Talkin’ Turkey in the Kitchen with Amazon Alexa

Author
Mobiquity Inc.
Publication Date
5 August 2019
Opportunity

Exploring New Ways to Connect to Customers

Butterball famously launched the brand’s Turkey Talk-Line in 1981 to answer their customers’ most pressing turkey questions in real-time. Back in 1981, the toll-free phone number was a novel concept and today it receives about 100,000 calls during the holiday season. Customers call in with questions ranging from “How big of a turkey should I buy to feed eight people?” to “How do I adjust the roasting time for a higher altitude kitchen?” to “What IS in that bag inside the cavity anyway - and can my cat eat it?”

 

With 1 in 5 American households now using smart speakers, it was the perfect time to explore a new way to connect with customers and ensure a perfectly roasted turkey - and a fun and positive user experience. 

 

The Turkey Talk-Line only operates during the holiday period – from November 1 to December 24 –  meaning wait times on the phone can be long. However, its popularity proved to the Butterball team that there is a desire from their customers to get support, tips and sometimes just added knowledge, when roasting their birds. The Turkey Talk-Line experts are both trained and experienced in the kitchen, providing a reassuring and friendly voice for customers to turn to. The challenge was to bring the same voice and comfort to home cooks as the Turkey Talk-Line provided and answer the most commonly asked questions in a way that complemented existing channels. The key difference is that by designing a voice skill for Echo Show and Amazon Alexa devices, this advice would be accessible 24/7/365.

Solution

Multi-modal Skill for Customer Confidence

Butterball turned to Mobiquity to create a multi-modal Amazon Alexa skill that would provide an additional channel for their consumers to find answers to their most common turkey topics. Maintaining customer confidence and Butterball’s brand voice were critical components to the effort so it was essential to incorporate the voices of real Talk-Line experts, whose personalities and know-how shine through as they guide cooks through all the necessary turkey steps – including planning, preparing, cooking and enjoying. Another key element to maintaining the true Turkey Talk-Line experience was ensuring that all of the information and expertise translated to the new voice skill. To this end, we designed for the Echo Show so that both images and video could be displayed in conjunction with answers to questions for the best possible experience. Where relevant, the Amazon Alexa Skill provides video how-tos on the most commonly asked topics.

turkey-food
Results

Embracing Smart Speakers for Hands-Free Hosting

Integrating Butterball with Amazon Alexa brings the Turkey Talk-Line experts into the kitchen itself to deliver an even more intimate, totally hands-free experience for the host. By offering this skill, Butterball reaffirmed its category leadership. As one of the first food brands to embrace smart speaker technology, they did it in a way that is genuine, helpful, and extends the reach of their deep expertise with a warm, human interaction. As a result of this thoughtful brand extension, the new Butterball Amazon Alexa skill reinforced the cultural relevancy of the Turkey Talk-Line, resulting in over 1 billion impressions generated from high-quality top-tier media including The Today Show and WIRED Magazine, which kept the brand top-of-mind for today’s consumers.

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