Users of Amazon smart speakers noticed a different reply when they said good morning to voice assistant Alexa today. Before the usual update of news and weather, they heard this message: “Good morning! My light ring may be blue, but today I’m thinking about red — in support of Red Nose Day.”
Today, Comic Relief USA kicks off its fifth annual Red Nose Day, a campaign to raise money to end child poverty. Alexa’s morning greeting was a new addition to the campaign and marks the first time a voice assistant has prompted users to give to charity.
“We want to find new ways of engaging with potential donors in their day-to-day actions in life,” said Mary Catherine Burdine, director of corporate partnerships at Comic Relief USA.
Slow to Take Off
Smart speakers, it seems, are becoming more and more a part of everyday life. According to a survey by NPR and Edison Research conducted in the last week of 2018, the number of households with smart speakers had grown 78 percent from December 2017. Of Americans age 18 or older, 21 percent said they owned a smart speaker in December 2018.
This morning, those who own Amazon smart speakers likely heard their voice assistant suggest, “Just say, ‘Alexa, make a donation to Red Nose Day,’ and I’ll walk you through it.” By instructing Alexa to give with their credit card stored in Amazon Pay, users can donate without opening their wallets.
Last year, Amazon launched Alexa Donations to collect money for charities through Amazon Pay. People can make gifts of $5 to $5,000, but nonprofits have yet to see this donation method really take off.
“Since it’s new, I don’t know that we’re necessarily sure what will happen,” Janet Scardino, CEO of Comic Relief USA, said of the new fundraising effort. “We obviously hope it’ll be huge.”
Comic Relief USA has raised nearly $150 million through Red Nose Day fundraising campaigns since 2015, when the effort launched in the United States.
Because Comic Relief USA has participated with Alexa Donations since Amazon beta tested the feature last year, the charity just had to develop a promotional strategy for Alexa’s prompt in advance of the campaign. “It actually has been a very, very low lift for us,” said Burdine.
Corporate Tie-Ins
The partnership with Amazon Alexa falls in line with the campaign’s efforts to weave giving into the fabric of everyday life. “Right now, much of the donations from the public are coming during a transaction of some kind, whether they’re buying the nose at the cash register, buying a T-shirt,” Scardino said. The charity sees results, she said, when they “bake a donation into a purchase.”
This year, the nonprofit again partnered with Walgreens to sell red-clown noses and collect cash donations at checkout counters. Other efforts include a collaboration with the video-sharing app TikTok, which will contribute $2 to the campaign for every video posted with the hashtag #RedNoseDay. Thursday evening, celebrities will again raise money during a three-hour prime-time special on NBC.
While it remains to be seen how many users will ask Alexa to help them donate to Red Nose Day, Comic Relief USA hopes that simple, voice-activated giving will bring more donors into the fold. “And, in our case, we hope it’s also fun,” said Scardino.
