The charity sector is set to lose £4.2bn in funding directly linked to the Covid-19 pandemic. The impetus for individuals to donate needs to be stimulated by developing easily accessible channels. As of March 2020 34% of UK homes have a smart speaker and digital radio listening has increased 12% on these devices since the start of the pandemic. Our project will stimulate charitable donations via highly targeted smart radio adverts that allow the collection of donations using simple voice commands with existing payment methods.
By combining in-market technologies we will create a simple flow for charities to use to drive donations. These start with a location and user targeted advert played on smart speakers streaming digital radio that, in turn, invites the listener to say a few words to open a bespoke voice experience that leads to a donation.
Example:
_"...People who are homeless are especially exposed to the coronavirus outbreak. But together we can get vital care and protection to them. To find out how just say 'Alexa, support crisis'"_
The listener is then guided into a rich and informative, voice led, experience that allows them to find out how they can support the charity and leads to a donation using existing Amazon Pay or Google Pay credentials.
We will create specific templates that reduce the entry level cost of this approach, allowing many charities to avail themselves of this funding channel. We will be reporting specifically on return on investment and believe this will become an important fundraising channel both now and in years to come.
Donating by Voice Assistant is not new, Driving smart speaker usage via targeted Audio Advertising is not new and reporting on a fundraising channel is not new. Bringing these all together with a focus on a platform that democratises access for all charities is where the innovation lies.
With the extension for impact funding we are able to test other methods of driving donations through the voice channel with two streams of work. Firstly to extend the capability from just the Amazon Alexa environment to include the Google Home smart speakers and secondly to test owned media channels (e.g. email) and social channels (e.g. Facebook and Instagram) as viable means of driving traffic and donations to voice assistants.