Is Voice Bad for Brands?

‘Voice’ is this year’s most hyped technology and a fresh front in the clash of the tech titans. But is the rise of the ‘virtual assistants’ an exciting new dawn for brands or a terminal threat?

IN THIS EPISODE ⇩

From 1' 30: Henry Cooke, Head of Voice for BBC R&D

- Interaction and interface design for Voice

- Use cases and the BBC’s Voice interactive radio drama ‘The Inspection Chamber’

- Feeling out the creative space

- What brands can learn about Voice from the BBC

- How a brand talks and the sound of a BBC station

- Design and branding problems with Voice

- Discoverability and attribution on Virtual Assistants

- The Voice hype bubble and the narrowing gap between hype and promise

- The BBC’s role on Virtual Assistants and flying the flag for audiences

- The Cambrian explosion of new tech

From 10' 10: Marcel Kornblum, Head of Creative Tech at BBH London

- Reaching the human threshold in voice recognition

- What the data says about uptake and usage of virtual assistants

- The opportunities and dangers for brands from virtual assistants

- The problems for brands of consumers shopping by Voice

- The existential threat to brands from Amazon/Alexa

- Is your virtual assistant listening to you?

- The creepy thing about contextual data

- Google’s failed experiment in Voice advertising

- Telling your virtual assistant you love it

- The space for branded content, branded entertainment and branded utility

- The PR value of new tech

- How brands should develop for Voice

From 17' 30: Sarah Watson, BBH Global Chief Strategy Officer

- Literally giving brands a voice

- What creative agencies can bring to the party

- The new era of AI marketing

- How brands can filter the hype from the reality around Voice

- Changing consumer behaviour through voice control

- The pitfalls of Voice for brands

- Paring back your creative and avoiding making digital landfill

- The skills of the new age marketer

From 23' 40: Renowned futurist Brian David Johnson, Professor of Practice at Arizona State University

- Effects-based modelling: what it is and how to use it

- Science fiction prototyping and how brands can use storytelling to change the future

- Being more human with our devices

- Defining the AI for your brand

- Towards an age of sentient tools and relationship-based interactions with our tech

- Why tech disruption will always be with us in marketing

- Why we shouldn’t be worried about the rise of tech

- How brands can innovate for new technology: if you can imagine it, you can build it

- Adam Steltzner and how to land a rover on Mars

- Being the hovercraft person

- Writing ‘Wizards and Robots’ with Will.i.am

- Empowering young minds