Sparkasse hired a muscle-bound chatbot to chase friends for money owed

Germany's oldest and best-known bank had to make a new mobile payments feature feel entertaining to a target group defined by technological innovation and a love of classic entertainment.

A muscle-bound colossus lives in Facebook Messenger: book his services and he will remind a friend of an outstanding debt — breaking through walls if needed.

Users reach the colossus via a Messenger chatbot, book his services and create one of countless personalised shareable videos; a 50-second web film by director Harald Zwart, Facebook and online formats launched from February 2017, with cinema, TV and print over the summer.

The campaign merged storytelling with new technological possibilities, per Jung von Matt's Till Eckel, letting users demonstrate Kwitt's job — settling debts — by sending each other personalised chases.

LBB reported on 2017-02-16 that Sparkasse, described by the outlet as Germany's oldest and best-known bank, launched a mobile campaign by Jung von Matt/Spree promoting 'Kwitt', the app feature for sending money from one mobile phone to another. The star of the campaign is a muscle-bound colossus.

Users contact him through a Facebook Messenger chatbot, book his services and create one of countless personalised videos — for example, the muscleman vocally reminding a friend of an outstanding debt, even breaking through walls to do so. Silke Lehm, head of marketing communication at the Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband, said the target group's world 'is characterised by technological innovations and a love of entertainment'; Till Eckel of Jung von Matt/Spree added that the campaign 'managed to combine storytelling with new technological possibilities'.

The campaign launched from February 2017 with a 50-second web film directed by Harald Zwart plus Facebook and online formats directing users to the chatbot and campaign website where Kwitt could be downloaded; over the summer the colossus moved into cinemas, TV commercial breaks and print.

Messenger chatbots were the novelty channel of 2017, so the medium itself carried the 'technological innovation' message for a legacy bank.

Personalised debt-chasing videos gave every user a shareable artefact, so awareness spread peer-to-peer exactly like the payments do.

Casting an absurd colossus made an awkward social situation — asking a friend to pay you back — entertaining instead of uncomfortable.

Demonstrate a payments feature by making the user the beneficiary of a spectacle — a personalised shareable video does the product demo and the forwarding at once.

The rollout ran from February 2017 across web film, Facebook and online formats, moving into cinema, TV breaks and print over the summer, all pointing users to the Messenger chatbot and the Kwitt download.