ROM wanted to create a virtual crowd sourced persona that could represent our true values, be objective, easy to talk to and loved by both the new generation and the media alike.

That’s how the idea of ROMBOT came to life. ROMBOT is the first virtual ambassador of a country, a co-created artificial intelligence designed to learn from Romanians about Romania, with a clear mission to tell the world who we truly are as a country. As it was taught by Romanians.

After a teaser campaign on social media & TV, on the 1st December, the National Day of Romania, we launched ROMBOT the first virtual ambassador of a country.

People could scan the special designed ROM chocolate bar and talk to ROMBOT or simply access: www.rombot.ro where the AI would ask them questions about Romania. Though the front end of the ROMBOT made it look like a chatbot, the back end was a true learning machine because every conversation was stored and analyzed turning the data received into knowledge.

To feed the conversation, we shared constant updates from the learning process of ROMBOT on social media. This sparked a national debate regarding our national values and rallied people to come together to teach the virtual ambassador the right things.

ROMBOT was communicated abroad through targeted banners on Romania related search terms, inviting people to come discover what Romania is all about.

ROMBOT sales results

ROMOT became star product among all its available packages + 11% vs same period last year

ROMBOT learning results

1,5 millions of answers gathered from Romanians by ROMBOT

More than 212.167 minutes spent on site – 442 days of ambassadorship

Returning visitors: 21,9%

Average time spent on site: 01:47 min

ROMBOT media results

73% national reach ? 13,463,250 persons all, national

Online earned media: 200% vs. spending

684,293 International media impressions

CTR: 0.09% (vs. 0.08% benchmark)

ROMBOT, the first artificial intelligence to become the first virtual ambassador of Romania, was ROM’s way of empowering Romanians to tell the world what they wanted it to hear about their country. So we had to engage people directly with ROMBOT, on every touch point.

People accessed it by scanning the pack or going directly on its website. There they could answer ROMBOT’s questions for them and they would input the answers which would become the AI knowledge.

ROMBOT is relevant for Direct because the artificial intelligence needed a direct action from Romanians in order to come to life.

The creation & launch of ROMBOT was split in 2 phases:

1st phase - Romanian version of the AI was created and people were invited to answer ROMBOT’s questions so he could tell the world about us. But, what seemed as a seamless conversation with a bot was actually helping the AI to learn about the country.

After launch we shared data ROMBOT was learning, in order to get people to rally and update his knowledge. This helped increase his knowledge and generate more coverage for the project, even in prime time talkshows

2nd phase – ROMBOT launched internationally and became able to answer foreigners questions about Romania after gathering 1.5 million answers in his database

We analyzed the data, interpreted and translated it to launch internationally. We communicated through targeted search banners on most common topics related to Romania, through Romanian international communities and PR videos.

Romania is entering a new era of its history where the new generation is stepping up to fight for what they believe in. Recent massive protests against the government which gathered millions of Romanians on the streets and the attention of the international press all over the world as a fight of a new generation, proved once again that the young Romanians feel misrepresented and want to move the country forward.

In this context ROM Autentic, the Romanian chocolate bar with a strong heritage since 1969 was loosing share of the market and needed to reconnect in a relevant way to this proud new young generation and be their voice again.