Hasta La Creative!

VCCP hired Alexa as a receptionist and gave her a personality disorder. Here’s what happened.

Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) agencies Carat and Isobar are showing off V-Showroom, an AR (augmented reality) showroom app built for General Motors International (GMI).

Lastminute.com group has launched a customer insight arm, operated by its media business The Travel People.

Paul Christopher Walton remembers working with one adland’s greats.

Com finalidade duvidosa, lista de contatos de usuário é armazenada por aplicativo de mensagens anônimas

> LEIA MAIS: Sarahah coleta dados de usuários sem explicar o motivo

Whopper serão enviados a quem publicar sobre a demissão no LinkedIn

> LEIA MAIS: Burger King distribui lanches grátis para quem foi demitido

-Lucky Generals goes opera to promote Pot Noodle’s new Pot Pasta line.

-Zappos’ new ad from barettSF is build on silly word play.

-Ad tech has gender diversity problems , too.

-Ad buyers are upset with Facebook Audience Network for continuing to place ads on Breitbart.

-General Motors teamed up with Dentsu Aegis Network to create a “mixed reality showroom.”

-Dunkin’ Donuts turned to Rob Gronkowski and Odell Beckham to help promote its “Sip. Peel. Win.” game.

In March of 2016, McCann Erickson Japan welcomed an AI creative director entitled AI-CD ?. In June, the agency pitted the AI CD against Homo sapien creative director Mitsuru Kuramoto to see who could develop the better ad and then asked Japanese audiences to weigh in.

But creative director isn’t the only agency position artificial intelligence is gunning for. They want your receptionist jobs, too.

The innovation team at agency VCCP decided to conduct a little AI experiment, employing Amazon Echo’s Alexa as a receptionist. After a developer and copywriter to develop Alexa to handle answering simple questions and integrated with the agency’s system and employee database,  VCCP decide to make things more interesting by programming Alexa with three different personalities based on the OCEAN personality model of five basic traits.

So how did this quirky version of Alexa do?

Out of 407 interactions, the AI system misunderstood 38 requests, answered 104 questions, successfully welcomed 34 visitors (and also cracked a few jokes, flirted with coworkers and whispered the wifi password upon request). Unsurprisingly, people preferred Bubbly Alexa to Neurotic Alexa. VCCP learned the difficulties in communicating brand tone through such a system and that human receptionists are irreplaceable (for now).

According to VCCP innovation director Adrian Gans, Alexa “is limited by her voice, by the need to trigger her skills with an invocation, by the linear nature of her conversations and by her tendency to get distracted by background noise. And she really is not intelligent. Every interaction had to be carefully scripted.”

So by our calculations, the robot takeover should be at least 24 hours away.

Good morning. Welcome to Ad Age’s Wake-Up Call, our daily roundup of advertising, marketing and digital-related news. What people are talking about today: Hurricane Harvey has pummeled the Houston area, devastating property, forcing people to evacuate their homes and killing 10. The natural disaster could also strip away $1 billion in revenue from local restaurants and retailers, according to Planalytics, which provides weather analytics for businesses, as Ad Age’s Adrianne Pasquarelli writes.

Some ad agencies closed so staff could help out with volunteer efforts, as Ad Age’s E.J. Schultz and Lindsay Stein report. The founder of one local ad shop, Cindy Marion, told them that “Houstonians are amazingly resilient. We aren’t victims and we’ll stand tall very quickly.”

Related: Airbnb sent out a badly timed marketing blast during the hurricane, encouraging travelers to stay in “floating world” destinations like boats, as Quartz reports. Part of the message read: “Stay above water. Live the life aquatic with these floating homes.” Airbnb apologized.

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