Chatbot or Live Chat?

 

I know this has been a largely discussed topic this semester in our digital marketing unit so I wouldn’t normally have decided to talk about Chatbot’s, AI and live chats – but only two days ago I had my own experience with a live online support chat system and it’s got me thinking.

Now just to clarify the difference – a Chatbot is a service powered by company to interact with customers in a functional manner to solve issues (they use accumulated data to do so) and live chat is when there is another human on the other end of the chat who can think and engage with the consumer personally.

I’ve had a few experiences with live chats and Chatbots (thanks to most organisations jumping on this trend, and Wags who took out the pain of student evaluations and used Hubert the digital marketing Chatbot instead). I have personally found most of my Chatbot experiences to be fairly tedious and time consuming, because I can never get a straight answer. And I find my live chat encounters are more effective. BUT I’m unsure as of yet if I prefer a live chat with someone online or a Chatbot.

While Chatbot’s ultimate utility is to save a person/company’s budget and time, it takes away the effect of personal B2C interaction and businesses need to spend a lot of time initially to set up a Chatbot that will cater everyone’s needs – particularly in the initial trials of a Chatbot with real consumers, the Chatbot (like any human) learns on the job – so why are Chatbots better than merely just old fashioned human interaction? Oh wait we’re in the 21^st Century, all interaction is digital now whoops!!!

Chatbots can be valuable for multiple reasons:

• Cheaper than having employees to live chat
• Faster response time
• Unlimited amounts of time and chats to be had

BUT Chatbots aren’t nearly as good as humans…yet:

• Chatbots need exact questions in order to be responsive
• They need specific spelling and words to understand the consumer

These two issues alone can cause multiple problems for consumers.

SO, given customer support for company’s needs to keep up with emerging technologies and communicative platforms and apparently Chatbots are the future, and the future is NOW (how cheesy). But to be honest, I think I’m leaning more towards live chat – and here’s why: I’m talking to a human who possesses empathy! SIMPLE

Live chat’s can help in FAR more detail than a Chatbot can and the quality of conversation is marginally better. 79% of consumers say they prefer live chat functions. 

So maybe I’m just old fashioned, or maybe I’m just too lazy to give Chatbot’s a chance – but to be honest right now I’m not that interested in them, maybe in 2030 when they’re more advanced I will be.

My question to you is – would you prefer talking to an online live chat support or a Chatbot to solve an issue you had?

 

 

 

 

If you haven’t heard about the ROYAL WEDDING yet, you definitely live under a rock

Over the last few months I’ve been absolutely bombarded with photos all over social media of the recent newlyweds of last Saturday, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. I wasn’t aware the wedding was fast approaching until I was told all about the ‘princess parties’ and ‘wedding events’ everyone in Melbourne seemed to be hosting to gather around and watch the Royal Wedding, engaging with English traditions like drinking tea and eating scones.

I wasn’t that interested in watching the wedding to be frank, the only thing drawing my attention to it was what Meghan’s dress was going to look like. Shortly after Meghan made her entrance I was absolutely enthralled by something else that I just couldn’t allow myself to change the channel – Micheal Curry, the eccentric preacher who talked for twice as long as he was meant to, and almost upstaged the bride in doing so!

If you’re unsure of what I’m referring to, here’s a clip of the entire snippet below:

 

With over two billion people watching the wedding worldwide, Micheal Curry definitely seized the moment – in fact he did more than just seize, and the Queen was less than impressed…

While I could talk for hours about the Royal couple and the amazing gowns Meghan wore on the day, my point here is…The Royal Wedding presented the ultimate opportunity for marketers as the audience reach was so incredibly high.

The media has been inundated with information on the wedding since the big event on Saturday, and will continue to spark conversation and excitement for the upcoming weeks. Going off something I discussed a few weeks ago about influencers and their ability to sway our purchases, it was predicted that the wedding was to produce more than 1 billion pounds of economic activity regarding following trends from the royal newlyweds and tourism. It’s crazy to think that people are that interested in the royal family…except now it’s not just the royal family its an American actress that is becoming a Princess – a Cinderella story come true! Therefore, the consumer culture across the globe is doubled in the size of the market because people are interested for more than one reason.

So while Saturday was merely meant to be simply the happiest day of Prince Harry and Meghan’s life, their every move was being watched and the media had something to say about EVERY bit of it! Do you think that Meghan’s career as an actress made the wedding all the more famous, or was Kate and William’s just the same?

I’m interested to know what you guys think on how much the media delves into every snippet of the royal wedding and analyses it, is it fair?

Are you keen to know the ins and outs? Do you think brands should utilise this event in the future to market themselves or position themselves with an establishment like the Royal Family?

Let me know your thoughts below!

 

 

Lucky you’re with…

You look so hot today, like a sunrise…

Rhonda and Ketut, yes, you already know exactly what I’m referring to. In 2011 these two begun their ‘love story’ and Australia engaged with AAMI the brand and followed the pair, up until their last encounter in 2014. WHY was this effective? 

 

This campaign was obviously extremely effective for a few reasons:

• The relatable character of Rhonda – an everyday Australian woman.
• The memorable humour – “you look so hot today Rhonda”.
• And the differentiation to competitors marketing – car insurance ads normally consistent of a clip of an actual car accident in some form…this ad had absolutely nothing to do with car accidents or insurance for that matter (initially in the first half of the ad). The audience is engaged a funny storyline and then is presented with the purpose of the ad: AAMI’s car insurance.

The campaign created more brand awareness across Australia after the first advertisement, AAMI took a ‘dry’ product and essentially brought it to life by making car insurance something memorable and humorous that Australians could light-heartedly think about after engaging with the advertisements. The campaign sparked a common joke between all Australians and it soared further than just tv advertisements – the marketing continued that consumers were promoting AAMI by creating ‘memes’ and jokes that went viral across Australia – thus endorsing the brand even more.

There were over four ad’s that showed Rhonda and Ketut’s ‘love story’, all which effectively hinted at why AAMI car insurance was the right choice for Australians. With the initial advertisement engaging the audience’s attention with the likeable characters, the following ads were an absolute hit as people were intrigued to see what happens with the likeable characters from AAMI’s campaign. The consumer engagement soared after the second advertisement of ‘Rhonda Returns’ with YouTube viewings of over 300,000 compared to it’s competitor’s advertisements i.e. RACV viewings were only at about 5000.

https://www.marketingmag.com.au/hubs-c/the-rhonda-and-ketut-narrative-campaign-post-analysis/

It is interesting to note the brand awareness that this campaign created; as even now years on, people still remember the ad and have positive memories associated with it, and the brand.  Essentially, the branded content marketing reveals that advertising that plays on the line of entertainment and actual marketing is truly effective.

 

My question to you is; are there any other ongoing digital campaigns that you can distinctly remember – whether it was positive or negative, like AAMI’s car insurance?

 

 

Video Marketing

Video marketing has become the ‘unexpected norm’ in the marketing industry over the last few years…and why is it so effective? Because everyone of us is likely to choose watching a quick video snippet rather than reading pages’ worth of content, it’s as simple as that!

 

Although it’s still valuable to optimise your actual content on Google, it’s really important to ensure that you still recognise the second largest search engine in the globe for marketing, YouTube.

Think about the last ad you saw, well the likelihood of you being able to remember this is slim – unless it had something for you to view that’s not engrained in your memory? The last video ad I can recall was something for Spotify – I was actually watching a YouTube video and before I could continue watching it, an advertisement for Spotify came up. Spotify and McDonald’s are typically the ads are tend to see before I can watch any YouTube…always things about their monthly deals or new burger prices – I remember this because I’m bombarded with footage of these things constantly.

SO, according to HubSpot, 54% of consumers want to see VIDEOS from brands they like, compared to other channels of marketing.

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/video-marketing

 

Now not only is video marketing extremely effective to create brand recognition for consumers, it’s also one of the most resourceful channels for marketers to collect data on their consumer’s video experience. When using video marketing, marketers can easily see how many people have clicked play, how long they viewed the video for, when they paused it, if they watched the entire thing etc. So ultimately the ROI for digital marketers and their video campaigns is an easily trackable source.

• By 2019, 80% of consumer Internet usage will due to Internet video traffic…
• The word ‘video’ in an email subject line, increases the click-through rate by 13%.

 

https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/video-content-the-importance-of-video-marketing

 

SO…tell me your thoughts on video marketing – does it annoy you? Or does it engage you more?

 

 

BIG DATA

BIG DATA – is it changing the travel industry entirely?

When choosing where to go on your next holiday, what are you likely to do first:

a) Search for the cheapest accommodation at your desired location

b) Read reviews on things to do in the area

c) Look up photographs tagged under the location’s name

I personally like to look at reviews and get other travellers opinions on why/why not that destination is a must-see!

‘Innovation Enterprise’ has established four ways in which BIG DATA is changing the travel industry for good…but before I get to that, what do I mean by BIG DATA?

Well, trusty Google defines it as “extremely large data sets that may be analysed computationally to reveal patterns, trends, and associations, especially relating to human behaviour and interaction” – my interpretation? A giant dataset that is too big for a company to seize, analyse and forecast without proper software and tools, but when executed properly, it’s amazing!

SO the four ways in which we travel are being changed by BIG DATA?

https://channels.theinnovationenterprise.com/articles/4-ways-big-data-is-changing-the-travel-industry-for-good

1. This data interprets and identifies the cheapest prices for us as travellers – because no one wants to spend more than they should be when travelling, so everyone’s looking for the cheapest deal, BIG DATA makes this possible!
2. There are more convenient ways to book things – Trivago, Skyscanner, Webjet, Booking.com; all of these sites have created a much easier booking process for us on all fronts.
3. Customer experiences are enhanced – the needs of customers and guests (travellers) are identified with BIG DATA and hotels, airlines, booking systems are all bursting with suggestions for us as consumers therefore meeting our needs quicker and more successfully when travelling.
4. Reviews and recommendations – “it’s up to individual companies to find ways to aggregate and synthesize this data [reviews] for effective use”, with everyone turning to reviews before they do anything these days, it’s standard that brands should be advocating the use of reviewing and reading reviews.

 

My question to you is how much more can BIG DATA develop the service industries?

There are constantly new ways for BIG DATA to astonish me – what amazes you about BIG DATA???

Influencer’s Influencing…

Influencer Marketing

 I was scrolling through my Instagram feed the other day and I noticed that not only majority of the posts I were seeing weren’t my actual friends (bloody Insta algorithms), but they were all sponsored posts by influencers. This raised my query as to whether or not these influencers actually make an impact on my purchases, and on my friends & family’s purchases…

 

Well for starters my sister only buys her shampoo and conditioner from Steph Claire Smith’s recommendations now, my best friend now buys a protein supplement that Elyse Knowles constantly posts about, and me…well I didn’t think I would be falling victim to the influencer marketing strategies.

BUT…I was so in love with Nadia Bartel’s jacket she was wearing on her social media stories the other day, that I actually messaged her myself to ask her where it was from!

 

So clearly this process works. To be honest though, I think that I follow so many influencers on Instagram and am interested in what they wear/eat/do, is because their lives appear so extravagant (which is exactly what we’re meant to think, I know), and I’m far too lazy to actually research places to eat and places to visit and what fashion trends are in at the moment, so I look to influencers pages.

One of my friends works at a PR agency and mentioned how much big influencers get paid to do one tiny post on Instagram – the numbers are obscene!

https://later.com/blog/instagram-influencers-costs/

My question to you is, how often do you think you are seduced by influencers? And do you think this trend is sustainable for marketers?

 

 

 

 

 

What’s the future looking like for retailers?

Augmented Reality 

Although augmented reality has been around for years, it’s finally making its mark in the retail world more recently, especially with big brand names (such as IKEA, Lacoste, Zara) utilising this concept to draw on consumers wants and needs.

Although in the same family, I personally find augmented reality to be far more attractive than virtual reality. I think that when brands use augmented reality to display their products and services in an exciting 3D world, this is far more enticing than entering an entirely new and unrealistic virtual atmosphere.

Considering 61% of consumers prefer stores that offer AR experiences https://www.shopify.com/retail/how-these-retailers-are-using-augmented-reality-to-enhance-the-customer-experience, it’s pretty evident that the retail future is definitely going to consist of a lot of AR.

Augmented reality has proven extremely beneficial for brands, especially retailers across the globe. To list a few benefits of AR:

• Increases brand awareness
• Increases customer engagement
• Improved customer experience

https://www.cyberclick.es/numericalblogen/what-is-augmented-reality-and-how-will-it-affect-digital-marketing

I’m really interested to see how much AR grows, particularly in Australia. While multiple brands have jumped on the AR trend, Australia is still lagging behind the rest of the globe when it comes to these movements. I know personally that if AR existed for some of my favourite stores, I would definitely get on board especially when it comes to clothing and choosing outfits…I know I can be quite lazy when it comes to searching for an entire outfit to wear to an event online, so it would be fantastic if an AR did this for me, tailored to my wants.

Moreover, the idea that cosmetics brands (my weakness!) have been using augmented reality for exceptional purposes is truly exciting for me. Charlotte Tilbury in Westfield London, had a ‘Magic Mirror’ installed, in which customers would sit in front of the mirror and within moments see their face with multiple different makeup looks with all of Charlotte Tilbury’s most popular products being used.

I think these aspects of AR being used in the retail industry are really sensational, but in order for consumers to actually take the time to use them, the use of AR has to be pretty outstanding to sway customers from shopping the old fashioned way, especially when they are already placed in a store…why not just use your own eyes and look around rather than letting technology tell you what’s best, when you can access it yourself in reality then and there?

Augmented reality is ultimately revolutionising the in-store retail experience, but I’m interested to see if I would end up using it in store as opposed to actually just looking at products myself and asking retail assistants their professional opinion. I mean, if a brand like Mecca Cosmetica created an app where you could post a picture of your makeup-less face and it would give you suggestions of what makeup to use given your complexion, skin conditions and tone for a certain look, I definitely would use that. But if I was already in the store Mecca Cosmestica, I don’t think I’d bother wasting my time with technology that is likely to be a lot slower than asking for help from retail assistant…what do you guys think?

Apple Pay

The other day I was at work and I was processing a sale of a dress for a customer. I asked her if she wanted to go onto our database and told her that all we require is a first name and an email address. Her reaction was so awkward and she was extremely adamant on not giving out her personal information to us as retailers…she then proceeded to whip out her phone and open her Apple Wallet and use Apple Pay to complete the sale.

After she left I began to think how some people can be so old school and not want to give out any personal information, but then have a wealth (literally) of info about their finances on their smartphones.

(For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, Apple Pay is a service that lets consumers use their smartphones to make a payment for something).

“More than one in ten millennials use their digital wallet for every purchase” https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/02/digital-wallets-are-safe-yet-americans-remain-wary.html which is no surprise given my generation is relatively carefree when it comes to electronic purchases as we tend to be quite trustworthy with our money…but then again, I don’t have much for people to steal.

However, using the Apple Wallet has allowed me to become a target for organisations to collect data about me, and while my actual finances appear to be secure, collecting customer data is the top benefit for brands involved in Apple Pay.

I don’t really know what I would prefer to lose – my iPhone, or my actual tangible wallet…both contain extremely personal items and information that I wouldn’t want thieves to get hold of. But in saying that, I think I prefer Apple Pay because essentially when I tap my phone to make a payment, there is no risk of merchants seeing my card details in store.

I’m definitely leaning more towards Apple Pay these days because the benefits are extraordinary; the mobile digital wallet is a trend of the future so why not get on board now?

I’m also curious for those who have never used Apple Pay, do you get constant notifications and reminders to install, update and use it? I’ve read an article recently which discusses how iPhone users are ‘pestered’ to use Apple Wallet, it is linked below.

 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-insists-iphone-users-enroll-in-apple-pay-with-a-red-badge-that-wont-go-away-1522753200

How many of you use Apple Pay? And do you think it’s more secure than carrying around your physical wallet?

 

 

Consumer Trust and SMS (Social Media Stalking)

Ernest Hemingway said that “the best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them” …while this may have been true in the 20^th century, Hemingway was long gone before the social media age, and sadly we as consumers have been burned by trusting ‘the digital’ too much.

Since the beginning of Instagram stories in 2017, this posed as a threat to Snap Chat as Instagram trumped the only stand out feature of the latter and used it to their advantage. Snap Chat was then forced to come up with something more innovative to gain back their market share, which led to ‘Snap Map’. This feature has enabled us to map out our friend’s locations of homes, schools, workplaces and places of leisure, which in turn has presented the danger of stalking.

In May 2017, it was discovered that Snap Chat was the most trusted social media site (http://www.businessinsider.com/the-digital-trust-report-insight-into-user-confidence-in-top-social-platforms-2017-5/?r=AU&IR=T) compared to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

However, when Snap Chat released their ‘Snap Map’ update in June 2017, this sparked an enormous amount of controversy because everyone had the capacity to track down all of their Snap Chat friends – no matter where they are in the World. While Snap Chat has described this feature as a “new way to explore the world”, I merely consider it just another concept that encourages stalker-like behaviour.

WhatsApp wasn’t far behind Snap Chat when they created their ‘live location’ where you can check where people are at any point and track their movements down to the second. Is this really necessary? Must we know where our friends are at every point in the day? No, we don’t. Despite these features having the power to ruin friendships and relationships because people love to ‘stalk’ their friends and family on social media. It has also blatantly given these apps’ the explicit power to stalk us as well.

I find it truly astonishing that since the initial outrage of the Apple ID ‘fingerprint recognition’, all of the conspiracy surrounding this issue into an invasion of our privacy, we as a globally digital society have allowed this to grow into even bigger issues and have redefined the definition of ‘stalker’ in 2018.

 

If these apps’ have allowed us to map out our friend’s movements constantly, there is no question that these brands themselves track our every move…I’m perplexed as to why people are okay with this and don’t consider this an invasion of our privacy? Or do people think that privacy is just not an option anymore when it comes to social media, so we may as well steer into it and embrace all aspects of the digital age?

Warfare in the ‘digital age’…how has social media become a weapon of destruction?

Before I begin, I want you to take a moment to think about how terrorism has been disgracefully revolutionised since the attack of 9/11, to the ISIS beheadings in the last 18 months…what differentiates these appalling attacks?

The point of difference in the last decade of terrorism, is that now terrorists have enunciated their propaganda and recruitment through social media platforms, and in doing so, they have instilled fear and horror amongst their enemies.

The Islamic State recognised the significant impact of digital media early on and they have maximised their reach to Westerners by using platforms that we use in our daily lives. Contemporary mediums are allowing them to record and post horrific content which as a result capitalises their growth and has forced the online world to react by further spreading their content – which ultimately spreads the name of ISIS wider and further.

(http://themusingsofthebigredcar.com/making-grown-up-war-v-isis-can-we-do-it/) Image 1.

(http://thegabbler.com/the-broken-seal/2014/10/03/documents-show-islamic-states-start-up-pitch/) Image 2.

The thing I find most sickening about this content, is that individuals are willingly watching and spreading it, when it really should be destroyed and never acknowledged. Instead, ISIS has gained power through our curiosity – and frankly I think this is tremendously disconcerting.

Now not only is the internet served as a platform for ISIS to publicise their atrocities with horrendous pride, it allows this group to engage with vulnerable and impressionable individuals to recruit into terror. Even though you’re most likely reading this thinking that we haven’t heard from ISIS in a while on the Internet therefore this is all irrelevant – however their mission for recruitment is still very much underway and extremely prevalent on the web.

On the contrary, the internet is also used as a tool to track down potential terrorists and their movements – however to me, the big issue is that the use of social media and the web will always be one step ahead of legalities, and this is truly frightening as we will never be able to fully combat the negative behaviour on the Internet…from 10 year olds bullying each other on Snap Chat, to the extremity of politicians firing serious and dangerous statements to one another from halfway across the world, and there’s groups like ISIS…

A large concern of mine is that we’ll never be entirely able to keep up with groups like ISIS when they are using the Internet to their advantage to spread fear and intimidate. However, this poses the question that if we completely ignore their threats and refuse to acknowledge them, will this eradicate their reign of terror? Or does the Internet possess the power to be the spark that will ignite World War III?