In recent years, voice assistants have seen huge expansion, and their market keeps growing. Their number will reach 8 billion by 2023, with Alexa leading the way and effectively becoming part of everyone’s family. In the meantime, Lavazza – a 125-year-old company – is trying to keep with the time and seizes the opportunity to become the first coffee brand to enter this game. The challenge was set to create a user experience that would help strengthen bonds with the consumer, organically gather data, and encourage the purchase of Lavazza original capsules.

The new Lavazza ‘A Modo Mio Voicy’ is the result of a 2-year collaboration between Lavazza, Amazon and the agency. It’s much more than a two-in-one design as it has been developed to integrate to Piacere Lavazza, the official Lavazza app, with the core aim of simplifying and improving the coffee experience at home for consumers.

We devised functionalities for the app that catalyze what both machine and Alexa can do, ultimately creating an endless range of possibilities that goes from personal recipes and coffee tutorials to selling, upselling and after-sales services. We have analyzed consumer insights and consumption habits, finding creative ways to inspire them and anticipate their needs. If Lavazza A Modo Mio’s promise as a brand is being “Your Italian coffee shop at home”, we wanted to create a virtual barista who chats / knows / learns your tastes and habits, just like your neighborhood barista. For that we’ve strongly leveraged on the Italian heritage of the brand.

Lavazza ‘A Modo Mio Voicy’ is the first coffee machine in the world with a full Alexa built in. More than a voice-controlled device: a virtual, personal, at-home barista capable of preparing a variety of recipes, adapting to customers' preferences, and increasing the brand's sales opportunities. To achieve these objectives, we have been crafting the perfect consumer and brand-focused experience, completely reinventing the act of drinking coffee at home.

For the first time, the experience is more important than the capsules. Customers can now personalize and save their favorite coffee recipes, receive notifications, or simply follow their consumption habits. As they interact with the machine via voice, the app gets instantly updated, with no action needed. Voicy alerts when the machine needs cleaning or when capsules are about run out. Seamlessly allowing the consumer to purchase Lavazza products and capsules directly from Lavazza's e-shop on Amazon, as well as invite them to discover new blends and accessories – engaging the consumer in the entire offering of the Lavazza store (upselling) and potentially creating infinite possibilities.

The machine is also extremely compact and space-saving as it combines all Alexa’s features of a regular echo dot into one single device.

Following a successful launch in the Italian market, Voicy experienced exponential sales growth after being launched in the UK market (September 2021), multiplying by 5 the absolute volume of sales from October to December, the same happening to the number of app downloads.

Online sales of Lavazza products increased by 16% while Amazon sales outpaced this number by 50%, with a total sales growth of 24%. Currently results are giving the greenlight for the company to proceed to other important markets like the USA in Fall 2022.