IBM International Business Machines Corp

By Steven Perlberg 

At first glance, Kia's Super Bowl advertisement is standard big-game fare: a well-known celebrity, Christopher Walken, will try to hawk a midsize sedan to more than a hundred million viewers hooked to their televisions.

But for its seventh Super Bowl appearance, the auto maker is hoping to add some extra star power by employing some unlikely assistance. IBM's Watson will help identify "social media influencers" who can buoy Kia's message before and during the 60-second spot.

Watson, the artificial intelligence software known for once toppling the best human competitors on "Jeopardy," has the ability to parse through the language used on social media to determine which influencers exhibit the personality traits desired by Kia, such as "openness to change," "artistic interest" and "achievement-striving."

Social media stars chosen by Kia include actor James Maslow, who has more than 3 million Twitter followers, and musicians Wesley Stromberg and Drew Chadwick, who have 765,000 and 452,000, respectively.

"Research has shown that the word choice we use when we communicate reflect aspects of our personality," said Steve Abrams, director of technology for Watson Ecosystem at IBM. "They can say something about whether we're introverted or extroverted...whether we value openness or adventure or value more conservatism."

For the campaign, Kia sent colorful socks to about 100 influencers who will make content and use Kia's hashtag, #AddPizzazz. The main conceit of the Super Bowl ad, dubbed "Walken Closet," is that Kia's vehicle is the fun, multicolored sock in a world of otherwise bland, beige socks.

Dissecting the psyches of social media personalities for the sake of sedan sellers may not seem like the most natural use of Watson, which has also been used to help doctors make sense of vast collections of medical information. But Watson has struck a range of partnerships in recent years, with resulting products ranging from online-shopping apps to hotel concierge services to fan sentiment trackers for sporting events.

To use Watson, Kia worked with Influential, a company that connects marketers to people with significant followings across platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Influential is one of more than 100 partners that have launched commercial products, apps or services built upon Watson, according to Mr. Abrams. IBM and Influential have a revenue-sharing agreement.

"From our perspective, we always thought [Watson] was big companies using it for really big, complex issues," said Michael Sprague, chief operating officer at Kia Motors America. "This is a way they've been able to really bring it down to the consumer level."

The campaign comes at a time when influencer marketing has become more in vogue. The practice has also sparked the interest of the Federal Trade Commission, which has stepped up efforts to ensure it's clear when social media posts are paid for by brands.

It has become commonplace for brands to release their spots early to drum up digital buzz and get the most bang for their buck from the pricey Super Bowl commercials. CBS has said it is fetching as much as $5 million for 30 seconds of ad time for the Feb. 7 event.

Two other companies, sock-maker Stance and Twitter-owned social media creator network Niche, helped identify additional influencers for the Kia campaign.

Ultimately, the hope is that the influencers identified by Watson won't just have big followings, but will also be sure to align with Kia's message.

"You want to make sure any brand ambassador is semantically relevant," said Ryan Detert, CEO of Influential.

Write to Steven Perlberg at steven.perlberg@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 02, 2016 12:14 ET (17:14 GMT)

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