Manchester agency Absurd has worked with Electrical Safety First on a life-saving campaign to slash the number of electrical fires in the UK.
Tasked with improving awareness of electrical product recalls, Absurd built and launched a new Alexa app, using voice technology to allow homeowners to access recall information quickly and easily. Homeowners can now use Alexa to monitor the recall of electrical items and find out whether any of those items are inside their own home.
A UK electrical product recall has an average success rate of just 10-20%, which means that millions of potentially unsafe electrical items still being used, posing a significant danger of electrical fire. The new tech aims to boost those recall rates, preventing electrical fires caused by faulty devices.
Alexa owners need only ask their device whether their washing machine, fridge or any other product has been recalled simply by telling Alexa the brand of the device.
Oliver Bailey, Client Partner & Co Founder of Absurd, said: “This is the latest of several campaigns we’ve delivered for Electrical Safety First – it’s a great example of how voice technology can be used to best effect and is the very definition of tech for good. It’s a simple concept with enormous benefit.”
Emma Drackford of Electrical Safety First, said: “We’re really happy to be able to leverage new technologies like voice to raise awareness of the campaigns we work on. Product recalls are a major focus for us, and with most people not registering their electrical products, it can be hard to find out whether a product you own has been recalled. We hope that by launching the Alexa app, people will use it to make ad hoc checks whilst doing chores around the house, without the need to open up a website. It’s all about removing barriers and giving our audience the tools they need to use their electrical products more safely.”
Founded in May 2017 by Oli Taylor, Sam Gooch and Oliver Bailey, Absurd has continued to grow at an impressive rate, designing and building digital products and services for a wide range of clients, from scale-ups through to global brands.
