Hi Alexa! or Hey Google! These expressions are increasingly present in American homes. According to a recent survey by Adobe Analytics, by 2019, voice assistants will be present in half of American homes. Currently, they are in 32% of homes in that country. From a business point of view, it is a market with giants competing directly: Amazon, Google, Alibaba and others.
Although it is possible to speak of a mass market for voice assistants in the United States, in Brazil it is restricted to early adopters. Cleber Paradela, Planning VP at Sunset Comunicação, explains that there are still barriers in Brazil for voice interfaces to scale. On September 8, he addressed the topic in a lecture at Hack Town, an innovation event that takes place annually in Santa Rita do Sapucaí (MG).
“Since June 2016, Google has announced that it will launch Google Home in Brazilian Portuguese, but has not yet done so. In addition, most services for the platform are restricted to US territory. In other words, it's still a toy for geeks, who speak English, and are satisfied with simple commands like turning off the lights, listening to music and activating half a dozen connected objects”, explains Paradela.
However, according to Sunset's VP, that doesn't mean that brands and agencies don't have to prepare themselves for the move. “We gained this extra time to prepare while the technology is not escalating. The explosion of 'screenless interfaces' will happen in the next few years and promises to surpass cell phones, just as cell phones surpassed desktops. And this is the time to calmly look at the brands and define a consistent performance for this new great stage”, he explains.
Paradela reinforces that it is “less about building specific cases in voice assistants and more about looking at the medium term and understanding that the way of relating to the consumer, which today is mainly centered on cell phones and screens, will radically change the way to chat, buy, sell and consume content”.
“Agencies will need to prepare both to define brand personas in this environment and to rethink the consumer journey in a screenless world. The biggest reason that leads a user to adopt a voice interface is productivity and friction reduction. Therefore, the way of thinking of advertising as interruption can be a huge shot in the foot, as it is exactly what this user does not want. Therefore, companies should think of voice interfaces primarily as a service (such as checking a credit card bill, for example) to facilitate the day-to-day of a consumer who needs to resolve things without stopping their activities,” says Paradela.
Jason Bermingham, presenter and columnist for Meio & Mensagem, explains that brands are increasingly looking for an identity and a way of speaking that refers to a persona. “If we look at virtual assistants, the ways of talking are still very similar, Siri, Alexa and others, and differentiating yourself in this context will be important”. “The voice conveys much more social information than practical. It carries people's past and personalities”, he reinforces.
Regardless of voice assistants as a device, interaction with the voice is already part of the dynamics of Brazilians due to smartphones, recalls Alessandro Cauduro, CEO of Huia, a digital products studio. “The challenge, as in all brand actions, is to be useful at the moment of the consumer and not interrupt their journey. Just as I don't want an ad interrupting my video, I don't want an assistant intervention that doesn't deliver exactly what I need. The creative challenge will increasingly be to bring utility”, he says.
Cauduro emphasizes that more than a voice narrative, brands that are relevant to the consumer's life will be the ones that will receive more attention. “Being relevant can mean many things: from figuring out how to get somewhere, calling an Uber, playing a song or finding out what song is playing, finding out the weather forecast, ordering a pizza or searching for a video on a topic of interest” .
Source: Meio & Mensagem
Available at: http://www.meioemensagem.com.br/home/comunicacao/2018/09/13/ok-google-o-desafio-de-marcas-em-um-mundo-regido-pela-voz.html
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