Ask the Botcorn: Sir Mary develops chatbot for Allianz Cinema

Who hasn't experienced it: An event is taking place, you'd like to go, but you don't really know whether there's room, how much a ticket costs and how you should get there. For Allianz Cinema, the Sir Mary agency has programmed "Botcorn": A chatbot solution on Facebook that answers all questions about the event, advises one on the choice of film or even shows trailers of the films. And if the film you want to see is sold out, you still have the chance to win tickets every day.

"We wanted to provide our audience with an innovative solution that would give them all the information they need about the event without having to read through long FAQ lists or call somewhere. Integrating the chatbot on Facebook, where most people find out about events, was the perfect way to go," says Claudia Staub, Head Digital Customer Interaction & Ecosystems at Allianz.

"Conversational interfaces make it possible to get to the desired information more quickly. At the same time, such chatbots also open new doors to longer-term and more natural communication with the target group. For example, the Allianz Cinema Chatbot surprises movie fans every day with a movie quiz and knows which films are currently not sold out," says Tino Elsener, Account Director at Sir Mary.

The Artificial Intelligence based chatbot lives strongly from the conceptual preparation. After an initial feed phase, it learns to analyze questions and provide the right answers. In the process, it can learn continuously and always be fed with new content. Chatbot solutions are particularly interesting for companies that want to enter into dialog with their consumers in an innovative way.

The "Allianz Cinema Botcorn" is integrated on the Allianz Cinema Facebook page in Messenger.

Responsible at Allianz: Corina Brunner, Claudia Staub. Responsible at Sir Mary: Tino Elsener, Maurizio Rugghia, Pascal Baumann, Luca Zurfluh, Philip Schönholzer, Linus Hüsler