The British Heart Foundation (BHF) has launched an ad campaign powered by digital audio advertising platform DAX to drive installs of its Amazon Alexa skill.

The BHF is the first organisation in the world to enable people to arrange for the collection of furniture and electrical items through Amazon Alexa and the first UK charity to receive donations through Amazon Pay by using the Alexa skill.

The DAX campaign, planned and produced by Radioworks and Maple Street Creative, enables the BHF to target Amazon Echo devices only with a message to encourage users to install the newly-available skill. The money raised through the skill will help fund over £100m a year for life-saving research into heart and circulatory conditions such as coronary heart disease, stroke, vascular dementia and their risk factors such diabetes.

“According to Canalys, smart speakers are the world’s fastest-growing consumer technology,” said Ollie Deane, director of commercial digital at DAX owner, Global. “As voice-activated devices feature more prominently in our homes, the technology continues to become more intuitive, creating further opportunities for advertisers to work with DAX on smart digital audio campaigns. As one of the UK’s leading charities, it’s great to see British Heart Foundation at the forefront innovation using this technology.”

Nick Marshall, digital performance manager at the BHF, said it is the charity’s aim to be pioneering in marketing, with digital being at the centre of its communication strategies. “The launch of this Alexa skill is just one example of how we are adapting as an organisation to be where our supporters are and to give people choice to make donating as easy as possible,” said Marshall. “In addition to PPC and paid social, we’re excited to roll out our digital audio campaign with DAX, to help us reach our audience and tap into the huge amount of people now using digital assistants in the UK.”