Brave the Bots

Chatbots are an up-and-coming medium, allowing brands to create more personalized connections with consumers. Brands are seeing amazing engagement rates, though not all consumers are thrilled at the thought of being spammed by brands. Agencies like MEC are challenging those negative perceptions of bots by using the platform for good.

MEC recently pioneered a new chatbot with the #IBravedMyBias to help users challenge unconscious biases. It’s an opt-in experience, and builds on MEC’s original Brave your Bias initiative. It’s promoting an idea rather than purchasing behavior, and signals the potential of chatbots to build positive brand affect.

The folks at MEC aren’t the first to promote philanthropy through chatbots. Lokai and Charity: Water teamed up this August to create a chatbot to help users understand the struggle to get clean drinking water that many individuals face. Their focus was on telling a story to generate interest and involvement, not just clicks and purchase.

The key to successful chatbot experiences is to make them feel personal and meaningful, not invasive. While some customers embrace chatbots as a personal coupon delivery system, it’s clear that the standout chatbot experiences are just that: experiences. Chatbots could be a valuable asset in media mixes, especially for campaigns that want to stimulate conversations.

Want to learn more about how bots are affecting the advertising industry? Click on the button below to read the Team Orange Ad Fraud report.

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