The Campaign

Our main target, was a younger audience. So we honed in on the draw-in of “dating”. We developed a new alluring chat service with AI islanders called “Tokyo Islan-date Messaging”. We created one male and one female AI islander for each of the 11 islands. Their personality and traits represented their island’s characteristics. The 22 AI islanders are anonymous and attractive, generated by the data of every-day real islanders’ appearances. Users were matched with their most compatible partner, just like online dating, and were able to enjoy private chats through Facebook Messenger.

Creative Execution

AI islanders are connected to an archive of more than 14,000 “local gem” information, pictures, and videos provided exclusively by local islanders. Information on the islands along with sweet messages are delivered to users in each AI islanders’ unique conversation style. To make the conversations run smoothly, we incorporated Microsoft LUIS. The chat is designed like a game, with more messages exchanged, the level of intimacy increases, making users who didn't have interest in the islands at first, enjoy the chat more. With local islanders being able to send information directly to AI islanders’ platforms from their mobile phones, the latest information is delivered to the users without any delays. To collect the enormous amount of information from local islanders, organizations from the Tokyo region took part in the project, to spread awareness of the project and get islanders from all 11 islands to participate.

“Tokyo Islan-date Messaging” is going viral on social media. It obtained a reach of half a million users in just 7 days. There was an average of 50 exchanges. It achieved 200% of the targeted advertising effect. As a result, young people who didn’t even know the islands’ names fell in love with the islands through chats with the AI islanders. With this, a new tourist information service that lets you fall in love with the islands was born.

For building the strategy, we focused on the lifestyle of young people, our main target audience. When selecting a travel destination, more young people look to their friend's reviews on social media (mostly Facebook) rather than travel guides. So we provided a personal medium that is much like the way they converse with their dates and friends, using mobile and social media, to create the AI islanders to be a more intimate presence and a trustful source of information to the users, when talking about the allures of each of the islands. An experience that is like having a direct conversation with locals who know most about the islands, rather than just a one-way dialog was a brand new approach to tourist promotion.