Oreo Partners with Alexa to Help With Mystery Oreo Flavor Challenge

The Oreo cookie brand has partnered with Amazon’s automated voice assistant, Alexa, just in time for its new mystery Oreo flavor challenge.

Customers can now ask Alexa, “what’s new with oreo?” and be updated with news and special announcements on the cookie brand without having to download a skill.

The virtual assistant will also help promote the company’s new mystery Oreo flavor challenge, by providing customers with clues on the secret flavor when asked. The new mystery Oreo flavor product line was launched the same day the Alexa partnership was announced.

Customers have until November 10, 2019 to guess the right flavor and can submit up to one guess a day through the cookie giant’s website. The first customer to guess the correct flavor will be rewarded with a cash prize of $50,000.

But the Oreo partnership with Alexa goes beyond solely generating hype on its new mystery product challenge. It’s an attempt to further innovate Orea’s business strategy by using Alexa as a major source of information and commerce to boost sales.

Although using smart speakers for shopping is still a relatively small space, the convenience and little effort it requires for consumers to order and check out products could lead other brands to hop on this trend in the years to come.

According to a survey conducted by eMarketer, 31 million Americans are expected to shop via smart speaker this year, and that number is expected to increase by 11.8 percent to 34.7 million by 2020.

In addition, research from global payment provider, Pay Safe, also found that consumers would rather use voice assistant to buy cheaper products such as groceries as opposed to plane tickets, making Oreos a perfect candidate to reap the benefits of this growing shopping trend.

Other advancements Oreo has experimented with to promote its products through technology include its mobile scavenger hunt, similar to Pokémon Go, called “The Great Oreo Cookie Quest.” The scavenger hunt used augmented reality to help consumers locate virtually hidden cookies on the app in real life.

It also partnered with Snapchat to launch special snap codes on Oreo packaging across Europe. Consumers were prompted to scan the code on packages using the image messaging app unlocking access to Oreo-themed filters, stickers, and lenses to play with.