Now Amazon has expanded its marketing strategy for the Echo voice-assistance venue to include an online hub which fosters a plethora of online apps, which Amazon is calling “skills.” So far about 20 agencies have been named in relation to this new hub, which include such recognizables like Razorfish, Mobiquity, and VaynerMedia. The estimated number of Echo-related apps now populating this new Amazon planet has rounded out to 7,000.
Amazon’s new hub will provide Alexa Skills Kit to other brands who want to become more compatible with Echo. There are also analytical features that allow brands to assess the Echo voice-assistance market more closely, such as examining compatibility Alexa-based apps are with users.
This whole “voice-skill” marketing schemes seems directed at expanding the user-base for Echo and its related apps.
In the 2016 Super Bowl, Amazon successfully promoted its “Echo” feature with a 6-second commercial, using two big-name celebrities, actor Alec Baldwin and football star Dan Moreno. Last year, Amazon sold about 3 million Echos during the holiday season, topping off the year’s total at about 8 million. However, more than two-thirds of these have been given any viewer numbers to speak of which is one of the measures of a success for an online app.
Four major titans in the online continuum are blazing the trail for one of the newest marketing trends – voice-assistance. Amazon has its Echo. Microsoft birthed Cortana. Apple’s computer voice is Siri. The most recent newcomer is Google Home which will be given 60 seconds of discovery time during this year’s Super Bowl Sunday.
