The Power of Voice in Advertising

It’s no secret that the adoption of voice-enabled technology has been prolific over the past decade. This year, 123.5 million U.S. adults will use voice assistants at least once per month, according to eMarketer. Moreover, consumers will use this technology for more than basic tasks and expand into connected cars, healthcare, the metaverse, and more in the coming years. 

As smartphones revolutionized touch technology, voice assistants are now changing how consumers interact with the world around them through their voice. Technology and innovation have advanced from talk, to text, to touch, and now to voice. The next frontier of advertising. 

In an effort to ABI [always be innovating], PadSquad leverages sight, sound, motion, touch, and interactivity within its advertising development to stimulate the senses and connect with humans on a deeper emotional level. Our hypothesis is that voice will be the next-generation method of interaction and can bring a new dimension to advertising to enable even deeper experiences.

To test our hypothesis, we partnered with Echelon Insights to conduct a research study on the market for voice-enabled advertising. The study found:

• Sixty-four percent of the general population is extremely to very comfortable with new technology.
• Two-thirds of them have 1-5 smart devices in their homes, and almost half of them interact with voice assistants regularly. 
• When provided with a short description of a voice-enabled ad, 67 percent of respondents said they would be likely to speak directly to an ad if they came across one.
• Respondents under the age of 40 were even more open to the concept, with 77 percent saying they’d interact with a voice-enabled ad.

Today, we are launching ColorSay, a voice-enabled rich media ad format that allows consumers to interact based on the words they say. ColorSay moves beyond touch and into the world of voice to create deeper connections with consumers. The ColorSay format is the first of many voice-enabled ad formats from PadSquad. To start, brands will be able to build experiences that enable audiences to change the color of a product with just their voice. 

Like fingerprints, each person’s voice is unique and different. Tone, pitch, frequency, and accents clearly distinguish one voice from another. Even a name of color can sound unique when pronounced from one person to the next, so our voice-enabled ad format is enhanced with natural language processing powered by Artificial Intelligence that accurately interprets each voice.

PadSquad and Echelon showed a ColorSay demo for an auto brand to a panel of adults in the market for a new car. The panel was able to change the exterior color of the car by saying the name of the color into the microphone. The response was strong: a 12-point lift was seen on their likelihood to consider purchasing a car made by the auto brand. In general, the audience felt voice ads are more engaging and memorable when compared to traditional ads.

Voice brings a whole host of ways to engage an audience more deeply. The use of voice-enabled color, like in the auto demo above, can be used to show the different options available for a new car, or highlight the latest summer fashions, and even see how paint can dramatically change the feel of your room. The opportunities for creative innovation are endless. 

Contact us to learn more.