84% of people go for a wine or beer when drinking at home. The main barrier that holds them back from serving a cocktail is the lack of knowledge and skills.

A second barrier to overcome is a very practical one. Once you decided to mix yourself a cocktail, the tools and ingredients to make them with are not always within hands reach.

Diageo wants to drive the consumption of spirits in the home environment and increase the awareness of their brands. In addition they want a richer consumer database on consumer behaviour, preference and choice and increase the conversion to digital commerce.

*The Bar* is an Alexa skill designed as a personal bartender to help a new generation of cocktail lovers to work on their cocktail confidence. It can help you find cocktails, teach you how to make them and lets you order ingredients, tools and cocktail kits using Amazon Prime.

From now on just say ‘Alexa, open the bar’ to start mixing.

Your home is now a bar. And it’s open.

Target group: People over the age of 21 that drink spirits-based-drinks.

Step 1: Inspire

In collaboration with award-winning mixologist Rob Poulter we created a database of cocktail recipes. Like a real bartender, it takes you through a set of questions to advice the perfect cocktail for you. It also tells you fun facts and jokes to keep you entertained.

Step 2: Teach

The skill not only shows the recipe, but it guides you through step by step. With gamification we keep track of progress and give aspiring mixologists a sense of achievement.

Step 3: Empower

The tools and ingredients to make them with are not always within hands reach.‘The Bar’ connects voice technology with direct commerce. Ask Alexa to order your favourite cocktail and your cocktail toolkit will be express delivered to you using Amazon Prime.

First launch, just before Christmas 2017, in the UK showed the following results:

Journey completion is 10% higher than the benchmark.

37.7% of all visitors added an ingredient or cocktail kit to their shopping list.

96% liked the show skill, they returned after their first visit.

The skill is currently being developed further with focus on the following subjects:

Expand to markets beyond the UK.

Expand to other platforms (Google Home and possibly chat based interfaces).

Expand content and functionality.

Expand cocktail kits and commerce functionality.

Expand gamification and learning mechanism.