BEIJING – A new name is joining the roster of virtual assistants. After Siri, Cortana, and Google Now, here comes Duer which more or less means “Du Secretary”, the first Chinese competitor to against the three. Duer was introduced during Baidu’s 2015 Annual Corporate Conference held in Beijing.
To make Duer stand out from the rest of the virtual assistants, search engine giant Baidu, through the help of Leo Burnett Beijing produced a 44-second film featuring Chinese star Angelababy and how Duer is helping make life easier for her.
“Not only does Baidu Duer have the unique position of being both the medium and the product itself, it also combines various Baidu digital sub-brands into a single device. What we aim to do is to demonstrate the innovation it brings to the users’ experience – whether it is the keywords search function, or the voice search function that is the entry point of Baidu – to connect consumer and service. Very importantly, we strive to present all these interestingly so it resonates with people,” said Frank Liu, Managing Director of Leo Burnett Beijing.
“We are very excited to contribute our creative intelligence on Baidu’s strategical transition.” added Liu, “It is a very good learning journey for both of us. Baidu is turning itself from a simple search engine to a connector of human and service, while Leo Burnett is adjusting our creative service model, leveraging on our brand experience and HumanKind creative philosophy, to explore the best way of creativity communication for new products on different platforms.”
