GaryVee on Alexa, Your Brand, and The Next Search Engine

GaryVee (or Gary Vaynerchuk for those unfamiliar with his “brand name”) said, “Alexa has the potential to kill Google.”

Alexa Skills are the Beachfront Property Vacation

Gary further wrote, “More so than podcasting itself, I think Alexa is an incredible opportunity to win. If you consider podcasting to be the current go-to-destination for creative, then Alexa Skills are the beachfront property vacation, yet to be discovered and booked up by the masses.”

This may clarify to some why I, a visual branding guy building brands and their brand stories, bought some “beachfront property” with my “What’s Next in Branding” Alexa Skill that tens of millions of people can access on their Echo devices (or iPhones with Amazon Alexa Apps).

Currently, I am the #1 Skill for branding, rebranding, and numerous keywords that would make any business insanely happy.

It was for this reason and these (also from Gary) that I jumped on the Alexa bandwagon:

“In fact, audio and streaming in particular is up 76% Y/Y eclipsing video with 250B annual streams.”
“For the past 24-36 months, brands and individuals alike have gotten serious about audio.”
“The next search engine is ‘voice’….this is your next opportunity.”

Of course, I had to work out how to make my “beachfront property” known to others. So I developed this as a promotion so I didn’t blend into all the noise in this new space:

Alexa and The Power of Sampling: Hear for Yourself

All great brands sample. From music to mattresses to food samples in Whole Foods to “free trials” of all sorts. High Tech companies do it all the time with trials as do web-based subscription models as well.

That is what Alexa is to me: a sample… of my thinking, my approach, my strategies, my successes and the way I tackle failures and obstacles.

To give you a taste of you might be missing (unless you subscribe), here are the 34 episodes to date (averaging 3 to 4 minutes per episode).