Us Postal Service: Your Voice Is Your Stamp

Credits & Description:

Title: Your Voice Is Your Stamp
Agency: Mrm//Mccann
Brand: U.S. Postal Service
Country: USA
Entrant Company: Mrm//Mccann, New York
Advertising Agency: Mrm//Mccann, New York
Production Company: Mrm//Mccann, New York
Global Chief Operating Officer: Kate Macnevin (Mrm//Mccann)
Global Chief Technology Officer: Neal Prescott (Mrm//Mccann)
Evp, Chief Creative Officer: Sung Chang (Mrm//Mccann)
Svp Group Account Director: Caspar Ouvaroff (Mrm//Mccann)
Vp Creative Director: Tony Jones (Mrm//Mccann)
Creative Director: Emmeli Osterdahl (Mrm//Mccann)
Director Of Product Innovation: Dominik Heinrich (Mrm//Mccann)
Svp Strategy Director: Karan Gera (Mrm//Mccann)
Associate Director Digital Strategy: Christopher Cotter (Mrm//Mccann)
Senior Copywriter: Micky Treutlein (Mrm//Mccann)
Senior Copywriter: Petra Magno (Mrm//Mccann)
Copywriter: Jason Tisdale (Mrm//Mccann)
Senior Art Director: Jane Kim (Mrm//Mccann)
Senior Art Director: Kevin Honegger (Mrm//Mccann)
Designer: Noelle Kirchmer (Mrm//Mccann)
Senior Ux Designer: Angela Fan (Mrm//Mccann)
Senior Developer: Trent Harvey (Optaros)
Senior Developer: Ian Littmann (Optaros)
Account Executive: Marielle Avallone (Mrm//Mccann)
Management Supervisor: Rohanie Singh (Mrm//Mccann)
Director Of Project Management: Petra Boden (Mrm//Mccann)
Senior Project Manager: Keith Troy (Mrm//Mccann)
Senior Project Manager: Amy Zainfeld (Mrm//Mccann)
Project Manager: Arnaldo Serrano (Mrm//Mccann)
Vp Customer Experience Lead: Jay Patel (Mrm//Mccann)
Senior Cx Analyst: Matt Draper (Mrm//Mccann)
Director Of Facilities: Khudee Lawrence (Mrm//Mccann)
Industrial Designer: Jordan Diatlo (Leadoffstudio)
Producer: Melanie Wagner (The Matilda)
Group Assistant: Ana Crivelli (Mrm//Mccann)
Vp Creative Director: Shawn Kelly (Mrm//Mccann)
Chief Customer And Marketing Office: Jim Cochrane (Usps)
Executive Director, Brand Marketing: Steven Monteith (Usps)
Executive Director, Brand Marketing: Christopher Karpenko (Usps)
Campaign Description:
95% of search queries about stamps are requests to access them online. In this culture of screens, people expect a seamless postal service experience. Voice Stamp—a Smart Blue Box feature—replaces paper stamps with voice authentication, so you can drop mail into a collection box without affixing a stamp. More importantly, Voice Stamp uses the existing postal system, as postal sorting facilities already scan every letter for origin and destination. The innovation simply links the information on your letter to your account, charging postage via the cloud to your credit card on file. The Postal Service created an intelligent, conversational user experience by using the Google-acquired AI platform API.AI. The platform constantly improves, learning from developers’ examples and conversations with customers. The natural language capabilities of Google and Sensory—creators of the Alexa NL passphrase—let customers switch between conversation topics while the Box remembers where they left off.
Outcome:
By creating an artificial-intelligence device that fits right on their ubiquitous blue collection box, the Postal Service can create an Internet-capable network that spans the nation — 15
000 boxes strong. Replacing the stamp with a digital version also means big savings for the Postal Service; last year 7 billion stamps were produced and not sold. Voice Stamp could save the U.S. Postal Service up to $147 million.USPS launched the Blue Box at CES 2017 in Las Vegas to create public and governmental awareness. The prototypes were placed in select post offices for a test market round while the design of the devices was updated to become market-ready for pilot roll-out. This larger pilot roll-out—up to 100 units across the U.S.—awaits congress approval.
Synopsis:
Since 2011, the U.S. Postal Service has been downsizing its locations. Customer service perception had a 48% negative response. As voice recognition and machine learning became more common, the Postal Service saw the opportunity to elevate their service, potentially on a nationwide scale of 15
000 blue collection boxes on almost every corner. The limitation is that the technology requires time: the AI must be taught and the algorithm optimized. However, the delay opened up opportunities; putting Smart Blue Box and Voice Stamp technology into the mass market involved a governmental process. USPS launched the Blue Box at CES 2017 in Las Vegas to create public and governmental awareness. The prototypes were placed in select post offices for a test market round while the design of the devices was updated to become market-ready for pilot roll-out. This larger pilot roll-out—up to 100 units across the U.S.—awaits congress approval.
Execution:
We built a Python-based architecture connected to the cloud service API.AI, which serves as the heart and brain of our Smart Blue Box. Its machine-learning capability helps the Smart Blue Box get smarter every day, as users ask it questions. AWS Polly turns the API.AI text into lifelike speech, facilitating the conversation between the user and the Blue Box. The Postal Service opened up their various APIs, which give the Blue Box information on Post Office locations, postage prices, and other functions. These APIs also allow access to the User Account for the Voice Stamp. Sensory’s TrulySecure SDK for voice identification recognizes a user’s identity with their voice-verified and confirmed USPS profile once they speak the passphrase “Hello Blue Box,” and sends a unique verification code via push notification to the user’s phone for them to verify with the box as a double opt-in. Other API’s come from Google’s cloud service, giving the Smart Blue Box knowledge of nearby locations, weather, languages, and voice.
Relevancy:
The antiquated stamp is considered an essential step to sending mail. Now, the Voice Stamp — one of the features of the U.S. Postal Service’s new Smart Blue Box — replaces the stamp with voice recognition, charging postage via the user’s online account and eliminating the need for printing stamps. Now every postal collection mailbox on a street corner can be voice-activated to weigh packages, calculate postage, and send mail without stamps — you just have to say so.