Food for thought: The spy who sold out
Forgiving a pretty face
Facebook to agencies: how will people share your story?
Is “The Pitch” an accurate reflection of our industry?
There’s a certain someone buzzing around everyone’s radars these days. She’s a bit of an enigma. Everyone knows who she is – in fact, millions of people talk to her daily – but no one could tell you what she looks like. You might have encountered her already, even though she only just made her debut on Earth two weeks ago. Who – or what – might this elusive thing be?
Siri.
Siri is the new personal assistant application for Apple’s iOS. Originally available for purchase in the AppStore, Siri was bought out by Apple and is now available only on the much-hyped iPhone 4S. The app uses language processing to find you coffee, put a reminder in your calendar, tell you the weather, and perform other simple actions based on voice activation. While its functionality may seem too good to be true, Apple’s recent TV spot for Siri speaks for itself.
Off the top of one’s head, it’s easy to think of the benefits of using Siri – convenience and access to a wealth of information, to name a few. Siri is a game-changer, and has the potential to be the calculator of the digital age.
But how can Siri be leveraged to promote one’s brand? The obvious answer is something like search engine optimization, which becomes key when plugging into Siri’s extensive search capabilities.
The not-so-obvious answer is to fit your brand in an organic way with the application’s natural functioning. For example, it may be possible in the near future to make an entire product catalogue available at Siri’s disposal. Or to train the app to answer consumer interest questions related to a specific brand.
All of these opportunities can help enhance a brand’s equity – but let’s take it one step further. Meet Beeri, a Rube Goldberg machine of sorts that’s already been created by some invent-repreneurs south of the border. They’ve come up with a way to have Siri pour a beer through a series of simple steps. While it might seem a bit of a stretch, this could prove to be a mere glimpse into the possibilities that Siri and its successors could represent. Watch the video to see for yourself.
Food for Thought: How can we integrate Siri with our products as a means of expanding their usage in consumers’ day-to-day lives? Are there other applications out there that can be leveraged in similar ways? If so, how can these be used to improve brand image and produce quantifiable results?
advergirling
October 28, 2011 @ 10:44 am
Google has a siri like tool as well..it’s called iris, aka siri backwards.
carl schulz
October 28, 2011 @ 6:52 pm
love the write up, siri-ously. I work that place south of the border you mentioned, redpepper. Its funny how small our community is. just earlier this week you had our entire agency cracking up about the anatomy of an agency. you sure struck a couple of good cords. good work. I’d pour you a beer if i could, but unfortunately beeri short circuited with a dowsing of pale ale.