AdSocial wins national chatbot award at the Social Media Marketing Awards

Local digital marketing agency, AdSocial, recently took home the award for Best Use of a Chatbot in Social Media, for their work with the Swan Valley Visitor Centre on their Great Valley Rally activation.

Held annually, the Social Media Marketing Awards honours and recognises individuals, teams, agencies and organisations, to celebrate excellence and achievement in social media marketing. The awards are judged by an independent awards jury, made up from leaders in the social media marketing space, and attract entries from some of Australia and New Zealand’s biggest brands and agencies.

AdSocial worked with the Swan Valley Visitor Centre to modernize a paper trail map, and bring to life an interactive experience for visitors to the region, inviting visitors to enjoy a car rally treasure hunt, with registration, directions and clues delivered via Facebook Messenger.

The chatbot enabled users to easily navigate the food and wine region, connecting them with local Swan Valley hotspots including parks, historical sites, artisan food, children’s activities and more. The chatbot was programmed with procedural conditions enabling people to move onto the next activity through continued engagement. Families received directions via a Google Maps integration delivered via the Facebook Messenger app, and then broadcast via Bluetooth across car radio. On completion, a personalised certificate digitally signed by the Lord Mayor was returned within Messenger as a keepsake.

“Since Meta opened their API allowing third-party software to integrate into their Messaging apps, businesses now have an extraordinary opportunity to connect with audiences beyond the ‘norm’, whether that be automating FAQ’s, lead qualifying or even gamification. And with Meta’s latest feature release, ‘recurring messages’ (a one-time opt-in to receive direct messages from business pages) I have no doubt that messaging will inevitably become the new email. Businesses that look toward the future should be doing everything they can now to start building messaging experiences.” AdSocial director Amberlea Henriques said.

The first month alone demonstrated great success with nearly 1,000 users showing interest, an 89% click-through rate from ad to the chatbot activation, an 81% email registration rate and a 97% positive review rate.

The bot garnered rave reviews from the City of Swan Mayor David Lucas: “The Great Valley Rally Chatbot has proved itself to be an innovative new way to encourage families to use technology to visit and engage with some of the attractions in the Swan Valley, starting and ending at the Swan Valley Visitor Centre”.