Amazon Internal Comms - Peak Buddy
The problem: Amazon's international PR team needed an engaging, accessible way to deliver wellbeing resources and motivational content to their busy team members during the busy Christmas period. Formidable Media sought to create a fun and interactive experience delivered via an Alexa Skill on the Echo Show 10.
My role: Overseeing production, design and delivery of Peak Buddy - a world-first internal comms campaign delivered as an Alexa Skill.
Wins
50% of users invited engaged with the Skill
Users averaged seven interactions per session and 13 interactions per week
Average sessions per user remained above three right up to Christmas break, above average for an Alexa Skill
Learnings
Peak Buddy provided the client at Amazon with useful insights that could inform future comms campaigns using Alexa Skills. Users became more engaged with the skill once games were introduced.
Jump to…
Formidable Media has been trusted by multiple teams within Amazon to deliver engaging social media content for a variety of internal and external audiences. When the client wanted to experiment with finding a dynamic way to share a gift with staff along with key messaging during the busiest time in the working calendar, they trusted me and my team to bring it to life. We worked together to find a way to utilise Alexa Skills and the Echo Show 10 to share wellbeing tips and resources, games and light relief, and relay motivational messages from internal stakeholders.
The Context
The Goal
To design useful and engaging wellbeing content for busy professionals within the international PR team at Amazon.
The Users
260 members of the PR and communications team at Amazon.
As Project Manager, I was the first point of contact for the client and managed a six-figure budget to deliver this suite of content, orchestrate delivery of 260 devices to team members worldwide, and designed instructional guides to help raise awareness of this skill and how to use it.
What I Did
Production began in October with a need for weekly content updates throughout November and December. Working with such a tight deadline was not without its challenges. With no means to order Amazon devices internally at that time, I orchestrated the purchase and delivery of all devices via my own account and the accounts of team members.
At that time there was no way to make an Alexa Skill private and the client was clear that they wanted to ensure only the select list of colleagues within the company should have access. After discussions with the client and developers, I suggested that the best solution given time constraints was to build the Skill as a beta test - this way we could control and invite only those listed to access.
I wrote copy for an instructional email to be sent out to those invited, signposting how to access and use the Skill. This was handed to a graphic designer to make it visually engaging while in keeping with Amazon’s tone of voice and brand guidelines. I would deliver further emails sharing the weekly content updates with a clear CTA.
The Skill itself featured guided meditations, cute videos of puppies and kittens, fitness videos featuring influencers and even festive games. My role saw me sourcing stock footage, commissioning influencer content, and co-ordinating video editors, motion graphic designers and developers to bring it all to life before working closely with the client and developers to test the Skill, its usability and user journey.
How I Did It
As Peak Buddy was the first time anything like this had been attempted, we were able to provide the client with key data and insights to inform future projects.
While key stakeholders at Amazon were keen to share important messaging, it highlighted the importance of a user-centred approach. The delayed start time and less streamlined process of the delivery of devices meant we had little time to onboard users and build awareness of the Skill and its content. Delivery of the devices coincided with the beginning of the peak period and so users may have already been too busy to engage with the Skill. As a result I recommended a six-week pre-launch period to get users onboarded and engaged as part of the Peak Buddy Community.
Launching as a beta-testing Skill achieved the client’s goal to keep it away from general public access, but created friction in the user journey. Users had to first request access on their preferred Amazon account, then accept the invite on the Alexa app which had to be logged in with that email address. Should the user encounter any issues in that process, it would appear to them that the Skill does not exist. No support would be available on the device, only via email. From this learning, I suggested that future projects should seek to create a publicly available Skill but with some sort of authorisation system.
Of the 260 users sent a device, 110 requested an invite. Of those invited, 50% accessed the Skill, leaving us with an active user base of just 55. The first content was delivered on 15th November. That week 25 users interacted with Peak Buddy, dropping to a low of 11 in the week before Christmas.
Users had on average 6-7 interactions per session and 13 interactions per week, suggesting the content was engaging enough to encourage return visits.