The Future of Cooking is Hands-Free

Topics
Voice-plus
Author
Amy Kleppinger
Publication Date
13 April 2019

The Future of Cooking is Hands-Free

If your recipe site doesn’t incorporate voice, you may be missing a huge opportunity. Consumers are becoming increasingly comfortable using voice in their everyday lives. In fact, Forrester recently reported that more than one in five households currently have at least one smart speaker, and one study predicts that within the next year 50% of internet searches will be done using voice! 1 What’s even more significant for recipe sites - consumers are already telling us they use voice while cooking:

  • 65% of those with smart speakers say they use them while cooking
  • 37% use voice assistants for cooking via their mobile devices

Culinary leaders are rapidly tapping into the power of Conversational AI to revolutionize brand engagement. Both the FoodNetwork and Allrecipes have launched Alexa skills that enable users to quickly engage with their recipes. Despite this activity, plenty of room remains for trailblazing. Brands that lead will be set up well to gain site traffic, build loyal followers and drive ecommerce sales of key products.

With new Alexa skills cropping up everyday, you may find yourself wondering why voice would be important in something as seemingly low tech as cooking. The answer lies in the key benefit consumers share as the major reason for adoption of digital voice assistants: Lets me use my device without my hands. 3 Anyone who has used an online recipe knows that one of the biggest pain points happens when you’re elbow deep in recipe goo and can’t quite remember the next step. What could be better than having a friendly guide who prompts you from recipe selection through the final timer ring?

And while the hero status your brand will gain by helping your consumers through this process is enough to justify the investment, there’s an even better reason to include voice in your digital strategy: getting your product on the shopping list. Consumers are increasingly making purchases using voice and food is the #1 category where they felt comfortable doing so. 4 We all have the best intentions to buy more sugar the next time we go to the store but what if your consumers could make that purchase in the moment, when it’s top of mind?

While voice certainly shouldn’t be your entire recipe strategy, Mobiquity can help you think through how voice skills can enhance your current offering and how you can pioneer in this space. Check out how we’ve helped leading brands utilize voice in a way that adds meaningful value to their consumers:

  • We partnered with Butterball to combine short how-to videos with voice commands that make it easy to choose, thaw, roast, stuff and carve a turkey.
  • The Nestle GoodNes application utilizes voice and visual to create a virtual cooking assistant. Users can now engage with a voice-plus experience for browsing, selecting, and preparing their favorite recipes.

The future of cooking is hands-free, are your recipes ready?

1- Shaoolian, Gabriel.“Why Voice Search Will Dominate SEO In 2019 -- And How You Can Capitalize On It.” Forbes, December 27, 2018.
2- McCaffrey, Mark., et al. “Prepare for the voice revolution,” PWC, April 9, 2017.
3- Wise, Jennifer. “At a Glance: Master Digital Voice Experiences” Forrester, March 27, 2019.
4- McCaffrey, Mark., et al. “Prepare for the voice revolution,” PWC, April 9, 2017.

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