Butterball updates Turkey Talk-Line with Amazon Alexa

Dive Brief:

Butterball is expanding its Turkey Talk-Line this year with the addition of an Amazon Alexa skill, according to a news release provided to Marketing Dive. The skill is available starting today.
Cooks can access the skill by saying, "Alexa, enable the Butterball skill," and then the voice command, "Alexa, ask Butterball" to send queries about Thanksgiving planning, cooking and stuffing turkeys and more. Real-life Turkey Talk-Line experts will share advice. Butterball also released a video explaining how the skill works.
The Turkey Talk-Line, which launched in 1981, can also be accessed via phone, text, email, live chat and social media, including through Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Dive Insight:

With the new Alexa skill, Butterball is adding another resource to help Thanksgiving cooks "host like a boss," as the news release says. The company is tapping into consumers' growing interest in voice technology. About one in five consumers now use smart speakers, according to Voicebot.ai research. Most use them to ask questions, and 41% house their devices in the kitchen. Offering voice-powered advice for home cooks seems like a natural fit for Butterball to expand its longtime Turkey Talk-Line and provide informational value to Alexa users.

Marketers are more frequently adopting voice technology to offer product information and answer product-related questions. For its back-to-school push, Frito-Lay added Snackable Notes to its variety packs of chips that feature a blank "talk bubble" for parents to write messages to their kids. The campaign included an Alexa skill, where parents could get ideas for their personalized notes that range from funny to thoughtful by saying.

Voice technology also allows brands to reach consumers in the homes in new ways. However, even with wider adoption of smart speakers, most consumers never use the devices to browse for products or make purchases. That could change with greater adoption.

Smart speakers, like the Amazon Echo or Google Home, are expected to be popular holiday gift items this year, with 23% of smart speaker owners and 9% of non-owners saying they plan to buy one for someone else, according to Adobe Analytics. After the holidays, smart speaker ownership is projected to increase to 48% of U.S. consumers from 32% in August.