Wazzii -
The Sex Ed Chatbot
Creating space with young Kenyans for their uncensored questions on sex
Impact
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Wazzii reached 6.5 million young people through social media, radio campaigns and ground activations in Nairobi, Migori and across Kenya within one year of launch.
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Out of the 50,000 users onboarded by the chatbot, 12,700 users accessed SRH advice from professionals.
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Female users were 25% more likely to access a health service for their sexual health after engaging with the brand.
My Role
Audience Research | Focus Group Facilitation | Brand Strategy Development | Brand Identity Development | Creative Strategy | Campaign Ideation
Overview
Girl Effect is an international non-profit that creates media girls want, trust, and need. In Kenya, girls need access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services and advice. Together with their Kenya team and a group of passionate girls and young women in Nairobi and Migori counties, we launched Wazzii: a revolutionary chatbot for Kenyan Youth.
The Challenge
Sexual health isn’t sexy. It’s dry, clinical, and awkward – especially for young people in urban Nairobi and rural Migori where stigmas, systemic cultural barriers and gender power dynamics make it difficult to even talk about sex.
Young people need access to accurate information and healthcare support, without feeling shame. They need a space where they feel able to be themselves, talk freely, and be curious about relationships and sexual health.
To do that in a way that felt authentic, we recognised that the brand needed to speak their language. Our task involved the c-word: make sexual health services 'cool'.
The Solution
We were after a cool brand. So, we asked cool people to make it with us. Our audience became our co-creation team, with a group of young Kenyans joining us in workshops at every stage of the branding process. The result? A brand that reflected their personality, looked nothing like a health services brand, and was named ‘Wazzii’ – an intentional misspelling of Swahili slang, akin to saying ‘yaaaaaaassss’ instead of ‘yes.’
The bright, colourful brand – which had subtle culturally relevant patterns and carefully curated illustrations that were bespoke to rural and urban areas – was activated on and offline, creating a genuine ‘space’ for young people to connect with each other, and with the chatbot, without shame.
Key Takeaways
1. Golden nuggets of insight can come from a simple conversation.
Co-creation was central to this brand. So we flew to Nairobi and conducted in-person workshops with young people. The conversation and connections made in the room led us to important insights for the brand (example: sex is a taboo topic. But it is most taboo at home, with family).
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2. A chatbot doesn’t have to be 'auto-responses' on a screen
"A space where we can project our ideas, one where we are heard" - this is what the young people wanted the chatbot to feel like. So we switched the chatbot from first to third-person speak, and developed a wide set of illustrations in different styles, with various characters and personalities. The chatbot became everyone in the room, because we heard them all.
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3. Simple brand names yield more meaning
The name 'Wazzii' was created by the youths during the workshop. It roughly translates to 'Hey, what's up?'. But the brand eventually transformed this phrase into a signal for checking in, an indication of safety and a word for 'good energy'.
View the work
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