Say It Now helps Tesco shoppers speak special offers into existence

In the spirit of Christmas, Tesco customers and owners of smart speakers like Alexa were able to uncover special shopping offers in the lead up to the holiday courtesy of a smart speaker advert run across digital audio channels. 

The partnership with Say It Now enabled smart speaker listeners hearing the Tesco advert to simply say, “Alexa, open Tesco”, to gain audio access to all of the retailer’s latest deals.

Listeners also had the opportunity to set weekly notifications or receive a website link to their phone informing them of any updates. 

CEO of Say It Now, Charles Cadbury, said: “The campaign arrived at a crucial time for customers looking to get the best value from their Christmas shopping during these days of soaring living costs.

"At the core of the campaign was the option to set a reminder to return to the Alexa experience and discover the weekly offers. The number of people returning via the reminder prompt rose steadily through the campaign and continued beyond Christmas, demonstrating excellent additional engagement at no extra media cost.”

Data from the campaign revealed 28.23% of listeners who spoke with Alexa after being prompted by the adverts requested a reminder to view Tesco deals online. 

The presence of smart speakers in British homes is growing at a rate which indicates the systems will continue to emerge as useful marketing channels, something the industry will look to take advantage of further in the future.

A UK Government survey from 2021 found that 39% of UK Adults have access to a smart speaker at home, and analysts predict the growing use of voice assistants will drive the value of smart home payments to $164bn in 2025, per Juniper Research. 

Luke Turner, Senior Associate Director, MediaCom, added: “The success of The Tesco Christmas Party smart speaker ad campaign truly demonstrates the continual growth of smart speaker usage. In the latest RAJAR release, we saw all radio listening share for smart speakers grow from 10.8% to 13.4%, with weekly listening hours growing by 30m to 137m quarter on quarter, a true indication that smart speakers are far from a fad.”

Smart speaker advertising “building deeper connections between brands and consumers”

Further, research from Neuro-Insight suggests the conversational concept behind smart speaker advertising generates powerful responses in the human brain, building deeper connections between brands and consumers. 

The neuro analysis company found that voicing a brand’s name back to a smart speaker, for example in response to an advert like Tescos, generates a 30% uplift in overall levels of brain response compared to a standard audio ad. 

Cadbury added: “Digital streaming is booming, but listeners need a way to interact with adverts from their favourite brands. That is why actionable audio advertising – which enables listeners to engage with radio adverts via the power of voice – is an immensely valuable tool. It empowers organisations to cut through the noise, build awareness and drive sales.”

Tesco is currently the only major grocer to increase its UK market share compared to pre-pandemic levels, with sales up 7.2% over Christmas.

Turner added: “Opting for a generic CTA, with ‘Alexa, open Tesco’ allowed to build familiarity with our audiences and the skill, and we are looking to use this to promote Clubcard Prices deal’s in Q1 2023, and even potentially Easter too – watch this space!”