B&TB&TB&T
  • Advertising
  • Campaigns
  • Marketing
  • Media
  • Technology
  • Regulars
    • Agency Scorecards
    • Best of the Best
    • Campaigns of the Month
    • CMO Power List
    • CMOs to Watch
    • Culture Bites
    • Fast 10
    • New Business Winners
    • Spotlight on Sponsors
  • Jobs
  • Awards
    • 30 Under 30
    • B&T Awards
    • Cairns Crocodiles
    • Women In Media
    • Women Leading Tech
Search
Trending topics:
  • Cairns Crocodiles
  • Nine
  • Seven
  • Federal Election
  • Pinterest
  • AFL
  • WPP
  • AI
  • Anthony Albanese
  • NRL
  • EssenceMediaCom
  • Thinkerbell
  • News Corp
  • Channel 10
  • Spotlight on Sponsors
  • State of Origin
  • Cairns Hatchlings
  • TV Ratings
  • Radio Ratings
  • Sports Marketing

  • About
  • Contact
  • Editorial Guidelines
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Advertise
© 2025 B&T. The Misfits Media Company Pty Ltd.
Reading: M&C Saatchi’s Head Of Tech Asks, “Australian Brands, Can We Have A Chat?”
Share
B&TB&T
Subscribe
Search
  • Advertising
  • Campaigns
  • Marketing
  • Media
  • Technology
  • Regulars
    • Agency Scorecards
    • Best of the Best
    • Campaigns of the Month
    • CMO Power List
    • CMOs to Watch
    • Culture Bites
    • Fast 10
    • New Business Winners
    • Spotlight on Sponsors
  • Jobs
  • Awards
    • 30 Under 30
    • B&T Awards
    • Cairns Crocodiles
    • Women In Media
    • Women Leading Tech
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Editorial Guidelines
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Advertise
© 2025 B&T. The Misfits Media Company Pty Ltd.
B&T > Opinion > M&C Saatchi’s Head Of Tech Asks, “Australian Brands, Can We Have A Chat?”
OpinionTechnology

M&C Saatchi’s Head Of Tech Asks, “Australian Brands, Can We Have A Chat?”

Staff Writers
Published on: 9th December 2016 at 11:25 AM
Staff Writers
Share
5 Min Read
SHARE

In this opinion piece, M&C Saatchi’s head of technology- Anton Mills discusses chatbots and why Australian brands should be using them – especially leading into the silly season.

The festive season is upon us and for brands, its go-time. Their whole year to date has been a warm up to this season. I’ve purchased all of gifts and my flights are booked to visit my family for the holidays.

Anton Mills
Anton Mills

It’s the time of year where we travel, eat and spend more. In 2015 Commonwealth Bank found that the average spend over December 1st to January 4th for someone in New South Wales was $1,339 (1).

This was split across gifts, sales, food and drink, entertainment and travel. In New South Wales alone its a $7 billion dollar market. While the spend is increasing its getting harder and harder for brands to convince users to download their applications and use their web experiences.

Three years ago I had 30+ apps on my iPhone. As web technology has advanced, my app list has dwindled to just 14 apps as I now spend most of my time shopping directly through mobile web experiences. Why is this? In one word, ‘friction’.

The friction in this instance is the amount of steps for me to perform a task and the amount of potential for me to change my mind. As a user, the friction of going to the app store and installing an application is higher than the friction of visiting a website. For brands, the more we ask our customers to do, the more we fail at retaining their attention.

This year has seen a fascinating paradigm shift in the way that brands are interacting with their customers. The defining moment for me was shortly after purchasing my flights, when my new itinerary was sent to me directly through Facebook Messenger. I was even able to respond to the message from the service as I asked to switch my allocated seat to a window seat. I was rewarded with a “Sure” as the software switched my seat for me— precisely as requested.

This was huge. I didn’t have to call customer support, load an app or browse a website looking for the customer support section. The airline had interacted with me in a way that was near friction-less. Not only that but the entire experience felt very personal, as if typing with a friend. There was no new interface to learn, no barriers to entry. This was a technology that could service everyone and it’s called a chat-bot.

Currently the chat-bots that are in use are mostly within the customer service capacity but Paypal have announced their new integration within Facebook Messenger, with Visa and Mastercard following closely behind. This will open up the potential for chat-bots to provide an end-to-end service for brands, from purchase, distribution and customer care.

There is also a major shift in social platform usage. People are spending more time in social messaging applications such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp than more traditional social platforms(2). Both of these platforms dominate in Australia, with around 1bn active users globally(3)(4). Microsoft will soon release their new social messaging platform with chat-bot support and even Twitter have announced their new foray in to the ‘Conversation as a Service’ space(5).

These factors combine to mark an exciting opportunity for Australian brands to engage customers. Instead of the usual ‘Let’s build an app’, what if I had a chat-bot interface to a flower shop where I can ask “Can you send a bouquet of flowers to Anna at 220, Somerville Street?”. The win as a customer is that the process is quick, frictionless and it has freed my time up for other things. Now that its not only provided a service but done it in a way that was exceedingly simple and valuable, I might be far more likely to say hello next time it messages me.

Here’s hoping that by next Christmas my new chat-bot friend will be the one to ask me if I’d like to make a similar trip again, and take care of all the small details for me.

1. https://www.commbank.com.au/about-us/news/media-releases/2014/festive-spending.html?ei=gsa_generic_festive

2. http://www.businessinsider.com/the-messaging-app-report-2015-11?IR=T

3. https://www.statista.com/statistics/260819/number-of-monthly-active-whatsapp-users/

4. http://www.theverge.com/2016/7/20/12235476/facebook-messenger-1-billion-users-milestone-ios-app

5. https://blog.twitter.com/2016/speed-up-customer-service-with-quick-replies-welcome-messages-in-direct-messages

Join more than 30,000 advertising industry experts
Get all the latest advertising and media news direct to your inbox from B&T.

No related posts.

TAGGED: Chatbots, Designworks, einsights, Qantas
Share
Staff Writers
By Staff Writers
Follow:
Staff Writers represent B&T's team of award-winning reporters. Here, you'll find articles crafted with industry experience spanning over 50 years. Our team of specialists brings together a wealth of knowledge and a commitment to delivering insightful, topical, and breaking news. With a deep understanding of advertising and media, our Staff Writers are dedicated to providing industry-leading analysis and reporting, both shaping the conversation and setting the benchmark for excellence.

Latest News

TV Ratings (12/6/2025): 1.4 Million People Viewed The Western Bulldogs Kicking Its Way Into The Top Eight
13/06/2025
WARC Downgrades Global Ad Spend Forecast Amid “Trade Tensions” & Uncertain Tech Market
13/06/2025
Marketers Call For Measurement ‘Parity’ In Video, But One Buyer Warns ‘Be Careful What You Wish For’
13/06/2025
Meta Cracks Down On Nudify Apps & Sues Hong Kong Developer Behind CrushAI
13/06/2025
//

B&T is Australia’s leading news publication magazine for the advertising, marketing, media and PR industries.

 

B&T is owned by parent company The Misfits Media Company Pty Ltd.

About B&T

  • About
  • Contact
  • Editorial Guidelines
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Advertise

Top Categories

  • Advertising
  • Campaigns
  • Marketing
  • Media
  • Opinion
  • Technology
  • TV Ratings

Sign Up for Our Newsletter



B&TB&T
Follow US
© 2025 B&T. The Misfits Media Company Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Register Lost your password?