Waze has a long history of running promotions that bring celebrity voices to the platform for a limited time. Amazon is now doing something similar for Alexa, its digital personal assistant. Alexa is getting Oprah’s voice. You all know Oprah, she certainly needs no introduction. It’s part of a promotional campaign that Amazon and Oprah’s O magazine are running.
To be clear, Oprah’s voice won’t respond to your everyday voice commands like Alexa does. Her voice will only step in when customers shop her “Favorite Things” via Alexa. O, The Oprah Magazine and Amazon have promoted Oprah’s Favorite Things online for the last couple of years. Amazon launches a dedicated storefront online and on mobile.
For the first time ever, it’s expanding that partnership to Alexa and its Echo lineup of smart speakers. Users can trigger Oprah’s voice by saying “Alexa, let’s shop Oprah’s favorite things.” Oprah’s voice will then fill the room as she recommends one of her favorite products for the holiday season.
She will also provide some context as to why she picked that particular product. Alexa will then ask the user if they want to purchase that product and if they reply in the negative, Oprah will move on to the next item on her list.
Those who don’t have access to Alexa or Amazon’s Echo devices can still find Oprah’s Favorite Things in a dedicated Amazon storefront both online and on mobile.