SberKot: A Digital Influencer for a New Reality
SberKot first appeared in 2017 in the VKontakte social network as a financial literacy assistant and ambassador for children and youth, and it instantly won universal affection (more than 20 million people have been introduced to it since its launch in VK). The project outcomes highlighted a crucial finding: consumers struggle to connect emotionally with banks (products like mortgages and loans often fail to evoke empathy). However, a charming character like SberKot, who can explain financial concepts in an engaging way, fosters a sense of loyalty. This clearly demonstrates that SberKot is the key to building a deeper emotional connection with our customers. In 2023, Sber adopted the strategy of transition from a trustmark to a lovemark: the Sber brand already enjoys a high level of customer trust, and the next step is to build a strong emotional connection and attachment with the audience. The brand’s transformation into a lovemark has begun, which also involved an upgrade of our style, design and marketing. Hence it became clear that there is a need to expand the SberKot’s capabilities with design and marketing innovations in order to surprise and inspire customers and give them a unique experience of interacting with the brand across different channels and formats. Project goals: 1. To increase brand loyalty to Sber. 2. To enhance audience engagement. 3. To boost sales of Sber's and its partners' products and services. Project tasks: 1.To create a digital influencer that can exist across various channels and formats. 2. To develop a technology stack that will enable the integration of SberKot into the digital and physical worlds (AI and phygital approach). 3. To create a SberKot image on par with Hollywood animated characters. 4. To expand SberKot's audience, attracting people of different ages and interests. 5. To utilize SberKot for promoting the bank's and its partners' products and services, as well as supporting social and educational projects. As a result, the SberKot relaunch has become one of the largest projects as part of our lovemark strategy, which helps strengthen customers’ affection for our brand.
Cognitive technologies and Creative economy
Innovative national solutions for creating creative content (films, video games, animation, sound, graphics)
29.07.2023-31.12.2024
Russian Federation
We relaunched SberKot in 2023. Today, it is not just a financial literacy-promoting virtual character, but an actual digital influencer for our brand with a multi-million audience of subscribers. SberKot is a developed character with a unique personality, backstory, and voice, going beyond the traditional role of a mascot. The uniqueness of SberKot lies in the fact that he is a multi-channel digital influencer. The possibilities for using SberKot in marketing activations are limitless. Innovative technology has enabled us to take our mascot beyond the digital format and integrate it into the real world. Thanks to technology, SberKot can now host live webcasts in social media, participate in different shows, speak at events, interact with audiences in real time, and much more. This allows us to deliver surprising and inspiring experiences to our customers across various channels and formats. The new SberKot is an epitome of cutting-edge innovative technology in the areas of marketing, design and game development: 1. CGI graphics. The cat is built around a high-poly 3D model with a detailed anatomy of the skeleton, muscles, facial expressions and fur simulation. This hyper-realistic image is suitable for integrating our cat into marketing communications, special projects, movies and TV shows. 2. Real-time rendering. SberKot is driven by the Unreal Engine gaming engine, which helps integrate our cat into various activations in real time using a motion capture suit. 3. AI. SberKot images for static content are generated by Sber’s Kandinsky neural network; it takes the network just a couple of seconds to come up with an image for a prompted storyline. 4. AI + Real-time production. Sber’s GigaChat neural network is trained on SberKot’s character, history and emotional map to enable our cat to communicate using the neural network in real time. SberKot is now the industry standard for digital characters. In the banking sector, both domestically and internationally, there is no other digital influencer that can compete with SberKot's advanced features and technology.
These are some of SberKot’s awards. CX World Awards: 1.Best team for interaction with clients in social media. 2.Best digital customer experience. 3.Innovation solutions to improve customer experience. E+ Awards: 1.Banks.Finance, silver (How Z-generation upgraded SberKot). 2.Business challenges, bronze (How Z-generation upgraded SberKot). These are some articles: 1. 21/02/24 President talks to SberKot at games of future, 80 mln views (total all articles): https://www.gazeta.ru/amp/social/news/2024/02/21/22392619.shtml 2. 29/07/23 Sber has a new digital influencer — SberKot, 75 mln views (total all articles): https://rb.ru/news/sberkot-digital/
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