As voice assistants gain more adoption in homes around the world, the big voice device companies like Amazon Alexa are encouraging businesses to create interesting experiences that engage consumers over the long-term.
Amazon Alexa invited agencies and technology consultancies across the globe to submit their creative ideas and innovative approaches to building an Alexa skill. Wizeline formed a team, got to work on a concept, and was selected to present to the judges live in Mexico City, along with six top agencies in Mexico.
Leading up to competition day, our cross-disciplinary team worked hard on a POC they named MiFutbol, a soccer concierge that delivers personalized video and audio highlight reels instantly to a fan’s Alexa Spot or Echo Show. The MiFutbol team included a UX designer, a visual designer, a product marketer, an account director, and a software engineer.
The team chose to create a skill for sports fans because it’s an area of expertise for Wizeline. We have a long history of working with the top global media and sporting companies and events including Tottenham Spurs, the Australian Open, USA Rugby, The Wall Street Journal, and more.
We focused on the soccer market for its sheer size. As a year-round sport, global consumption of soccer is enormous. Just recently, 14.3 million people tuned in to the FIFA Women’s World Cup Final 2019, making it the most-watched soccer match on English-language television in the U.S. 3.5 billion people watched the 2018 World Cup tournament and 300 million people saw coverage on digital platforms. This shift to viewing sports online and particularly on mobile also exists at the national league level. If we take a look at just the Liga MX numbers in Mexico last year, we see 30 million people watched 2 billion views of video highlights online.
Combining the vast market, an appetite for digital content and highlights, as well as the evolution of the Alexa to include video, we settled on MiFutbol.
Imagine asking, “Alexa, show me the best corner kicks of the Women’s World Cup tournament,” and getting the response, “Sure, here are the best corner kicks of the tournament.” Followed by an instant short compilation of the most exciting corner kicks during the Cup delivered right to your Alexa, just what you wanted to see.
The team executed a demo asking Alexa to show highlights from the recent Champions League on an Alexa Spot, to the judges’ delight.
Senior software engineer on the project, Jibran Garcia, described how the skill would work. “We would build out the Alexa skill using different directives like the VideoApp interface to show media content like highlights. Fans without video compatible devices would hear the highlights from commentator audio. We would get the video and audio clips from a clipping service, and the content would be hosted by S3 buckets.”
The team also presented its go-to-market strategy, with a focus on an integrated campaign. “We want a campaign to make fans feel like they have their own personal football concierge. Fans can request less common highlights like ‘red card calls’ or ‘penalty shots’ or ‘slide tackles’, all served up instantly in their home or office on their Alexa-enabled device.”
Wizeline envisaged the skill would be ideal for a football content-rights holder but maintains that any content-rights-holder in mass-appeal sports like basketball or baseball would be compatible for a skill that delivers personalized highlights to fans.
The Wizeline team is experienced in creating immersive voice experiences that re-engage fans and customers over the long-term. We have created highly-rated Alexa skills for Cinepolis, Tottenham Spurs, USA Rugby, and the Australian Open. As a technology firm, we emphasize robust and reliable technology that has a longer shelf-life than a simple marketing campaign using voice.
Talk to us about building a world-class Alexa skill to engage your fans or customers in the next biggest medium – the conversational interface.
