What Should You Know About Voice-to-Action Campaigns? A Q&A with Say It Now
Interviewed by: Adam Mugridge, Director of Creative Solutions, Nexxen Studio
Last month, I had the pleasure of joining leading voice-to-action ad tech group Say It Now – and a handful of their clients and partners – for an afternoon discussing all things actionable audio advertising. I walked the crowd through the ways in which connected TV (CTV) and voice-to-action can work in tandem to engage audiences and drive action, and had the privilege of listening to a few members of the Say It Now team discuss the opportunities that lie ahead in this space.
Afterwards, I sat down with Say It Now’s CEO, Charlie Cadbury, to dive a bit deeper into the future of voice-to-action tech (particularly in relation to CTV campaigns). Here’s what he had to say.
First and foremost, can you tell us about Say It Now and its voice-to-action technology?
With pleasure! Say It Now is an ad tech business helping brands engage with the 60% of UK homes and 90 million US homes that now have a smart speaker. The point of an advertisement is to raise understanding and inspire an action. It is easier to engage ‘in the moment’ by saying a few words out loud than to get out your phone, unlock it, open a browser and type a brand CTA into a search engine where you are often met with many challenger sales. Think of it like voice-enabled QR codes. We have built a suite of technology that makes it simple to create, launch and measure these types of campaigns, and their popularity is massively on the rise.
How does this voice-to-action tech integrate with CTV?
Seamlessly. There is no technical integration. The only change on the creative unit is the call-to-action, which tells the audience they can engage by saying things like, ‘Alexa, Let’s Texas!’ We create a branded voice ‘landing page’ that sits within Alexa, waiting for someone to invoke them by saying ‘Alexa, let’s Texas.’ Once they have a short-branded conversation, building on the ad creative and are often then offered an opportunity to be sent a link to find out more. Every step of this engagement is measured and reported back through the Say It Now data studio.
What are the opportunities for brands and advertisers who are looking to utilise both CTV and voice-to-action in future campaigns?
Many and varied. We have seen great successes in QSR, Travel, Auto, Retail and Technology verticals, with advertisers driving to appointment booking, offers, app download or voice commerce. We are building out vertical-specific benchmarking, but as these are often net new engagement metrics for a brand, the best benchmark to beat is your own. We are seeing several clients charting a path to more performance through their CTV campaigns using this new data.
It is easier to engage 'in the moment' by saying a few words out loud than to get out your phone, unlock it, open a browser and type a brand CTA into a search engine where you are often met with many challenger sales.
It is easier to engage 'in the moment' by saying a few words out loud than to get out your phone, unlock it, open a browser and type a brand CTA into a search engine where you are often met with many challenger sales.
And what are some key considerations these brands and advertisers should keep top-of-mind?
They will be leaders. This is still a nascent area, and many categories are still to have ‘firsts,’ which means these campaigns are more likely to get extra exposure. Their case studies are going to be poured over by competitors, who will then follow. I guess the biggest consideration is do you like to lead or follow?
Last but not least, how can brands measure the effectiveness of their CTV and voice-to-action campaigns, after they’ve run?
This is the best bit. Real-time information has always been hard to get with CTV campaigns. We can report on engagement as the campaign runs, so brands have access to information they can use to understand and optimise the efficacy of their campaigns. They can then take that insight to make the same spend go further. We can report on impressions, engagement, conversational dwell time with the branded voice experience and conversational outcomes. We are adding more insight all the time.
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