The iPhone surely offers a lot to the now almost completely mobile world of consumers, but one thing that has recently been causing a great deal of excitement is Siri. With Siri, and now with a more advanced version of Google Search for Android users, using a smartphone meant not only having conversations with friends and family through calls and texts, but it also meant having conversations with the smartphone itself. These sort of artificial conversations have served as a new way for people to use their phones in an efficient and convenient way. So, as one could imagine, it was not going to be long before the advertising world tapped into this resource in order to reach the everyday mobile consumer.
That is precisely what is happening now, as Nuance, a company responsible for creating much of today’s most used voice recognition software, is now creating voice ads. To start off, Nuance is bringing their voice ad platform to Madison Avenue, a digital marketing firm, to see whether their new voice ad software will be effective. Here are the benefits that Nuance sees in the ability to reach consumers through actual voice-to-voice conversation with advertisements:
- A new creative palette.
- Natural consumer engagement.
- Experiences that feel like conversations.
- Better brand recall.
- The world’s largest ad platform.
So, what do they look like, or rather sound like? Well, Nuance provides a demonstration video in which the company vice president of advertising, Mike McSherry has created a mock deodorant brand, Alpha, whose ad is placed in a model voice recognition app that acts as a vocal Magic 8 Ball, answering question for the smartphone user. The app first asks McSherry, “What’s your question?” He then asks the app, “Should I buy that ring?” Next the app says, “Like a coin toss, heads or tails?” After McSherry chooses Heads, the apps says, “Heads it is; you should definitely buy it. And while you’re at it, use Alpha. Smells like money in the bank.”
As far as can be seen right now, the Nuance Voice ads are blended into voice recognition applications quite well, with the regular conversation simply being sprinkled with marketing voice content. They may eliminate any problems with fitting other types of marketing content onto the small smartphone screen. It is easy to see that these ads could really be a breakthrough for mobile marketers that struggle with engagement and ad placement.
So far, the new ad type has been tested by brands and businesses like Digitas and OMD. However, a few well-known advertising companies have also agreed to offer these new voice ads. These companies include Millenial Media, Opera, and Jumptap. Clearly, there is quite a bit of potential for these ads to be seen across the mobile spectrum. Although there are concerns that the new ads could lead to consumers screaming at their phones, as they would telemarketers, if used in a well thought out fashion, there should be no issue. It may very well be true that the best way to reach consumers is to simply and literally, talk directly to them.
