Wanting to increase downloads of its Copilot chatbot, Microsoft hired some of the most popular influencers in the US to reach young consumers with a message that can be summarized as: “Our AI assistant is just as cool as ChatGPT.”
Microsoft needs this help. The company recently reported that its Copilot family of assistants attracts 150 million monthly active users. However, OpenAI’s ChatGPT claims 800 million weekly active users, while Google’s Gemini claims 650 million monthly active users.
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Microsoft has an advantage among business customers thanks to its long history in selling software and cloud services. However, it faces difficulties in conquering the consumer market, especially those under 30 years of age.
“We are a challenger brand in this space and continue to grow,” Yusuf Mehdi, director of consumer marketing, said in an interview.
Mehdi hopes to get key influencers to adopt Copilot as their chatbot of choice and use its popularity to spread the word about the assistant to his millions of followers. Although he wouldn’t reveal metrics, he claims Microsoft is already seeing better results with influencers than traditional media.
Mehdi and the influencers mentioned in the report also declined to say how much they were paid to promote CoPilot.
Many companies have been investing in influencers in recent years. For example, in 2020, Dunkin’ Brands Group partnered with the famous Charli D’Amelio to launch a personalized drink called “The Charli,” which she promoted to her millions of followers.
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Thousands of influencers regularly post about products sold on Amazon’s online store, and this month the company invited several Internet celebrities to attend the Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards in New York. Considered by many to be the original influencer, Kim Kardashian used her online fame to turn her underwear and casual fashion brand Skims into a huge global success.
Anindya Ghose, a marketing professor at New York University’s Stern School of Management, said she was surprised that Microsoft turned to lifestyle influencers to promote CoPilot. Still, he understands the appeal to his faithful followers.
— Even if an influencer isn’t perceived as very trustworthy, people may be willing to take the bait if he or she is well known, Ghose said in an interview.
He doubts Microsoft will continue the program if it doesn’t work.
— so I’m sure it’s working. The question is, can it get any better? That’s what it means. And my bet is that in a few months they may start testing AI influencers to compare them, Goose said.
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Hiring non-technical people as spokespeople is part of Microsoft’s strategy to ramp up its campaign to sell chatbots as universally accessible life coaches. Or, as Mustafa Suleiman, head of consumer AI, wrote in a recent essay, an AI companion that “helps you think, plan, and dream.”
Recruiting social media stars
The company recently hired social media star Alix Earle. She rose to fame by sharing personal details of her life in her popular Get Ready With Me videos. The 24-year-old New Jersey native has amassed a combined 12.6 million followers across her Instagram and TikTok accounts, and parlayed her popularity into a spotlight on this season of Dancing with the Stars.
In June, Alix participated in a panel discussion on digital influence with Yusuf Mehdi at the prestigious Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
Alix Earle and Microsoft develop ideas together, but she has the freedom to improvise. For example, on her way to a recording session in May, she asked her co-pilot how to look younger after some of her followers commented that she looked 40 years old.
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The chatbot replied, “You should focus on good skin care habits.” The video received 15.4 million views on Alix’s TikTok, nearly doubling her number of followers on the platform. She captioned the video with the phrase “My co-pilot is my mentor and therapist” and the hashtag #copilotpartner.
Mehdi pointed to a video of Alix talking about the new co-pilot group feature as evidence that the campaign is paying off.
“We can clearly see people saying, ‘Oh, let’s test this,’ and we can track the usage that it generates.”
The video has been viewed 1.9 million times on Alix’s Instagram and 7 million times on TikTok. Earl declined to comment for this story.
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Twin sisters Brigette and Danielle Ferron are the first to admit that they are unlikely to be spokespeople for the co-pilot. The 28-year-old Australian attracts a combined 3.4 million followers on Instagram and TikTok with her fashion and beauty videos.
— Who would have thought that the girl who created a video with thousands of views about hair curlers would now be promoting AI through Microsoft Copilot? It’s crazy – Brigette said in an interview.
To get women ages 18 to 34 interested in chatbots, the Ferrons recently asked Copilot to help them create a 1970s- and 1980s-inspired look for New York Fashion Week.
Following Bott’s suggestion, the twins wore the best styles of the late 20th century. No homage to the 1980s would be complete without solid shoulders. So Daniel suggested putting socks inside the blouse to get the desired effect.
Several TikTok users responded enthusiastically to the video.
— The co-pilot is the best — said one.
— I just downloaded it. Schools should do this too — another comment.
While watching these videos, it’s easy to forget that the Copilot brand is best known among office professionals. They use the brand to organize large amounts of information, summarize meetings, and search for data they previously found on Google. But that’s not the exact goal of this campaign.
— The idea of Copilot is to empower you to be the best version of yourself, — said Mehdi.
Brandon Edelman, known online as Bran Fraquez and with 1.7 million followers on Instagram and TikTok, filmed a professional video with his co-pilot team in Los Angeles. In it, he talks to the chatbot about everyday topics like dating, travel, and impostor syndrome. Most of the videos were posted to Copilot’s official TikTok account, which has a relatively modest follower count of 176,000.
In one of the videos, Edelman asks the co-pilot:
— For example, if I kick the bucket, do I still have to pay my credit card bill?
The co-pilot replied flatly:
–Yes, the debt will not disappear.
Microsoft captioned the TikTok post: “With Copilot, there are no awkward questions.”
So far, Copilot’s influencer campaigns have attracted celebrities and generated hundreds of millions of views. The question is whether this will help Microsoft bridge the usage gap between Copilot and ChatGPT. Gartner analyst Jason Wong is skeptical:
— It will be very difficult to surpass ChatGPT among consumers at this point, he said.
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