February 12, 2003
Virtual Elves: Keebler IM Bots
The Ingredients
Murray dove into the project. "I am the mad scientist behind RecipeBuddie,"
she says. "This is different than a recipe database wrapped in an IM wrapper
because of natural language. This is a writer's territory, and the writing of
the script is fun beyond your wildest dreams. You have to anticipate all of
the ways that people are going to ask questions." Take the statement "I hate
onions." Someone might also write "I don't like onions," or "I abhor onions,"
or "No onions for me."
"Then you have to come up with an interesting variety of ways to communicate
with the consumer. If someone says he doesn't like onions, you can respond,
'I understand. No onions for you. Why don't you try one of these recipes?'"
This response has three distinct parts an acknowledgement, a repetition of
the customer's need, and a suggestion. And each of the parts can be said in
a variety of ways. For example, an agent must recognize that "hello" is the
same thing as "how the heck are you?" and "hi" and "wassup?"
In a way, scripting an agent with BuddyScript is like writing a screenplay
in which there are two characters, the user and the interactive agent. The developer
determines what words and phrases the agent can understand, and how it should
respond.
"We made RecipeBuddie respond to things like, 'I'm sad,' to which she responds,
'How would you like some comfort food?' Or, 'I need to make dinner for my kids,'
to which she responds by giving you things that are child-friendly. A recipe
database can't do that, because there's nothing inherent in the recipe for a
chicken pot pie that says kids are going to like it. We put a layer over top
of the recipe database that is the human layer." That layer associates non-ingredient
words, such as kosher or picnic, with recipes.
It took Emedia eight weeks to program RecipeBuddie under an aggressive development
schedule. About two thousand pieces of dialogue were created. "The dream combination
for this kind of project is a strong programmer and a strong writer. You've
got words and nothing else. You have to create a strong voice," says Murray.
Her team had to create a specific voice for RecipeBuddie. They started with
a vaguely Emeril Lagasse-like character, then a prissier Betty Crocker type,
before settling on Becky, who seemed the best fit for Keebler's demographic—women,
ages twenty-five to fifty-four. "She's suburban and she's got a sense of humor,"
says Murray.
But women in this age range aren't the only RecipeBuddie users. Certain other
demographic groups, it seems, cannot resist asking an ostensibly female bot
questions that range from rudely personal to outright harassing. "I sat down
with existing bots and typed in everything I could think of," says Murray, who
also solicited questions from friends. This prepared Becky to understand the
inevitable questions—Will you date me? How old are you? and other more
personal queries—so she could politely steer users back to cookery.
The Taste Test
After overcoming the technical hurdles, Murray next had to contend with political
obstacles, beginning with AOL, whose IM service is the most widely used on the
Internet. AOL must give permission before outside bots can be launched on its
network, because "they have to flip a switch to let an unlimited number of messages
go to one screen name," says Murray. This is referred to as "provisioning the
bot." The hitch is that AOL isn't making any money off the ActiveBuddy bots.
To address this, AOL requires a media buy with a buddy launch—such as a
RecipeBuddie promotion on AOL's AIM Today splash screen. Neither MSN nor Yahoo
requires such a purchase.
"AOL has attempted to come up with their own bot-launching software," says
Murray. "They obviously want to make all the money—when these bots are
launched, ActiveBuddy gets paid." Still, the three major IM services have so
far allowed RecipeBuddie to run on their networks.
"We're using several methods to measure the success of RecipeBuddie," says
Jeff Johansen, vice president of marketing for Keebler. "They include the number
of users who added RecipeBuddie to their buddy list, the number of message exchanges
with RecipeBuddie, the number of recipes viewed, and the number of recipes printed.
The number of users who add RecipeBuddie to their buddy list is a good indication
of intent to use RecipeBuddie more than once. And we're also using a factor
of the number of printed recipes to determine future purchase intent and estimated
incremental offline sales. We're thrilled to report that our quarterly estimates
were exceeded in the span of just a few weeks after the launch of RecipeBuddie."
RecipeBuddie launched in September 2002. Keebler says it hasn't yet crunched
the numbers, but in the test that sold Keebler on the idea of RecipeBuddie,
120,000 total impressions resulted in an impressive 6.5 percent clickthrough
rate from a link in ActiveBuddy to an online entry form for a contest on the
Cheez-It Web site.
And previous ActiveBuddy agents, too, have generated high expectations. After
the Austin Powers agent launched on June 26, 2002, it chalked up almost fifty
million messages during more than two million visits in a single month. Consumers
interacted with the Austin Powers bot for an average of almost eight minutes
each, groovy news indeed for the marketers behind the agent. Clickthrough rates
to the movie site were as high as 75 percent, clickthrough rates to Austin Powers
Doritos promotional links were better than 7 percent, and more than four thousand
users registered at the Doritos site within the first four days of the campaign.
"From the clickthrough numbers we're getting, the program is considered successful,"
says Murray, who says she learned three important things from creating RecipeBuddie.
"First, we're only scratching the surface of what can be done. Users have a
desire to engage with [bots] and really dig deep into them. Second, a tightly
knit team needs to do it. It's a little like writing a novel. You can work with
a couple of people, but you can't just open it up to six people as you're writing.
Third, there are a huge number of opportunities to let people put in their own
content. We're currently working on a project to let consumer affairs departments
package their most commonly asked questions with answers."
As for RecipeBuddie, that falafel recipe was just what I'd been looking for,
and it was time to end our chat. "Thanks for everything," I told her.
"You're welcome," she replied. "Are there any other recipes I can find for
you today?" But before I could answer, she chirped, "Make your everyday occasion
special with the distinctive flavor of Toasteds Crackers!"
It's a special day already.
Get the Message
For online marketers, the rapid growth of real-time communication is
creating a rush to advertise on the Web using instant messaging. The numbers
are impressive: According to ActiveBuddy, over one hundred million consumers
have installed one or more free IM clients. A recent Nielsen NetRatings
survey found that more than forty-one million home users, or nearly 40
percent of the Internet surfing population, used at least one of the four
major instant messaging applications during May 2002. Instant messaging
is also becoming increasingly common in the workplace. Nearly 12.6 million
office workers used instant messaging during the same time period, which
is 31 percent of the active Internet population at work.
There's an even more important statistic for those trying to reach the
lucrative youth market. A survey by AOL subsidiary Digital Market Services
found that 70 percent of teens between the ages of twelve and seventeen
use instant messaging to send text messages both from their computers
and via wireless devices, while an even more impressive 83 percent of
teens age eighteen to nineteen use instant messaging.
AOL Instant Messenger is the most popular instant messaging application
for home users, with more than twenty-two million unique users, or 21
percent of the total surfing population. During May 2002, MSN Messenger
drew nearly 15.7 million Internet users, while Yahoo Messenger attracted
12.4 million. ICQ had nearly 4.4 million.
—GB
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Gordon Bass is based in upstate New York and writes about technology for numerous
publications. Contact him at gwbass@att.net.
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