Summary 

Laundry detergent brand Surf worked with Senti AI to deploy a conversational assistant on Facebook Messenger that provides weather advisory and tips on how to keep laundry smelling fresh during the rainy season. The chatbot also incentivizes interactions by leading users to Unilever’s U-Coin reward system landing page. 

The Challenge 

Keeping laundry from smelling musty during the rainy season is a problem many Filipinos face every rainy season. As one of the leading laundry detergent brands that combine cleaning power and long-lasting fragrance, Surf wanted to promote its fabric conditioner as one of the best tools to keep the kulob smell at bay. 

Surf worked with Senti AI to develop a conversational assistant on Facebook Messenger to supplement its Surf Fabric Conditioner marketing campaign by directing users to its Shopee store and U-Coin sign-up page. Wanting to take things a step further, Surf also wanted the chatbot to provide weather advisory, and wais iwas-kulob tips to users. 

The Solution 

The chatbot, which runs on Google Cloud Platform, uses Natural Language Understanding with Artificial Intelligence to understand and interact with users in a more human-like manner. It was also integrated with Dialogflow to connect the chatbot to OpenWeather API for the weather forecast. At the start of the conversation, users can ask when they should do their laundry or wais iwas-kulob tips. They can also opt to ask for other concerns, which will connect them to a human agent. 

Users asking for weather forecasts will be advised if they should do their laundry or postpone it to a certain day depending on their location. They can claim free load through the U-Coin reward system, get a special discount on Surf Fabcon Charcoal Fresh or get more wais iwas-kulob tips. 

For users who chose to get laundry tips, the chatbot will suggest Surf’s detergent and fabric conditioner combo, as well as send a link directing them to an article at the Cleanipedia website. 

The Result

The conversational assistant was instrumental in supporting Surf’s iwas-kulob campaign, especially during the promo period with the U-Coin rewards. 

From July to September, there were around 2,400 active users who interacted with the chatbot. Of the overall number of users, 854 of these made weekly interactions with the chatbot, and 295 users had done so on a daily basis. 

While most interactions were initiated with the intent to take part in Surf’s promo, there were still a considerable number of users who used the chatbot for weather forecasts. The conversational assistant proved to be helpful for brands looking to supplement their campaigns while providing useful content for their customers.