Meet Rachel, the new AI Brand Ambassador for APPLE & BEARS, starring in ROOM 17 — our nine-episode AI-assisted microdrama where story and brand placement come together.
Meet Rachel, the new AI Brand Ambassador for APPLE & BEARS.
Rachel isn't a real person, and we're not pretending she is.
She is an AI-generated character we've created as part of a new approach to storytelling at APPLE & BEARS.
Rather than introducing Rachel by simply placing one of our products in her hand and asking her to pose with it, we decided to give her something much more interesting first.
A story.
And her story begins in ROOM 17.
Welcome to ROOM 17
ROOM 17 is a nine-episode AI-assisted microdrama being created by APPLE & BEARS using AI-assisted creative tools.
It begins with Rachel checking into a London hotel carrying an APPLE & BEARS Pomegranate & Aloe Vera Travel Set.
What happens next involves Room 17, a forgotten bottle and another hotel guest named Michael.
And that's about as much of the story as we're going to give away.
No spoilers.
What begins in Room 17 develops across nine episodes as Rachel and Michael's relationship grows and other characters eventually enter their world.
We hope you'll follow them all the way to the end.
What Our Creative Team at APPLE & BEARS Is Working On
With ROOM 17, we're taking APPLE & BEARS into a different form of storytelling:
story-led brand placement inside a fictional world of our own.
For years, brands have placed products inside television programmes, films and drama series.
You can see the approach particularly clearly in Korean dramas, where cars, cosmetics, phones, food and other recognisable products can become part of the characters' world without the programme constantly stopping to advertise them.
That's the balance we're aiming for with ROOM 17.
A hint of the brand rather than the brand in your face.
Instead of placing APPLE & BEARS inside somebody else's drama, we're creating a story of our own.
Our own characters.
Our own storyline.
Our own world.
And our own real product as part of what happens.
The APPLE & BEARS product in ROOM 17 isn't simply sitting on a bathroom shelf because we wanted our logo in the shot.
It has a role in the story.
In fact, without giving too much away, it helps connect Rachel and Michael in the first place.
But ROOM 17 isn't nine episodes of Rachel telling viewers about body wash.
We want people to watch because they enjoy the characters and want to know what happens next.
If viewers finish an episode wondering about Rachel and Michael, the story has done its job.
And if APPLE & BEARS remains somewhere in their memory because our product naturally belonged in the story they enjoyed, then the brand has done its job too.
Story first. Brand naturally within it.
Why an AI Brand Ambassador?
We've been thinking and writing about the changing relationship between brands, human influencers and AI influencers.
There is one distinction we think is particularly important.
A real human reviewer can genuinely use an APPLE & BEARS product and tell people what they think about it.
Rachel cannot.
And we're not going to pretend she can.
Rachel isn't a fake customer.
She's a character.
Rachel is AI-generated.
APPLE & BEARS is real.
The products are real.
ROOM 17 is fiction.
Rachel's role as our AI Brand Ambassador is therefore different from that of a human reviewer or influencer.
Her job is not to manufacture an independent opinion about APPLE & BEARS.
Her job is storytelling.
Rachel's Story Has Already Begun
ROOM 17 isn't a future concept or an idea we're considering.
We're making it.
The first teaser is already live, Rachel has been introduced, production is continuing and we will complete the nine-episode story.
You can meet Rachel now:
Watch ROOM 17 — Meet Rachel on YouTube
The story will unfold across nine episodes, and we hope people will follow Rachel and Michael's relationship all the way to the end — while experiencing a different approach to brand-led storytelling and product placement.
From a Bottle to a Story
There is a long history of brands using characters and storytelling to build recognition.
One of Britain's best-known examples was the Nescafé Gold Blend series featuring Tony and Sharon.
People didn't simply see another coffee advertisement.
They followed a relationship.
They wondered what would happen next.
Today the tools and distribution channels are completely different.
Generative AI gives brands new creative possibilities, while TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest allow stories to be released directly to audiences one short episode at a time.
ROOM 17 is our interpretation of that opportunity.
Not an attempt to recreate television advertising.
Not an AI character pretending to be a real customer.
And not nine conventional APPLE & BEARS commercials stitched together.
A story.
With our brand naturally living inside it.
The Thinking Behind ROOM 17
ROOM 17 didn't appear from nowhere.
We've been exploring what AI could mean for the relationship between brands, creators and audiences.
That thinking has developed across two recent founder articles.
First, we asked:
Human Influencer or AI Influencer: Which Is Better for a Brand?
That article considered what human creators continue to offer that an artificial personality cannot genuinely reproduce — particularly lived experience, independent opinion and trust.
We then took the question one stage further:
Beyond the AI Influencer: What Happens When Brands Create Their Own Stories?
That second article looks at the creator economy from the brand's perspective and asks what happens when AI doesn't merely create virtual influencers, but gives brands the ability to create characters, fictional worlds and continuing stories themselves.
ROOM 17 is where those ideas become something you can actually watch.
What Happens After ROOM 17?
ROOM 17 introduces Rachel.
It doesn't necessarily have to be the end of her story.
If audiences enjoy meeting her, Rachel can return to the APPLE & BEARS world in future stories and creative projects.
That raises an interesting question for us.
After nine episodes, will viewers recognise Rachel?
Will they remember Michael?
Will they become invested in their relationship?
And if Rachel appears again in another APPLE & BEARS story, will people already feel as though they know her?
We don't know yet.
That's something only the audience can decide.
But one thing we do know:
Rachel is here.
ROOM 17 has begun.
And we'd love you to follow her story.
