February 17, 2018

Smart Speakers Have Booming Presence

Flipping through the Cleveland International Film Festival's 200-plus-page program guide is an almost religious experience for many film buffs. This year, they'll also be able to bark festival-specific orders at Alexa — and no, that's not one of the festival's roughly 1,000 volunteers.

The film festival's creative digital agency of more than a decade — FORM, based in Shaker Heights — developed a capability that allows users of the Amazon Echo family of smart speaker products to request film synopses, showtimes, categories and general festival information using only their voices. It's believed to be the first so-called Alexa Skill for any multiday festival — film or otherwise — in the country.

It might seem like a novelty, but it's just one of the many creative uses by local organizations in the burgeoning smart speaker space — an area that many marketers believe could revolutionize the way brands interact with consumers.

Sales of "voice assistants" grew roughly 103% in the fourth quarter of 2018 over a year prior, according to recent research Adobe Digital Insights, and the Canalys research firm reports that smart speakers have become the fastest-growing consumer technology. According to one report, the smart speaker market — which, of course, also includes the Google Home line and Apple's new HomePod, among others — is valued at $2.68 billion and is expected to be worth $11.79 billion by 2023.

The most striking figure? One in six U.S. adults — or about 39 million people — now own a voice-activated speaker, according to a report from NPR and Edison Research.

"From a content marketing standpoint, it's completely changed the dynamic of how people find information and make decisions," said PR 20/20 founder Paul Roetzer, whose agency in late 2016 launched the Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute, a clearinghouse of sorts that explores how AI-powered technologies are impacting the marketing world.

As a society, many of us are still glued to screens — computers, phones, tablets — but smart speakers are starting to shift that dynamic. As such, marketing efforts can't always be based on visual cues. Adcom's Loren Chylla, the Cleveland-based advertising agency's executive vice president for integrated media, characterizes the shift this way: Video is still king, but audio is the rising queen. A big reason for that is how integrated it's become in our lives, and the proliferation of smart speakers is only accelerating that integration. It's still to be seen how brands can really capitalize on this.

"I see specialty speaker listening as a much more personal experience," Chylla said. "I'm not expecting to get things in that feed that I'm not interested in."

He added, "It's an interesting place. Brands want to be where consumers are. They're flocking to smart speakers and podcasts, but I don't know what the natural integration of a brand into those environments is."

The Cleveland Clinic — one of the most respected health systems in the nation — also has started toying with Alexa. The Amazon personality can now offer users a daily health tip to be read alongside the weather, news or other "skills" in the daily flash briefing.

"I think if you look at any forecast for where mobile technology and digital technology is going, we expect over the coming years that voice is going to become the dominant way that people navigate information," Paul Matsen, the Clinic's chief marketing officer, told Crain's in December. "So whereas we've moved from desktop to mobile, we're probably going to be moving from people having to type in for search to more of a voice-driven experience. So it's critical for us to start getting that experience now."

So while brands like the Clinic and the film festival see the voice-driven tech world as a way to meet consumers where they're at, another Cleveland-based firm, Futuri Media, sees it as a business opportunity.

About a year ago, the company, which provides a suite of technology designed to drive audience and revenue growth for media brands, announced that their clients will have access to customized Alexa Skills for their radio stations. The company, which also works with Google and Apple platforms, has made development in this space a priority, according to Daniel Anstandig, Futuri's CEO, who cited the "potential audience and revenue lift associated with this rapidly expanding audio distribution channel."

Last month, the company announced it had struck a major deal with Portland, Ore.-based Alpha Media to offer its suite of services to the company's more than 200 radio stations across the country. Among those services are customized Alexa Skills, allowing the stations to make streams and other on-demand content.

"There's so much more to gain with in-home media consumption through smart speaker development and creative voice activation," Anstandig said.

As for the Cleveland International Film Festival, it's worth noting that being a forerunner in the Alexa space among its festival peers has had its perks. It was able to snag the "film festival" moniker.

"You can say, 'Alexa, ask the film festival what's playing on April 7,' " said Steven Cencula, a partner and chief technology officer at FORM. "You can imagine saying 'Alexa, ask the Cleveland International Film Festival' might be a mouthful."

Author: Tim Magaw
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