Part 1: Alexa Themes
Branded themes are a way to let customers personalize their Alexa experience, give partners a new advertising surface, and give Alexa a revenue stream that didn't exist yet. Simple concept. Genuinely hard to execute.
The other constraint: scale. A theme isn't one piece of copy. It's weather, alarms, timers, greetings, jokes, goodnight responses: every interaction Alexa has, now in character, across millions of devices.
Here's how we did it.
The Halloween Theme
This is where themes began. No brief, no precedent, just four writers figuring out how to put Alexa in new worlds without breaking her.
The creative choices we made (like “how do we make a witch sound witchy, not too creepy?” or “how do we make alarms whimsical, not annoying?”) became the template for every theme after. In 2023, Mars Wrigley joined as the first sponsored partner. As seen on TikTok.
200K accounts enabled in 2022. 400K in 2023. 4MM+ decorated dialogs.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Miles Morales dropped into your living room.
This was the most technically ambitious theme we built — a 3D avatar, an AR Spider-Man mask experience, and a QR code for ticket scanning. The writing had to match that energy: kinetic, fun, a little breathless. We had to make Miles feel at home in Alexa's world without losing what made him Miles: the humor, the heart, the chaos of being a teenager carrying the weight of every universe.
500K+ accounts enabled in 2023.
Wicked
For our Wicked partnership with Universal Pictures, we did something no theme had done before: gave customers a choice. Elphaba or Glinda. Two paths, two completely distinct voices, two full theme experiences built in parallel, weather, alarms, timers, jokes, greetings, all of it, twice.
Both had to feel like Alexa. Neither could feel like the other. It was, essentially, two themes disguised as one.
As covered by Amazon Ads.
Alicia Keys' Keys Soulcare
First beauty brand ever on Alexa. First time we had to write a theme where the product was the voice.
Keys Soulcare isn't just Alicia Keys' skincare line; it's a philosophy. Every response had to carry that: affirmations woven into alarm tones, skincare rituals reframed as Alexa interactions, a quiz that surfaced personalized product recommendations. We even wrote original affirmations in Alicia's voice, now spoken by Alexa. "I am good to myself." "I embrace change." We weren't promoting a brand. We were making it feel like a daily practice. Voice turned out to be a surprisingly perfect medium for that.
As seen on Good Morning America.
Also Shipped
Barbie · The Super Mario Bros. Movie · Avatar: The Way of Water · The Wild Robot · Lexus · The Sims · National Parks · Cat Theme · Trolls
Part 2: Alexa+
While themes were rolling out, I was also writing for Alexa+, the next generation of Alexa built on large language models. Themes asked, "How does Alexa sound as Miles Morales?" Alexa+ asked, "How does Alexa sound like herself when she can say almost anything?" I wrote and tested personality and response content across music, weather, smart home, and more.
For years, the team kicked around the idea of a grown-up Alexa. Everyone liked it in theory. Nobody defined it. So I ran a brainstorm and wrote up a brief that did, drawing the lines between too far and not far enough, with examples of each so anyone writing for her could hear the difference. Other regions later used it to shape their own versions of Alexa.
It sat on a shelf for a while. Years later, it became the foundation for Sassy, one of four personality styles that launched in 2026.
After a reviewer blamed her for his smart lights:
"Oh, so now it's my fault your lights have trust issues."
—Sassy Alexa, via PCWorld