The State of Voice in the Alcohol Industry

Last Updated : 30/07/20

Page contents

• Introduction
• Voice search performance
• Actions & Skills use cases
• Amazon / Google 1^st party
• Existing skills/actions
• Chatbots
• Other
• Policy Restrictions
• Main takeways

Introduction to voice in the alcohol industry

With the global rise in voice search and increasing sales of smart speakers, the wine, beer and spirits industry is utilising voice apps to drive customer engagement, leads and sales.

If you haven’t already started looking at voice as a marketing channel for your alcohol brand, some of these statistics might make you pay attention:

• 55% of households are expected to own a smart speaker device by 2022 (OC&C Strategy Consultants)
• 44% of regular voice search users order groceries and other items using their voice-activated speaker on a weekly basis (Think With Google)
• 34% of marketers expect to have a voice app by 2020 (ai)

Some well-known brands such as Diageo, Heineken and Grey Goose have already taken advantage of the rise in voice adoption, but there is still great opportunity for other alcohol brands to leverage this growing trend.

 Key challenges for the alcohol industry:

• Lack of brand differentiation/loyalty for many brands
• Less established online presence compared with other industries, for many smaller alcohol brands
• Lack of consumer insight due to selling via third-party distributors
• Increasing consumer focus on health & moderation, as well as alcohol-free beers, etc.

Voice Search Performance

The first step in your voice optimisation strategy should be checking how your website performs for informational queries, e.g. “how many units in a bottle of wine”, “pubs near me”, etc.

The Google Assistant has recently become far better at answering queries about alcohol, with its ability to answer improving from 63% to 90% between Q1 and Q2 2019.

This is mainly due to the Google Assistant returning more recipe actions for cocktail recipe queries, e.g. “gin fizz cocktail”

Actions & Skills

Actions (on the Google Assistant) and skills (on Alexa) are voice-enabled apps which extend the built-in functionality of these voice assistants. While optimising your website for voice can provide a one-way snippet of information, actions and skills can allow brands to create two-way conversations with their consumers and can help them to perform tasks and activities.

Amazon / Google 1^st party

Alexa Voice Shopping: When you make a voice purchase request, e.g. “Alexa, buy wine”, Alexa searches through Prime-eligible items from your order history. If an item is available, Alexa tells you the item name and price. Additional details about that item are available in the Alexa app. To place orders, you’ll need an Amazon Prime membership and a valid payment method.

Existing Alexa Skills & Google Actions

A number of brands have already created voice apps in the space. Several different approaches have been used including vertical level content (The Bar) while others at an individual brand level (Talisker Tasting Experience).

Overall more brands have released on the Alexa platform over the Google Assistant.  No brands have launched on both platforms with the same execution.

Chatbots

• Simi: Your Personal Bartender on Facebook Messenger (by Diageo)
• Margot the Winebot on Facebook messenger (by Lidl)

Other

• Smart Aisle talking shelf – powers the Bottle Genius skill, which assists shoppers in store in their search for the right whiskey

Policy Restrictions

Alexa:

• Skills that pass certification, but are not suitable for all ages, are assigned Mature or Guidance Suggested ratings. These ratings are displayed on the skill’s detail page in the skill store.
  • Mature: Frequent or explicit references to or images of alcohol
  • Guidance suggested: Infrequent or mild references to alcohol
• Your skill will be suspended or rejected if it promotes the excessive use of alcohol or underage use of alcohol

Google:

• Actions that facilitate or promote the sale of alcohol or tobacco, or related products, are allowed in countries listed in Google’s Alcohol Adwords policy.
• All Actions must:
  • Implement account linking and verify user meets legal age requirements
  • Comply with all restrictions or procedures required by an applicable local law
  • These requirements apply to all alcohol beverage products, including wine, beer, spirits, and alcohol kits, and tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars, rolling tobacco, and e-cigarettes.
  • Actions that sell alcohol or tobacco cannot use the Food Order Direct Action API to complete transaction.
  • Alcohol and tobacco branded Actions must include age verification at the beginning of the conversation.
  • We don’t allow Actions that promote excessive use of alcohol or tobacco, or use by minors

Main Takeaways

• At a website level, alcohol companies need to focus on filling content gaps by gaining Answer Box results, optimising Google My Business listings (if a brick-and-mortar company) and optimising recipe content to be pulled into recipe actions
  • It’s important to track your voice results over time. Assess changes in your industry by downloading our latest whitepaper, or get in touch for a custom voice search ranking report.
• When it comes to creating two-way conversations through actions & skills, some well-known brands have entered the field, but there is still great opportunity to create useful voice apps. Launching an action or skill will generate invaluable insights into how consumers interact with your brand. Some use cases include:
  • Create regular brand engagement in the home, by providing expertise to help consumers understand your field (be that wine, beer, cider or spirits). Guide them towards your brand where relevant
  • Generate leads through in-store/event activations, providing personalised recommendations and guiding the user towards a product purchase
  • Drive sales through voice-activated alcohol purchasing and delivery, and leads through sample delivery

Want to learn more? Get in contact with the Rabbit & Pork team about voice strategy, workshops or building a voice app

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