M&S launches Christmas season chatbot with Facebook Messenger

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Nov 30, 2017

M&S has launched a chatbot for the Christmas shopping season as part of a competition run by Facebook to improve the way brands use its Messenger service.

The bot will offer festive season tips and other ideas and has been dubbed the Christmas Concierge. It’s the first time M&S has tested Facebook Messenger bots. Users are able to opt-in to get daily tips in the form of short videos, gifs and images, while also browsing and shopping from a curated product selection. And as part of the entertainment element that comes along with Christmas campaigns in general, there are also “hidden messages” such as some pretty cringe-worthy jokes or a Percy Pig cameo. 

The competition, which was launched earlier this year, is part of Facebook’s attempt to boost usage of its AI-powered Messenger bots. It comes after a host of brands signed up to use the service initially but the social media giant admitted almost a year ago that it had seen a 70% failure rate and that some brands have dropped out.

The Christmas Hackathon was open to agencies to boost the ideas around what could be done creatively with Facebook Messenger bots. 

M&S’s head of social said that its customers are increasingly using Facebook Messenger to interact with the brand. And the retailer expects to dive deeper into the channel for further campaign linked to key retail seasons.