We Beat ABC, NBC and CBS at Amazon Alexa in Two Weeks
The Infancy and Opportunity of Voice Technology
My friend and I laughed and high-fived as we heard my voice coming out of the Amazon Alexa speaker. It was a breakthrough moment. We had started meeting in October 2017 about Amazon Alexa. The reason? Well-known entrepreneurs like Mark Cuban and Gary Vaynerchuk couldn’t stop raving about it. They kept exalting the power of being an early mover on the platform. We wanted in.
“Voice-First…platforms are the equivalent of yet-to-be-discovered Malibu beachfront property, much like Twitter in 2006, Instagram in 2010, and Snapchat in 2012.”
-Gary Vaynerchuk, Crushing It (2018)
In December, after 50 e-mails exchanged with Amazon, we emerged with a two minute daily news-briefing focused on Denver, Colorado. We called it Denver News.
The project was an experiment to see if we could get listeners.
Two weeks into publication the developer and I and laughed again. Amazon’s algorithm had given us the top-spot when people searched “Denver.”
In a couple of weeks we had established a stronger presence on Amazon Alexa than market leaders in news.
Now, we’ve gained over 750 unique listeners. While they aren’t extremely large numbers, they are still promising.
And, Denver’s local ABC, NBC and CBS channels sit below us in the rankings.
This experience has shown me the nascent nature of voice technology. It also has shown me voice technology’s potential for early adopters.
With Denver News we attempted to listen to what people said they liked and didn’t like with the ABC, NBC and CBS news briefings. First, people didn’t like Alexa reading the news. They wanted a human voice. Secondly, they wanted consistency. The local news stations didn’t always regularly update their briefings. Third, many complained that it wasn’t focused on Denver. So, instead of national news (which people can get from FOX, NPR, and the WSJ), we focused just on the Mile High City.
I recorded the briefs on my iPhone, and edited in Audacity. The software engineer (who has chosen to remain nameless because of other projects he’s working on) designed the backend, making it easy to publish.
We used the “Read More” button in the Alexa App to encourage people to review Denver News. We also encouraged listeners to share it with their friends. We did little to no marketing outside of that. Still, we garnered about 120 daily listeners.
I’m confident more listeners are coming.
Already, almost 40 million Americans own an Alexa device. Two thirds regularly listen to news on it, according to Tech Crunch and Business Insider.
Moreover Amazon is making money move to boost Alexa’s adoption and popularity.
- Amazon ran a 90-second Super Bowl commercial. The actors in the commercial: Cardi B, Gordon Ramsey, Rebel Wilson, Anthony Hopkins, and Jeff Bezos himself. The commercial won the USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter.
- Bezos’ company even slashed the price of the Echo Dot speaker to $30 (from $50) during the holidays. It currently sits at the top of the amazon.com page. Amazon is charging $40 for it.
Amazon’s predictions for Alexa are bold. By 2020, the company estimates Alexa will account for $20 billion of revenue.
That includes sales of the physical product itself, and sales that occur via the device. How? Product sales. Currently you can order anything on amazon.com through Alexa. For example, if you want your groceries delivered.
HUMAN — “Alexa, order everything on my grocery list from Whole Foods.”
ALEXA — “Okay. I’ve ordered everything on your grocery list from Whole Foods. It will be delivered in two hours.”
News outlets would be wise to capture some of that revenue through their flash briefing. How? Advertisements, preferably at the end of the brief.
“That’s your news for today. This flash briefing was sponsored by Whole Foods. Want to order your groceries right now? Simply say, ‘Alexa, order my Whole Foods groceries.”
News outlets could charge higher rates to advertisers because of the interactive nature of these advertisements. It is a great opportunity for an industry that largely missed out on the technological boom.
The Internet crushed newspapers’ print revenue. Just look at this chart.
Newspaper Revenue in the Last 70 Years
Outlets embraced the net too slowly, and didn’t capitalize on its early iterations. Moreover, the democratization of storytelling (everyone with a phone is a reporter) has distributed profits to freelance journalists and new media companies.
Capitalizing on the early nature of Amazon Alexa is an opportunity for news outlets to regain their competitive advantage.
But what about other Voice-First platforms like Google Home?
Regarding competition, Amazon Alexa is the market leader. Google Home is still far behind in market share. Three separate reports have put the Amazon’s market share of the voice assistant hardware at 70%-76%. Meanwhile Google Home captures between 15% and 24%.
Even with Amazon’s market dominance, Google’s API is better. Because Google Home is searching the totality of the Internet, its responses to hard questions are smarter. But, their news capabilities are limited. The skill is not open to anyone. It has at least NPR and the BBC, but is not open source. My developer and I applied for a chance to be a news provider last week, and have yet to hear back. On the other hand, Amazon lets anyone submit as a news source so long as they include a website, privacy policy, terms of service, and working back-end. The process can be difficult however, and does require some coding, and back and forth with Amazon for certification. That’s why my developer and I built tool to publish to Alexa without coding. It saves creators time. And it helps creators connect with listeners, and potentially generate revenue through ads.
Last week a local restaurant owner reached out to me to buy ad space on Denver News. He said, “I hear you on the radio in the morning…”
Right now, I’d encourage developers and media folks to collaborate around news and skills. While everyone is trying to get famous in Hollywood, no newspapers have created a skill for Los Angeles news — not even the L.A. Times. I imagine celebrities, especially those with books to get on board. Imagine a two minute pump up every morning from Tony Robbins. Then the call to action:
“Say, ‘Alexa, order Unshakeable by Tony Robbins.’”
The early movers in this space will be similar to the folks who established Twitter pages and Instagram pages early while organic reach was still high.
Get heard.
If you’re interested in growing your business through an Amazon Alexa flash briefing for yourself or your company, then e-mail us info@effct.org. Or visit our website.
We’ve built a turnkey solution to getting businesses and personalities on Alexa.
Effct Voice Tech includes an easy-to-use platform, comprehensive customer support, and a 3-day turnaround time. We even can create the briefings for you. You can check out our demo here.
We look forward to hearing from you.
