There are many reasons why companies use a chatbot.

Marketing and drawing attention to your own company is one reason why companies choose to use a chatbot.

Chatbots are ideal for storytelling and are therefore often introduced in combination with a specific campaign.

One example of this is the UBS Youth Campaign 2019.

To coincide with the launch of its new youth campaign, UBS has introduced the digital assistant OPA. He answers all the young people’s questions about the UBS Generation youth program.

Bank Cler launched its new online account “Carl” and advertised that it was the first Swiss smartphone bank with a digital assistant in the app.

When bots are developed and published in combination with an advertising campaign, they usually have the following objectives:

• The chatbots are intended to draw additional attention to the campaign
• The chatbots are intended to stimulate word-of-mouth propaganda
• The chatbots are designed to take users on a “journey” and tell them about the company’s products and services in an informal way
• The chatbots should create a certain mood among users that motivates them to convert.

In addition to the Swiss examples mentioned above, chatbots are suitable for the following campaigns, for example:

1. For a consumer brand – for the launch of a new product or for a targeted summer/winter campaign
2. At a school: To support a campaign at the start of the semester or for information events
3. At a bank or insurance company: To support a campaign for a specific target group or a specific product (e.g. mortgage or home insurance)
4. For an event organizer: To support individual event campaigns.
5. For HR campaigns: In combination with a campaign for new employees/trainees

The cost of chatbots in such marketing or image campaigns is usually manageable. As a rule, these are rule-based chatbots. This type of chatbot is much easier to implement than chatbots that have many NLP components integrated.

However, a well thought-out concept is important. You should pay very close attention to the following points:

• What language/choice of words does the bot use? In which form does the target group feel best addressed?
• Which conversation phases are necessary to lead the user to the desired goal (example: greeting, motivation, passing on information, consent, conversion, recommendation)
• What personality does the bot have? Which personality fits the target group?

Ideally, you should develop the chatbot in such a way that it can be subsequently adapted and used for other campaigns.

If you have a specific idea for a campaign with a chatbot, please let me know. I look forward to hearing your ideas. We will be happy to support you if required and otherwise I look forward to reporting on your chatbot success story in my next article.

(Contact: sophie@hundertmark.ch)