Highway Don't Care
New evidence smart speaker advertising provides big boost; voice/AI takeaways on the ground in Florida
Next week’s Project Voice: Coast to Coast gathering in Seattle will be in high demand and is likely to be split into multiple events. Register to stay informed.
An important new anecdote surfaced today on the marketing power that voice advertising holds.
“With 91% of all time spent with smart speakers occurring at home, smart speakers are bringing AM/FM radio back into the home,” Cumulus Media chief insights officer Pierre Bouvard explained in the case study announcement. “According to Triton Digital, as of December 2020, 22% of all online audio listening to American AM/FM radio stations occurs via smart speaker. Over the past four years, the smart speaker has grown to represent nearly a quarter (24%) of all online listening to all Cumulus stations nationwide.”
Project Voice: Coast to Coast wrapped up the second leg of the tour today, swinging through Miami, Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville.
Florida brought out the healthcare use cases all across the board. A few notes I can share:
Florida is home to Constant Companion, a company headed by Mark Gray that ought to be in everyone’s vocabulary by now that’s working in this space. The company continues to blaze a trail bringing voice technology to those aging in place or in senior living facilities.
Florida is also home to an interesting business I learned about in Jacksonville called Evolving Homes. Occupational therapist Carol Chieng has put together a business that re-configured homes for those aging in place, which necessarily involves incorporation of smart speakers and voice/AI technology.
Amy Stapleton (pictured above) worked for NASA for 14 years before leaving to start Chatables, a storytelling company focused on using voice/AI technology to provide new types of narrative experiences. The idea of infusing interactive stories alongside more direct medical services for seniors within smart speakers and voice assistants is a new area, but has the potential to become an important one: they can be effective weapons against isolation and loneliness.
Veton Kepuska, a professor at Florida Tech, created a new wake word technology which is 50x more accurate than more mainstream wake word speech recognition engines. He’s a great example of numerous academia down here in the Sunshine State doing powerful work within the broader scope of conversational AI.
Florida’s been so great, we can now retire this hilarious but insulting GIF which surfaced during the 2020 election:
While in Florida, a song came on the car radio that’s well known in Nashville - the combination of megastars Tim McGraw, Taylor Swift, and Keith Urban. Great tune.
See you in the Pacific Northwest next week.
Portland, OR - January 25 - OK Omens
Seattle, WA - January 26 - Fremont Brewing Company
Spokane, WA - January 27 - Prohibition
Boise, ID - January 28 - Cloud 9 Brewery
Salt Lake City, UT - February 8 - East Liberty Tap House
Denver, CO - February 9 - Acova
Cheyenne, WY - February 10 - Accomplice Beer Company
Omaha, NE - February 11 - Jackson Street Tavern
Boston, MA - February 22 - Hamilton Restaurant and Bar
New York City, NY - February 23 - Royale
Newark, NJ - February 24 - The Fox and Falcon
Philadelphia, PA - February 25 - Frankford Hall
Washington, DC - February 26 - The Royal
Minneapolis, MN - March 8 - The Block
Milwaukee, WI - March 9 - Oak Barrel Public House
Chicago, IL - March 10 - Homeslice
St. Louis, MO - March 11 - The Clover and The Bee
Nashville, TN - March 12 - The Pharmacy
Memphis, TN - March 15 - The Beauty Shop
Jackson, MS - March 16 - The Pig and Pint
New Orleans, LA - March 17 - Tito's Ceviche and Pisco
Dallas, TX - March 18 - Truck Yard
Houston, TX - March 19 - Axelrad Beer Garden
Detroit, MI - March 29 - Motor City Brewing Works
Columbus, OH - March 30 - Milestone 229
Cleveland, OH - March 31 - Luxe Kitchen and Lounge
Cincinnati, OH - April 1 - Incline Public House
Louisville, KY - April 2 - Cask Southern Kitchen and Bar
JANUARY 28: Fireside Chat with DefinedCrowd’s CEO Daniela Braga on the role of AI datasets
Great opportunity to meet with a true original in the voice/AI space and one of the more exciting leaders, covering a topic at the intersection of data science and conversational AI. I’ll moderate the discussion.
MULTIMODAL VOICE/AI BUSINESS FOR SALE: The original inventor of visual IVRs has created a technology which enhances an ordinary call by joining a data session to it, positioning the experience between a standard phone call and a videoconference.
This approach allows interoperability with phones worldwide and turns an ordinary phone call into a smart home speaker with visuals. Any company wanting to expand into multimodal IVRs, phonebots, contact centers and other types of enhanced business calls would find this company of interest, regardless of vertical.
If you’re interested in learning more, I’m happy to connect you to the company’s founders, who can share more about their story, and why and to whom they’re looking to sell.