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Industry News

Australian Open targets last-minute buyers with ticket bot

The 2018 Australian Open has launched a Facebook Messenger bot in an effort to help tennis fans acquire last-minute tickets.

The Australian Open Ticket Finder Bot offers users the chance to ‘buy tickets’ or access ‘ticket updates’, but does not allow customers to type their own questions.

Fans choosing ticket updates are asked if they would “like to receive news updates about the Australian Open and ticket information as it becomes available”.

When customers choose to purchase tickets from within the Messenger app, the bot will then ask whether they would prefer a day or night session – and then proceeds to present ticket prices and results.

Zenith, the bot creator, said that paid advertising on Facebook for the chatbot has driven “170 per cent more conversions than linking users directly to Ticketek and a much cheaper cost per conversion”.

Kevin Alphonso, head of digital at Zenith Melbourne, said in a statement: “The Messenger Bot enables users to interact with the Australian Open brand seamlessly within a platform that they already use, and it is already delivering leads at a higher ROI than some other tactics.”

Tanya Tribuzio, Tennis Australia’s marketing and events manager, added: “The functionality was impressive and how it enabled our fans to easily navigate through to find the best tickets for them, all within a familiar platform. We are very happy with the initial results.”

The Australian Tennis Open, which saw an attendance of 728,763 at the 2017 edition, is set to take place from January 15-28, 2018, in Melbourne.

Image: Zenith