Vodafone Idea 4G campaign features video chatbot suffused with AI

GroupM's media buying agency Mindshare has launched a video chatbot ad for a Vodafone Idea 4G campaign featuring YouTube comedian Mallika Dua, who is daughter of journalist Vinod Dua. The voice-enabled artificial intelligence (AI) campaign, which attempts to boost the experience of video calling Mallika Dua in real time, was co-created by mCanvas, an experiential storytelling ad platform for small screens.

The tool allows users’ face to appear on the mobile screen, besides enabling them to interact with Dua by tapping on the mic icon. The tool’s AI listens to user questions in English and Hindi. If a user asks a question in Hinglish, the AI programme detects that and helps assign a relevant answer to that question.

The campaign is live on several media and news websites.

“By leveraging Dua’s popularity and Idea’s 4G network, we are hopeful of bringing about a change in people’s behaviour and habits, as well as encourage more people to go Live to highlight societal issues,” said Niraj Ruparel, national head, mobile, Mindshare India.

The ad campaign allows users to interview Dua, which the release claims is something that has not been attempted before in the digital mobile ad-space.  The tool allows users to interact with the host and ask questions pertaining to a broad range of topics.

Sunita Bangard, president of marketing at Vodafone Idea Ltd, said, “Our innovative AI- and machine learning-aided campaign has set new benchmarks in digital advertising.”

AI chatbots are common in the enterprise space, especially in the financial domain. The Idea 4G campaign, however, is an example of AI application in the business-to-consumer (B2C) advertising domain.

In another B2C example, Flipkart is preparing a video-based Know Your Customer (KYC) solution to offer instant credit to its customers.