Your remote can now stay lost under the sofa, we’re about to enter a new era where we turn off our phones and start talking to our tech instead. Gartner estimates that up to 75% of homes in the US could have at least one smart speaker by 2020.
The benefits for consumers are obvious, says from Gavin Mann, broadcast lead at Accenture, but the rise of voice might be arriving at just the right moment for media and entertainment companies too.
Under threat from the digital giants, the possibilities of the smart home market give telcos, cable operators and retailers license to experiment and bring new hardware and services to market. And the effort is well justified: according to a study by OC&C, shopping using voice assistants is expected to be worth £3.5 billion (€3.94 billion) by 2022 in the UK alone.
But first, media and entertainment companies will have to overcome a significant hurdle. Algorithms are now increasingly performing the role of gatekeeper between consumers and brands. Why is this such a problem? These algorithms are completely indifferent to the branding efforts that influence buying decisions people make for themselves. This poses a potential problem for brands looking to connect with consumers.
Think about what might happen when you ask a voice assistant to order something relatively nondescript, like AAA batteries. There are a range of routes it might go down. It could choose the cheapest option, or it might decide to go for the most highly rated, or simply stick with the same brand as previous purchases.
The same applies outside of products too, what about when you ask for news or the weather? No matter what, the decision-making process will be far less transparent than it is currently when you order from a website. The visual element will disappear entirely. The impact on valuable established brands which still have “prominence” on the supermarket shelf will be enormous.
Even then, there is the question of who the consumer is really building that trust with – is it your brand or the intermediary? As voice applications become more mainstream, it’ll be harder than ever for media and entertainment companies to establish their own brand presence.
They’ll also have to put a lot of trust in those intermediaries. There are already several established players battling it out for the top spot. A key question over the next year will be whether media companies decide to collaborate or go their own way.
What’s more, the emergence of voice as an interface, powered by AI, has seen Voice Assistants’ impact on marketing grow exponentially as experiences become curated and personalised. Media and Entertainment companies must quickly get a grip on these new algorithm gatekeepers and learn to navigate and engage with them. This could mean brands taking on more of a personality. We first started to see this with social media, which did a good job of bringing brands closer to consumers. However, voice will almost entirely eliminate the remaining barriers by offering direct interactions.
Many should consider creating collaborative or complementary services on an existing platform to find new ways to prompt their brand and purchases. Everyone will need to consider carefully where a product or service can be designed to make it past the gatekeeper, and how to earn customer loyalty once it does.
As big tech companies move into content creation and distribution, media and entertainment businesses face an unprecedented array of challenges from new competition to the growing purchasing power of the digital native generation. There is no finish line anymore, as technology continually evolves service providers must get used to continual change.
Disruption will be the main topic driving conversations at IBC this week. And, whilst vice may appear to be a daunting area to take on, it offers vast opportunities for the companies who get it right. Getting ahead when it comes to voice technology could be a way to ensure that the established players stay at the top of their game.
The author of this blog is Gavin Mann, broadcast lead at Accenture.
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