16.000 Average Users per month
NB ‘Average User’ - determined by Alexa user accounts, not devices, showing how many users per day launched this Alexa skill on one or multiple devices.
Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten
Miss your favorite soap opera? TV superfan? Or maybe you just can’t wait to find out what’s going to happen next?
Great news! Now you can find out what’s happening on RTL’s Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten (GZSZ) straight from your smart speaker – and never miss a beat.
Voiced by the familiar sounds of Gregor König (GZSZ, Formula One) and Patrick Linke (Heute Show, The Bachelor, Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?), German viewers can ask Alexa directly ‘Was passiert bei GZSZ?’ and hear what´s new, making sure they’re never out of the conversation.
It’s the Alexa Skill and Google Action for one of the best-loved TV shows in Germany.
What we did
Alexa and Google Assistant apps
In partnership with broadcaster RTL, we developed Alexa and Google Assistant apps for the long-running show GZSZ (Good Times, Bad Times) – letting viewers catch up, hear previews and recaps, and even set reminders for when it’s on TV.
Native Functionality
Unlike most Alexa skills, the GZSZ skill had native functionality – meaning users could ask for updates directly in simple, conversational language. No convoluted opening of apps is necessary.
Reference
“The GZSZ Alexa Skill was one of the most innovative projects I have been part of, and I am honored to bring more of the GZSZ spirit into our fans' lives.
The VUI.agency team was very knowledgeable and guided me throughout the entire process, so recording texts for the skill became a new ritual in my life, and the result is a fantastic experience for our TV show fans.”
Our role in the project
Voice User Interface Design (VUI Design)
By creating a high-quality flow and utterance design, the VUI design of the apps is as natural and intuitive as possible for users.
With extensive testing and iteration at VUI.agency & RTL, we accounted for real, natural language requests and achieved the best possible coverage of user phrases.
Voice Consulting & Voice Identity
Our team created a distinctive voice identity for the GZSZ skill.
By ensuring tonality adaptation of the GZSZ language for the prompt texts, a narration of episode preview texts by RTL celebrity voices, and adapted User Experience (UX) texts used for the Alexa Skill and Google Action, users had a stronger connection to their GZSZ and RTL universe.
Consultancy ranged from use case determination to voice brand identity—and adding the sound user experience (sound UX) with original TV show sounds to really make it come to life.
Persona Branding
For this voice skill, we carefully adapted the tonality of the prompt texts and dialog box to match the GZSZ-specific language. By applying our persona branding expertise, the user remained in conversation with an authentic GZSZ universe, even after the episode finished.
Voice UX
We paid close attention to how RTL users talk and write to immerse themselves in their beloved GZSZ universe. Our sound and voice design experts developed an easily recognizable sound branding throughout the entire experience, reinforcing it with the help of RTL voice talent.
All adding up to a strategy that makes sure casual users and show superfans enjoy a seamless, 360˚ GZSZ-branded experience through voice.
Voice Development
As top DACH-market developers for voice skills and assistants, we guarantee that everything is tested and ready to meet the latest platform OS updates.
As the GZSZ episode preview sound files were so regularly updated, we also advised on specific platform requirements.
Workshops
Use case discovery workshops with our clients make sure that we find the right use cases right at the beginning of the project.
In this case, we established a series of notifications, while also consulting on brand identity for the voice channel.