When you only have Sound - elevator

WHEN YOU ONLY HAVE

SOUND

Our Possible Screenless Future March, 28 2017

can you hear

COLOUR? “Alexa, please play…”

“Siri, what is the capital of…”

“Google, what is the weather like…”

When Siri debuted as a new feature of the iPhone 4S, many thought, “that’s nice, but no one will ever use it.” At that point voice control wasn’t new or highly regarded. Most people saw it as a gimmick or novelty feature; one that didn’t even work most of the time. Yet, Apple still rolled out Siri and made it an integral part of the operating system on their next release, the iPhone 5. Over the years, voice control didn’t seem to evolve beyond a simple “call XYZ” command. That all changed on November 6th, 2014. The world was introduced to Alexa through the Amazon Echo Smart Speaker. Smart voice command, which had been in the shadows for years on the iPhone, was now driving Amazon’s largest investment in hardware and software. Alexa eliminated the need to even touch a device and could power the Amazon Echo through a simple command: “Alexa, play Spotify playlist: ‘Work.’“ We now have more voicecontrolled devices than ever before, but the march towards smart voice-controlled everything moves us away from something else: the screen. Attention was already hard to secure. Without the aid of a screen, has it become almost impossible? This is the question we wanted to explore.

SCREENLESS How often do you check your phone? If you’re a recent college grad in the U.S., you’re probably glancing at it anywhere between 60-100 times per day, depending on what study you look at. What about your laptop or desktop? You may check less, but you’re likely to spend anywhere between 6-8 hours per day staring into the monitor, and at 3-4 hours in front of the TV. What if all that “looking” time was dramatically reduced? What would happen if the time you spend checking your phone, email, social media, or the weather was transformed to interacting with smart, voice-activated devices? It may sound far-fetched, but if Google, Amazon or Apple get their way, this will become a reality shortly. This means that brands that depend on a screen-based interface - primarily media companies – could look and feel very different in the coming years. Suddenly, these companies won’t be vying for eyeballs, but for ears. As a PR company, we aren’t taking this massive shift lightly. We have begun to consider alternative channels to traditional display media platforms like print or broadcast.

Source: JWP Canadian Total Retail 2016 Report

The Rise of Audioblogging Podcasts aren’t new. In fact, podcasting was first known as “audioblogging,” which has roots dating back to the 1980s. Podcasting took hold in the early 2000s, when MP3 players (most notably the iPod) began to hit the shelves. However, with the rise of smartphones, audio took a backseat for a decade. Podcasts returned to mainstream media in 2014 with the success of Serial, a spin-off from the widely popular podcast “This American Life.” Since then, podcasting has enjoyed a great deal more attention from customers and brands. The key with podcasts is a genuine interest from the host and the sponsor (aka: the brand). When the podcaster speaks authentically about a product or service, his/her takes notice. When the product or service matches the topic of the episode and audience of the podcast, the engagement and conversion rates are some of the highest you can receive from any medium

Talking about Podcasts While we were drafting this paper, we found it funny that we were talking about a screenless future in the very format that requires a screen. We’re going to hit pause here, and introduce you to our newest endeavour at elevator communications: Our elevator inc. podcast. Each month, we’ll share our latest thinking in a long-form, conversation-based show. Hosted by our Director of Digital, Josh Muirhead, our show will unpack hot topics in media, PR, marketing and social. We hope you enjoy.

And please check out our first episode, Voice, the first and possibly last frontier

melanie@elevatorinc.com

elevatorinc.com

(416) 363-6444