Twyn is a technology platform that aims to offer a unique interactive and personalized experience to users by combining natural language processing, conversational psychology, conversation management systems, and artificial intelligence. The platform allows fans to have a one-on-one spoken interactions with their favorite celebrities, experts, and individuals in various fields, as if they were on a FaceTime call. Founder Tim Levy, a media and entertainment veteran, envisioned the platform as a way to scale one-on-one conversations with celebrities and other notable people to reach millions of people simultaneously, as if each user were having a FaceTime call with the person.
However, Levy found that talent agents were concerned about protecting the brand of their clients and were hesitant to use generative AI to digitally scale them. As a result, Twyn had to find a way to stay within the guardrails of controlled parameters and create authentic, personally authored, and controlled content experiences that are safe for both the talent and users within a limited domain. Because all of the answers are personally authored by the talent, the experience is 100% authentic and with no reputational risk. Twyn created a way for visual content to be conversationally interactive, which offers a new way of telling stories and sharing information.
Twyn’s methodology creates visually interactive content that feels like a one-on-one conversation with the talent and their first project is with soccer superstar Lionel Messi. Messi is producing a commemorative boot made with recycled plastics from the ocean and plans 10 versions over the next 3 years, each – other than the first – as a collaboration with other world leading talent. The Messi team already planning to deliver digital benefits to buyers and the concept of have in person engagement as a benefit for buyers was compelling.
Users can select a range of experiences from the “Messiverse,” which is the world in which Lionel Messi’s fans can interact with him. Messi has committed to six episodes of content, and global collaborators will be featured in other episodes. When users select an episode, they are introduced to the experience by a system that explains how the technology works and what to expect. In the first episode they are introduced to Messi’s best friend, who shares inside secrets about Messi and how to interact with him. The user then enters into a three-way conversation with Messi and his best friend, where they talk about Messi’s five greatest goals. The user can ask questions and even digitally recreate the goals to earn a rewards for their collection adding gamification to the experience.
Never has visual content been conversationally interactive in real time. Messi is going to promote the experience, so we anticipate that there will be a lot of users. As the platform grows, we think he’ll also persuade other soccer players to come on the platform, and we would be able to build material with other players over time. There are also the global collaborators who we would expect each to create at least one episode.
The Messiverse has been built with content creation partner, Box to Box Films – makers of “Drive to Survive” (F1 behind the scenes documentary), “Break Point” (ATP behind the scenes), “Full Swing” (PGA behind the scenes) and Tour de France: Unchained (TdF behind the scenes), amongst other things. As a result of this collaboration it will be very natural for us to go to F1, the ATP, the PGA and start to build their own ”Messiverse” type experiences. Our plans are to expand to other industries outside of sports such as film, music and other areas. There is no end to talent for which we can create this mass intimacy with fans.
Is your business models subscription based or advertising based?
That’s a good question. Leo Messi obviously has a significant project that we are essentially a companion piece to, and our deal with Messi is that every boot that Messi sells, we get paid a certain amount of money, so we’re on a rev share deal from his project. We also can sell subscriptions to everyone who’s a Messi fan who doesn’t buy the boot. So, our first major project is a mixture of rev share and subscription.
As a partner to talent and talent organizations, we’re enabling them to deliver a brand new experience to fans. We also may do a fixed and variable license fee, subscription or ad based model.
When are you going to fully launch?
We’ve been running a couple of betas in unrelated areas over the last 15 months, from which we’ve learned a tremendous amount. And we are looking at June for a prelaunch version.
How do you see the trajectory of TWYN?
Ultimately, there are two ways of building massive value. Becoming the dominant player in the talent domain is where we’re focused now. And it makes sense for us to have a strategic alliance with a global talent agency such as Endeavour. Another goal is to build a platform that allows every individual and every enterprise on the planet to create our own Twyns That is part of our objective. The implications of that are quite profound, because you start to reshape the way social media works and create a new type of social influencing.
Just to give you an idea commercially, we think that the Messiverse alone, without any expansion beyond its current parameters is probably worth to up to $100 million revenue in the next three years. If we can build similar platforms for other talent, this business can yield incredibly scalable results. I see no reason why we can’t build a multibillion dollar business with a little bit of luck, great execution and high quality partners.
The other thing I would stress is, we are really a content led technology company. For sure without the technology you cannot deliver the experience. But the real differentiator for us is content. That’s where the magic lies. Think of us as something like interactive YouTube where we are in control of the conversational arc. I think the more personalization you can offer, the better the experience is for the end user. The Messiverse is just the beginning of what is sure to be a groundbreaking platform that offers a new way to share knowledge, entertainment, and stories.
