By Janine Pollack—Director of Content Marketing at MNI Targeted Media
How Voice Assistants Will Save Thanksgiving 2020
If 2020 was a marathon, we would be at the 22-mile mark or so. The finish is within our grasp, but it’s going to take a lot of inner strength to cross it. And before we do, there’s Thanksgiving. A favorite holiday for many, but, like so many traditions, turned upside down and sideways due to the pandemic.
Why Voice Assistants Will Be So Essential
Food & Wine, Allrecipes, and Healthy Living, to name a few, have hundreds of recipes to choose from for everything from side dishes to desserts. Once your menu is set, there are plenty of ways to shop for ingredients—either in person, or with apps like Fresh Direct (if you can get a slot), which even has an Early Bird Special. Google Assistant can help you create a shopping list, and Alexa will help convert measurement units while playing background music.
This is the beauty of videos and voice assistants. Voice search has long become one of the most popular ways for users to quickly find answers to their pressing questions—including anything Thanksgiving-related. Aside from helping with the cooking, there are other ways voice assistants can be a Thanksgiving treat. They can settle an argument between you and your brother-in-law over which election candidate had the most popular votes. They can also serve as the referee for all things sports, or relay scores in real time to sooth the souls of sports enthusiasts, stuck at the outdoor table while wishing to be indoors watching the game.
How the Butterball Turkey Talk Line Lead to Voice Assistants
And then there's the classic Butterball Turkey Talk-Line. When it opened in 1981, it was a cutting-edge technology call center with six home economists—experts on homemaking—working the six phone lines, each armed with a Rolodex on turkey cooking. Things are different now—the team members will all be working from their homes, having graduated Butterball’s “Turkey U” training course virtually, and a Butterball skill is available on Alexa-enabled devices.
There are plenty of ways to make Thanksgiving special, and while 2020’s Thanksgiving may be more technology driven, it’s always a time to reflect on what you’re grateful for and share with others. In this spirit of giving, we asked an experienced turkey-roasting MNI team member for some tips, and she wrote a guide flavored with a bit of sass. From our home offices to yours, enjoy!
