ASSISTANT

TitleASSISTANT
BrandALMA TALENT
Product/ServiceKAUPPALEHTI
Category A06. Media & Publications
Entrant BOB THE ROBOT Helsinki, FINLAND
Idea Creation BOB THE ROBOT Helsinki, FINLAND
Credits
Name Company Position
Marko Juuti Bob the Robot Account Manager
Anu Igoni Bob The Robot Creative Director
Kaija Rossi Bob The Robot Client Group Director
Helmi Korpinen Bob The Robot Copywriter
Vesa Kuula Bob The Robot Oy AD
Mikko Kalso Bob The Robot Digital Creative Director
Petri Santala Bob The Robot Digital Producer
Lauri Aalto Bob the Robot Pictures Film producer
Jaakko Itäaho Bob the Robot Pictures Film director
Julius Greis Bob the Robot Pictures Film editor
Anton Paananen Bob the Robot Pictures Cinematographer
Taneli Suoranta Cinematographer Sound Design Arrangement

The Campaign

The problem was tackled with a totally new approach: by launching Kauppalehti Assistant, a Facebook Messenger chatbot that offered news in a lighter format and directed people to articles from a platform that was easy and convenient to use. However, chatbots can sometimes feel a bit technical. We needed a way to make the Assistant approachable for everyone. We brought the Assistant to life by telling about “her” through the eyes of colleagues as if Kauppalehti Assistant was a new employee. We offered people a chance to create personalised videos where they or their friends were portrayed as the boss of Kauppalehti Assistant. The main role in the video was played by a bitter ex-assistant who spilled the beans about her ex-employer and complained about the new assistant.

Creative Execution

The campaign was launched a few weeks before the start of the holiday season. It reminded people of their work roles and work places in an entertaining way and made it easy to approach the chatbot. The possibility to create entertaining and personalised “fake news” (articles and videos) with the Kauppalehti look and feel brought Kauppalehti platform close to people and left it in their minds just before the holidays. The campaign lasted only about two weeks but went viral instantly. It consisted of a campaign site (where people could create news/videos) and some simple Facebook and display ads, but most of the traffic came through the personalised videos other people had made and shared on Facebook.

A chatbot was suddenly very approachable indeed. In about two weeks, the campaign site was visited almost 700,000 times. People created over 45,000 videos. We got 4,9 million impressions on Facebook. (And in a country as small as Finland, these figures are impressive. Especially considering that the media in question was no tabloid but a financial one.) What’s most important, the amount of visitors on Kauppalehti site grew 15% compared to the previous summer. The amount of organic searches grew 14%. Kauppalehti Assistant got more new users than expected.

Almost everybody in Finland has about 4 or 5 weeks of holiday during the summer; usually in July. This is true also for the Kauppalehti target audience. For many Kauppalehti readers (the loyal and the occasional), the interest for Kauppalehti stems from their work role, so consequently, the holiday season means less interest for Kauppalehti. Kauppalehti Assistant, a Facebook Messenger chatbot, offered news in a lighter format and directed people to articles from a platform that was easy and convenient to use even on holiday. The campaign was launched a few weeks before the start of the holiday season. It reminded people of their work roles and work places in an entertaining way and made it easy to approach the chatbot. The possibility to create entertaining and personalised “fake news” (articles and videos) brought Kauppalehti platform close to people and left it in their minds just before they left the