• by Chase Martin , March 22, 2017

A major beer brand and agency are teaming up to bring one-hour beer delivery to consumers’ homes.

The Miller Lite On-Demand program lets consumers use connected devices to order Miller Lite beer at home.

MillerCoors and IPG Media Lab partnered with on-demand alcohol delivery service, Drizly, to develop a branded Amazon Dash button for 500 customers, as well as an Amazon Alexa skill with the trigger phrase ‘Start Miller Time.’

The program, which is part of MillerCoors’ Digital Incubator initiative, is a pilot designed to test new ways to reduce consumer friction in purchasing products, according to Jorie Sax, associate marketing manager of the Incubator.

“As more and more purchases shift to e-commerce and on-demand services, ‘at shelf’ is increasingly the shelf in a refrigerator or cupboard and ‘on-premise’ is increasingly a couch,” Sax told the IoT Daily.

“We were interested in the intersection between connected home and on-demand services to provide utility for Miller Lite fans,” she said.

The team decided to use Amazon as a platform because it’s devices and services are already in many consumers’ homes.

In addition to the 500 so-called ‘Beer Buttons,’ the on-demand service can be accessed with any Alexa-enabled device, such as Amazon’s Echo or select smartphones.

“Using voice and pressing a button are the leading interfaces for the home and the first things we wanted to test,” Sax told the IOT Daily.

“These frictionless methods of purchase are just going to get more seamless over time, a win for consumers and retailers and a win for brands.”