amazon ALEXA ECHO SHOW: "let's get ready" skill
Coty shook up the beauty industry by being one of the first beauty brands to create a voice and image activated personalized beauty assistant skill with Amazon called Let's Get Ready.
Background
Brands under Coty Umbrella
Beauty brands are owned by a few monster conglomerates: Estée Lauder, L'Oréal, COTY, Shiseido, Unilever, Johnson & Johsnon, Procter and Gamble and so on. Since COTY owns Beamly, I get to be the main Content Strategist for Sally Hansen on the Trend Foundry team.
I get to work closely with brands like Sally Hansen, Rimmel, Clairol, COVERGIRL, Bourjois, Maxfactor, etc. My previous experience with Watson and AI, (see W.Stylist project under Artificial Intelligence section) got me pumped to see what I could bring to the table. At Beamly, a big part of my job is to monitor the latest trends, watch for patterns as to forecast new ones, analyze how the industry reacts to branded content and iterate this process constantly all the while keeping our clients in the know. We monitor trends through social listening and connect the dots with what's going on in pop culture today. All of our work is stored in the Beamly database.
Strategic Implementation
Problem Solving: The Amazon Echo show has the power to give you any trend based on whatever you decide to share with the "Let's Get Ready Skill" by allowing the user to dialogue with Alexa about looks for any occasion.
Education: tips, tricks, and how-to content with visuals for the Echo Show (or voice for just Alexa) allow users to have a step by step guide while they're getting ready.
Trends and Styles: By using Beamly's database of trends, visual imagery, knowledge of the beauty industry and brands we were able to fuel the "Let's Get Ready Skill" with all of the necessary looks and products. Think of your favorite beauty influencer on steroids.
Add to Cart: Since COTY has the perfect mix of brands to complete a whole look (hair, makeup, nails) users are able to add the products needed to create any desired look.
My Role
As Content Strategist of Sally Hansen, it was my job to compile all of the trends I had on deck and create scripts for Alexa to guide users through the process of each and every single trending nail look. I worked with four other Content Strategists to compile trends for face, lip, eyes, and nails. These looks fell under 50 different trends or categories spanning from occasions like weddings all the way down to festival season. Our looks were strategically paired with products from COTY to make it easier for the user to add to cart after Alexa walks them through their desired look.
Example On-boarding process:
One example of my script:
User: "Alexa, Let's get ready!"
Alexa: "Welcome back to Let's Get Ready. You can plan a look, or hear what's trending. Which will it be?"
User: "Trending"
Alexa: "Galaxy Nails Look. Galaxy nails are different shades blurred together to create a mini-masterpiece on each nail. This trend is a great way to achieve an out of this world look. Would you like to hear the steps, shop the look or hear another?"
User: "Hear the steps"
Alexa:
Step one: Begin by picking two to three different blue shades. Make sure to pick light and dark shades in order for the look to really pop.
Step two: Start with a base coat before you apply your first shade. Use the darkest shade of blue first and paint two coats. Let them dry only a little before next step.
Step three: Using a tweezer, hold tiny pieces of sponge to splotch white and blue shades onto your nails in galaxy like swirls. Let dry and apply glitter polish. Once glitter polish dries, add final top coat and gaze into the stars.
Script Writing Process
Different outcomes will come depending on the initial interaction. On boarding will ask phenotype questions and get to know each user the more the user allows Let's Get Ready to know them. The example above is a general script for a returning user. I wrote a total of 40 trending nail look scripts for Alexa to speak to. Each trending nail look was broken down by phenotypes for eye color and skin tone. The correct events and complimenting colors were also tagged in the code for the script for Alexa.
Press for Coty and Amazon Echo Show "Let's Get Ready Skill"