‘We’re exploring the boundaries of creating for a connected nation’ – Google and Sainsbury’s on their new voice controlled offering
Sainsbury’s has partnered with Google to launch a new voice-controlled mobile and online tool - Sainsbury’s Food Rescue – which allows people to input their leftover fridge ingredients in exchange for recipes that can use them up.
Speaking to The Drum on the partnership, Mark Given, head of brand at Sainsbury’s, said: “Google and Sainsbury’s have a great relationship at a number of layers. Our management talked about a year ago on partnering to develop something that met both of our objectives, so we worked closely over the last six months to bring it together. We understand customers and recipes and Google is the best at really simple intuitive technology.”
“A fifth of the food that is bought in our stores is wasted and 60 per cent of that is perfectly edible. Not everyone can plan a meal perfectly and people need a bit of inspiration to help them.”
On the back of research that found search queries around wasted food items were up 33 per cent, Google worked with Sainsbury’s to develop something that would incorporate its Web Speech API.
Indy Saha, director of creative strategy at Google, added: “There are other meal planning apps, but this fundamentally plays into that pain point in everybody’s life where you think ‘what am I going to make now I’ve got all of this leftover stuff’.
“The fact that it’s seamless, and you speak into the device rather than having to rush away to a computer. It gives you inspiration then, at the moment that you need it.”
Google also built new cross-platform HTML5 expandable banner ads running on partner sites . They offer the same core functionality as Food Rescue - including the search tool and the Google Web Speech API.
Discussing where the Food Rescue offering fits in the ‘Internet of Things’ movement, Donal Mac Manus, brand lead at Google, continued: “It’s interesting, the whole idea of Internet of Things. The UK has the highest number of connected devices per household in Europe. So in terms of a form to explore, it’s a very interesting area.
“Working with a brand like Sainsbury’s we can explore the creative boundaries of how we use technology to create something that is a really useful tool for a connected nation like the UK.”
Given added that it the Food Rescue initiative is something that will be continually evolved, although he declined to reveal how much had been invested to get it to this stage.
“It’s not a launch it or leave. We’ll look at how we can adapt it. But we want to get started and see how people use it,” he said.
Given also said that Sainsbury’s was not currently looking to capitalise on this shift to voice search in other areas of the business.
“Long-term we’re committed to using technology to make things easier but this is the first time we’ve looked at voice in a more serious way,” he said. “It will be interesting to see what the response is.”
A decision was made to keep the tool relatively simple for consumers. Optimised for mobile and desktop, the site requires no log in process while the voice activated element – which Given says is one of the key differentiators of Sainsbury’s Food Rescue from other apps and websites which offer a similar service – has been programmed to include the full Sainsbury’s product line.
Users can say up to nine ingredients and the tool will present them with a recipe from more than 1,200 installed.
Sainsbury’s is using its social channels and Nectar email database to promote the tool, while its 150,000 staff have also been briefed on pushing it to customers.
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