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Finding A Voice For Capital One’s Alexa Skill

When Capital One created the first voice-activated banking assistant through Amazon Alexa, we assisted them with getting the word out.

Challenge

Capital One is at the forefront of blending tech with time-tested banking expertise. So we needed to develop an on-brand messaging and visual strategy, along with a social campaign, to promote Capital One’s first-to-market Alexa skill.

Solution

In addition to developing a social campaign to launch their Alexa skill, we unfurled a strategic marketing framework for the brand that guided all future product and visual messaging related to the offering.

Why It's Useful

Our insights not only sparked purposeful social content, they successfully positioned the Capital One Alexa skill as a convenient, customer-friendly connected experience.

A series of fun videos showed how customers can bank in the moment and on demand with the Capital One Alexa skill. Anywhere. Anytime.

A series of fun videos showed how customers can bank in the moment and on demand with the Capital One Alexa skill. Anywhere. Anytime.

A series of fun videos showed how customers can bank in the moment and on demand with the Capital One Alexa skill. Anywhere. Anytime.

A Breakthrough In Banking

It’s difficult to imagine now, but, way back in 2016, Amazon’s intelligent assistant, Alexa, was still finding its voice in the marketplace. Yes, before Echo Dots and Spots became indispensable, hands-free fixtures, this curious and relatively new phenomena had brands clamoring to outpace competitors by engineering a first-to-market experience around the technology.

It’s no surprise that Capital One led the way. As an innovative financial services company, they seized the opportunity and became the first bank to offer a customer-friendly voice-banking assistant through Alexa. They just needed to deploy their market-ready product to a consumer base still learning about the technology.

But how? 

“
Before we could even start talking about the skill, we had to find the right people to talk to. So we did our homework.
Keith Tanski
Strategy Director
”

“Alexa, contact T3.”

The brand tapped T3’s skillset with creating a comprehensive positioning framework for its latest product innovation. But, according to lead strategist Keith Tanski, there was a catch. “Before we could even start talking about the skill, we had to find the right people to talk to. So we did our homework.”

T3’s research uncovered unique and actionable insights about Capital One customers who owned intelligent assistant devices. Research quickly revealed a prime audience ready to listen: tech-savvy early adopters who relished being experts amongst their peers.

Furthermore, T3 discovered that these Alexa owners viewed the intelligent assistant as a fun and essential part of the household. To convey this positioning, it was important to depict Capital One’s voice banking solution as a friendly and approachable resource.

Giving An Alexa Skill A Voice

Equipped with a set of bankable insights about the audience and how they seamlessly interacted with Alexa, T3 started crafting an overarching messaging and design system rooted in the core benefits of the product: a convenient, voice-activated banking tool that allows customers to instantly manage their account. The messaging framework served as a guide for Capital One and their agency partners and included developing instructions for launching new product features, visualizing guidelines for ideal placement within the home and identifying PR opportunities within the industry.

T3 then developed a social campaign to launch both the skill and later the Echo Show version amongst consumers.

Bankable Results

In the end, we needed to evolve their traditional message for a tech-savvy audience. And Creative Director Howard Hill says the team was up to the challenge. “They made a cool, paradigm-shifting skill, and we showed how customers could bank while making a smoothie.”

In doing so, we propelled the brand forward, firmly establishing Capital One as an innovation leader that pushes the latest tech to benefit their customers and change banking for good.

Dynamic Facebook content showed how the Alexa skill can assist them with their banking needs.

“
They made a cool, paradigm-shifting skill, and we showed how customers could bank while making a smoothie.
Howard Hill
Creative Director
”

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