Perplexity, a generative artificial intelligence startup with a $1 billion valuation and a big-swing mentality, launched its first paid marketing campaign during tonight’s high-profile National Basketball Association Finals.
The seven-figure media buy—during a tentpole broadcast that draws sizable audiences and blue-chip brands—aims to plant Perplexity’s flag with mainstream America in the burgeoning tech space.
While the placement is noteworthy for a nascent company, so is the creative itself.
The brand, which is developing a search engine that aims to rival Google, has taken an unconventional route to introducing itself, dropping a movie-style trailer for an action thriller that doesn’t exist. (But as a preview: It might in the future, as talks have started for potential TV series or full-length features based on the concept.)
Perplexity chief business officer Dmitry Shevelenko called the marketing move “an asymmetrical bet.”
“If we take a bunch of easy shots and not the threes, we’re not going to win this game,” Shevelenko, leaning into an apt basketball analogy, told ADWEEK. “We’re swimming in a sea of giants—trillion dollar companies—so we can’t just tow in. We have to be willing to be bold.”
The spot, called “The Know-It Alls,” comes from Los Angeles-based indie agency Sandwich. It borrows a formula that’s well known in the ad industry, with tweaks and an AI assist, nodding to classic branded content like BMW Films and Mercedes-Benz’s “Lucky Star.”
On-screen branding is intentionally light in “The Know-It Alls,” yet Perplexity drives the narrative in the high-energy scenario. The video’s 30-second cutdown aired on ABC during the first quarter of game one of the NBA Finals, while the full two-minute video will be distributed on Disney-owned streaming channels.
Tweaking a formula
The kernel of the idea came from the brand and one of its unofficial slogans, “Know It All,” according to Adam Lisagor, founder of Sandwich.
“They said, ‘We don’t want to make an ad for Perplexity, we want to make a trailer for a movie that doesn’t exist—something about discovery, where the characters subtly use our platform, but the brand is barely present,’” Lisagor told ADWEEK. “To which I said, ‘Where have you been all my life?’”