#TalkToRex: Durex launches chatbot to answer sex-related questions of Gen Y

One of the biggest taboos in India is the topic of sex. This single three letter 'word' has the capability of bringing embarrassment on people's faces when discussed in public. In spite of the fact that India is the birthplace of Kamasutra and home to many explicit sculptures like the ones in Khajuraho and Konark, the sex continues to be the subject which is pushed under the carpet. Not only talking about sex is considered wrong, imparting sex education to youngsters is also not something that is openly advocated.

But in the parallel world 'Durex', one of the famous condom brands in India, has always been upfront in terms of provoking people to have the sex talk. Almost all of their campaigns including the recent one around 'Durex Jeans' condom, populated as India's slimmest condoms, were successful in activating conversations around sex.

Now, in the latest addition to the list, Reckitt Benckiser has launched a chatbot with the name of Rexbot by Durex developed by Ansible Mobile, the specialist unit of IPG Mediabrands. It is not a one or two day campaign but a platform where people of both genders can get their sex-related queries answered. Rex, which is the animated version of Ranveer Singh, answers all questions related to the 'three' letter word that people are generally afraid of asking real humans.

The chatbot works something like this: First of all, it asks the user that which world he/she wants to delve more into – a Woman's or Man's. After the user selects the option, it asks them to pick a more specific aspect of the world and then serves them with the most relevant information. Rex's buddy Roxxy takes care of queries related to woman's world.

The highlighting features of 'Rexbot' such as content for both genders, unique conversation style with a touch of humor, and interesting illustrations, are making it a big hit among masses. In addition to this, the Bot is peppered with Gifs, Memes etc which makes it more appealing and interactive. Further, the regular appearance of 'Rex' as 'Sutradhaar' throughout the content keeps the audience hooked.

Interestingly, the brand has taken special care to maintain a consistency in the look and tonality of creative – to ensure that it becomes a distinctive Durex language. Further to make sure there 's closure of the loop on every engagement, the users of Bot can buy Durex products as well as view the TVC's by Durex.

With all these features, Rexbot, undoubtedly stands out as one of its kind chatbot in this category. Within a few days of its launch, the Rexbot user base stands at 60,000+ with daily addition of over 2000 users. Also, there are 3000+ active sessions every day on the chatbot.

The popularity of sex-related chatbot among Indian audience is a good sign considering the fact that India's youth is heavily dependent on the Internet for their sex knowledge. Notably, there are 9.1 million searches every month related to sex.

Both the genders are equally curious about the subject but have no specific platform to discuss their sex queries. On one hand, Indian parents are not comfortable talking about sex with their children, while on other the younger generation is always under the peer pressure to portray sexual success and any kind of questions are considered to be “inadequacy”.

In this scenario, "Rexbot" might emerge as the perfect chat buddy that people have been looking for.

Chat with Rexbot? Click here