Perplexity, an AI "answer" engine, debuted
its first television spot on Thursday night during the NBA Finals, Game One, on ABC.
“Know-It-Alls," created in partnership with the filmmaking agency Sandwich, tells the story about a
lovable and humorous band of outsiders who team up to build a new electrical power source. It’s an action adventure with some slapstick using innovative technologies.
“There
are very few moments where the country comes together, like the Super Bowl and March Madness,” said Dmitry Shevelenko, chief business officer at Perplexity. “Something with live sports. In
the streaming work, you don’t really have the collective dynamic.”
The ad also will run across digital streaming like Hulu, Disney+ and YouTube.
When asked why the company
chose television to run its first ad, Shevelenko said “we are okay with a scenario where this doesn’t land. We are okay with failure, but not with modest success.”
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Perplexity simply wanted to create an ad that people would connect with through storytelling. Curiosity is a key element of Perplexity’s AI “answer engine.”
The television spot – initially meant to run solely as an advertisement – turned into a movie trailer after executives at several studios got an early look, loved the concept,
and began bidding to license the rights to turn the content into a full-length feature.
It’s just the start of the brand campaign with more to come. The content was shot in
two days with a very small budget, said Dmitry Shevelenko, chief business officer at Perplexity.
“We expect to work with Sandwich to come up with another completely different
concept for a movie,” he said. “First, we will create a trailer for it, have product placement for Perplexity, and run that as a campaign, too. There will be a whole series. We are excited
about this type of storytelling.”
Shevelenko briefly spoke about the delivery of ads in Perplexity’s products. He reiterated the company’s principals – do not
serve the ads before the answer to the query, and do not let advertisers pay to bias an answer based on the ad partners.
The plan is to roll out sponsored questions in the second half of 2024.
The sponsored ad, which the company will offer on a bid basis, will serve up as one of the three related questions beneath the query.
Today that space serves up three related questions. One of
the three will become sponsored.
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