Marketing in the News: Jolly Roger Telephone Company Gives Unsolicited Callers a Taste of Their Own Medicine 😈📞

I don't know what the deal was in 2019 but it seems like I was receiving a TON of robo-calls on my phone. The caller ID said "Unknown Caller" and I usually didn't answer it. But it was so persistent that those automated telemarketers found a way to get through to me anyways. Maybe it was that my phone was on a Bluetooth enabled system or I had ear buds in. The incoming calls were always at the worst time. I'm doing burpees in my living room listening to high BPM music and I'm interrupted. I clumsily press the small touch area on my sweat-covered ear bud to try and deny the call. It answers...*Robot Voice* We would like to speak to you about your car's extended warranty! .....Umm I'm gonna scream. 

Even worse, I had to calm my grandmother (who lives in another city) down after a scam caller who was claiming to be me. He called and started out by saying "Grandma?" and then she said my name. He then said "Yes I am Chris. I am in a jail cell in Mexico City and I need you to wire me money so I can post bail". That freaked her out because my grandmother almost did it! I was pretty steamed about it but no harm was done. 

I have personally talked with these callers before (I was driving a long distance for work and had nothing else to do) only to find out that my credit card seemed to be their main interest. I wasted 40 minutes of their time and kept saying random numbers saying that it was my card number over the hands-free speakers while driving. It was decent enough entertainment and did give me a break from music and podcasts. I ran into a problem however, that just made them call more. I wish there was some kind of way that we could waste these peoples time/resources without wasting my own. Like, fighting fire with fire.

Well there is now! Jolly Roger Telephone Company to the rescue! A California entrepreneur has launched a new product that is powered by large language modeling and some good voice acting to waste telemarketers time. And they provide that service to you for a small monthly fee!

Recently in the Wall Street Journal the June 29th, 2023 article titled "People Hire Phone Bots to Torture Telemarketers" was published. One of the main takeaways I got from the article is that he government, specifically the FCC, reports that unsolicited telemarketing and scam calls are "far and away" the largest consumer complaint that they receive. Roger Anderson has created Jolly Roger, a wonderful app for payback! I am interested in this because I strongly dislike the unsolicited telemarketing industry, especially predatory ones.

Roger created this tool using OpenAI technology so that it can scale up to meet consumers needs. This means we can use high powered technology to combat these robots. The technology originated from a retired Vermont man who supplied the voice acting used for the Jolly Roger character Whitebeard, which is the AI-powered voice that directly wastes time. 

One thing to note, from the company website:

"Lest anyone begin to pity Jolly Roger’s “victims,” keep in mind that many are using fake caller IDs and other unsavory tricks to skirt do-not call rules.

Jolly Roger’s website provides instructions for routing your own telemarketing calls to its robot, so you can try it out for yourself. The best part of all? You can listen in and savor the results."

One of the challenges that occurred with this new technology is that the large language modeling had to be tweaked when communicating with the artificial intelligence coding. The initial idea for the AI to waste time was not well understood, and so Roger Anderson had to fiddle with the coding and the data input for the AI to achieve more of a desired effect.

This company's value proposition has remained the same for some time: providing consumers with a simple way to fight back against predatory telemarketing!

Even videos of the scam caller revenge has become a new passion of mine. Jolly Roger Telephone Company has their own Blog posts showing off what they can do.

So the marketing aspect here is that this is a new product launch and the news is generating quite a buzz. I personally think this marketing effort is quite effective! I personally will be using this product. I think that this recent product launch is new because of the use of the cutting-edge ChatGPT technology. I believe a buyer persona of people looking for a solution to their existing problem who on the beginning portion of the bell curve are the ones who will be enticed. Consumers who like to try things first and who actually care about why the company does what it does. 

Running across their rich content in YouTube or Twitter with bring a sense of satisfaction for justice and I believe the direct-to-consumer educational blog posts has been a great advertising and marketing model. If I were the brand manager for this company, I would expand my marketing reach. I would create content curated for TikTok which would get even more exposure, possibly reaching virality.

The company has been around for over a decade, but has only recently beefed up their product with a ChatGPT infusion. So conversations can go on and on, without us having to any work.  We can sit back and enjoy. 😄

After doing this assignment, I learned that emotional appeal is a valuable tool when advertising. I thought it was a smart marketing campaign because the YouTube content can reach consumers organically while the news articles gives the company exposure.

Jolly Roger Telephone Company: https://jollyrogertelephone.com/

WSJ article: https://www.wsj.com/articles/people-hire-phone-bots-to-torture-telemarketers-2dbb8457 

PC World article: https://www.pcworld.com/article/419419/tired-of-telemarketers-now-you-can-turn-the-tables-on-them-with-this-clever-bot.html