Astro, Talon Creative team up on AI-powered campaign to provide positive encouragement online

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – With the launch of the Astro Originals series ‘Project; Exit’, Talon Creative has collaborated with Astro to create an AI-powered initiative that aims to empower and provide support for those in need via positive social media engagement. 

Bringing together the power of generative AI, the stars of ‘Project; Exit’ and Astro’s social media presence, Talon created a way for Mierul Aiman and Shasha Abedul to give moral support to those in need directly on social media.

To achieve this, a social listening system identified posts expressing sadness, frustration, and anxiety. By leveraging proprietary AI technology trained on the cast members’ voice recordings and footage, we are able to generate custom responses that mimic their style and tone. These personalised messages aimed to provide support and encouragement to those in need. 

With up to 50 responses a day, the initiative created a meaningful impact, allowing social media users to see that they were not alone. This resulted in #ProjectExit 2-episode drop accumulating a total of 3.2k mentions, contributed by 1.2k authors, to date. 

The AI initiative attracted praises from netizens as Hadi and Jannah comforted those in need with personalised words of encouragement. Influencers were also seen interacting with the AI, reacting in surprise that AI could be leveraged for the good of mental health awareness. Moreover, all of this resulted in an outpouring of netizens speaking about their battles and the battles of those close to them. 

Tai Kam Leong, chief sales and marketing officer at Astro, said, “We’re excited to introduce this new initiative to support Project; Exit which uses A.I. in a relevant way to foster positive social interactions. We believe that content can go beyond the screen and it can have an uplifting effect on people’s lives. By leveraging the crossroads of content, celebrity and technology, we hope to inspire young audiences and support the community at large.”

Meanwhile, Gavin Teoh, managing director at Talon Creative, commented, “Project; Exit addresses some tough issues that many Malaysians are facing and we saw an opportunity to go beyond just telling stories and actually reach out to the audience to show that they were not alone.”