Kate’s awards speech on the sound of success

ONE of the biggest challenges facing companies will be deciding what their brands sound like to digital consumers, according to Kate Russell, presenter of BBC technology show Click.

Delivering the keynote speech at the WalesOnline Digital Awards 2017, Kate said it was a “really exciting time” with the growth in the use of voice-assistant apps.

She added: “And it [the technology] is getting better and better, which is really driving the growth of voice assistants.”

She revealed that in 2008 there were 360 million users of voiceassistant technology across the world – and the number was forecast to reach a staggering 1.6 billion by 2021.

The popular presenter and journalist explained this posed both challenges and opportunities for companies in terms of how they sound to customers online.

Describing it as a crucial consideration, Kate added: “What does your brand sound like? Some brands will struggle, but those who get it right will have massive benefits from creating brand sounds attractive to customers.

“This is becoming more and more important.”

She added that technological developments were turning the old order of business ownership models on its head.

“Everything is different. The world’s most successful taxi company [Uber] doesn’t own any cars and the most successful media company [Facebook] doesn’t own any news content.”