weather, find out the time, stream music, or ask a general question and you’ll see the power of how much of a presence voice assistants have in our lives,” he said.
What Voice Means for the Future of Entertainment
Voice is an emerging technology, but it’s in way, shape, or form a static one. Voice is constantly evolving and becoming a pivotal touchpoint in any large organization’s omnichannel marketing.
That means that voice will become a driving player in music, books, and even add-on experiences or shows, movies, and sports. Kaplan believes that media organizations have one of the biggest opportunities in the emerging voice sector because they have immense amounts of content and a built-in audience—both of which voice needs right now.
Kaplan also thinks that voice will play a large role in the innovation of the virtual education system as well. From a commerce perspective, voice opens up an efficient means of searching, planning, and completing purchases—something Amazon is highly aware of. Already, Amazon has deployed a large number of voice features for commerce and has created a team specifically dedicated to shopper marketing.
“The beauty of voice is that it’s not an island,” Kaplan said. “Voice integrates so well with other technologies, platforms, and programs,” said Kaplan.
