Chatbots to drive sales: The Australian Open Case Study
Chatbots are here — if you haven’t heard already — and we are starting to see some real-life examples where they are outperforming their other digital counterparts. Specifically, I’m talking about how the Australian Open chatbot drove ticket sales and outperformed Ticketek Direct.
Yep, you read that right. The AusOpen chatbot drove over 150% more conversions than the actual website and delivered a 25x return on investment. If that isn’t pudding of proof, I don’t know what is.
In this article I’ll cover:
- What was the problem
- How they solved it and;
- Why it worked
What was the problem?
Traditionally, advertising channels and support would just link users to the Ticketek page. The issue with this approach is that you would see a huge drop-off rate. Some people probably wouldn’t even click the link, as they’ve received it for later use.
Additionally, email newsletter forms are old and tired. How many crappy email subscriptions do you receive each day? Do you really want more marketing material about the Australian Open?
These two problems are issues that almost all businesses face.
How did chatbots solve it?
A chatbot of course! Genius. What an innovative way to disrupt a time-tested traditional approach to selling tickets. Their chatbot is hyper-focused and doesn’t allow you to do much else. They didn’t try to boil the ocean. They focused on doing one thing well — finding you tickets that suit what you’re after.
The bot asks you several questions to get the perfect ticket:
- Whether you want to go on a weekend or a weekday
- Whether you want a day or night session
- Which arena you want to go to
- Which session you want to attend
All else fails, you can tap a button ‘Get Ticket Updates’ which doubles as lead generation for the Australian open. I’ve already talked about the benefits of using messenger and chatbots to broadcast marketing material. Simply genius.
Why did it work?
Before I jump into why it worked, check out some of these ridiculous statistics:
In just one week the Bot has driven 170% more conversions than linking users directly to Ticketek and a much cheaper cost per conversion. More than 600 conversations have taken place in the Bot generating 141 conversions, and generated a 25 times return on investment.
(reported at campaignbrief.com)
THAT IS ABSOLUTELY INSANE! So why was it so successful? It boils down to these three things:
- The interface mimics organising a trip to the tennis with your friends. Instead of asking for dates, it asks for weekend or weekday, day or night. It works how you work.
- It’s laser focused. Once you start, you’re guided through the process and can’t go anywhere else.
- When you are finally brought to purchase, you’re taken away briefly to the Ticketek site at the seat selection screen. By this point, you’ve committed too much time and you’re dropped in at the perfect point. It feels seamless. (Seat selection on mobile suck, but that’s a post for another day).
How can I benefit from this?
Great question. You might not be a sports juggernaut like the Australian Open, but if you run events, sell something or want to tap into the 15 million Australians on facebook — a chatbot might not be a bad idea. Check out our chatbot graphic to see whether it fits your business!
Get in touch with us if you’ve got a cool idea for a chatbot or simply want to learn more!
Originally published at Mayte.
