04 May 2018

#GoTBot chatbot awards

Winter is coming, and we're buzzing from our recent awards success.

Our friendly Game of Thrones Facebook Messenger chatbot was designed to help guide fans through the series and we couldn’t be more chuffed that it’s been recognised for it’s innovation and creative use of AI technology. 

GoTBoT has won numerous awards and commendations including;

Shorty Awards
- Silver Award in the "Humour Category"
- "Audience Award", a real honour to get this one

Social Buzz Awards
- Commendation for "Best Use of a Chatbot"

DADI Awards
- Commendation for "Viral Campaign"
- Commendation for "In-House Campaign"

In a world of direwolves, white walkers and dragons, there’s one thing missing: bots! Meet GoTBot, a friendly Facebook chatbot with answers to all of your Game of Thrones questions.

We created GoTBot as a Facebook Messenger chatbot in solidarity with all the secondary characters you forgot about, plus all the titles and heirs that you never knew existed. It’s for those of you who realise that, in fact, you know nothing.

Start a conversation with GoTBot in the Facebook Messenger app and ask it a question about any Game of Thrones character. For example, “Who is Varys?” will result in a photo of Varys, his title and all sorts of other juicy information about the Master of Whisperers. The “Dead or Alive” feature will come in handy when you just can’t remember if that one forgotten Tully is dead yet.

But don’t underestimate GoTBot… It knows more than you expect. Just try asking about Daenerys and Jon Snow’s (possible? probable?) relationship. Everyone’s entitled to their Game of Thrones theories...

It all started from a simple “Dead or Alive” Game of Thrones question around the studio. If only there was someone who had all the answers. Wait a minute....

GoTBot is designed as a useful tool, but it quickly grew into an entertaining digital friend. Popular Google searches related to Game of Thrones shaped GoTBot so that he answers the most pressing questions, but is also learning every day through the magic of AI.

The A.I. of natural language processing of GoTBot is handled by the Wit.ai service. We begin by teaching Wit.ai example questions and, as we feed it information, it learns to understand the users intent. When the user asks a question, Wit.ai recognises the intent of what the user is searching for then our vast GoT database gets to work and answers the user in an intelligent and useful manner as possible, with a bit of humour thrown in to keep it interesting.

Discussing the launch, Catch’s Founder and Managing Director, Jonathan Smith said:

"With 1.2 billion monthly active users on Facebook Messenger, the potential audience for chatbots is huge. We knew we wanted to create a Facebook chatbot and wanted to get our clients excited about the future of AI and how it might benefit their business. What better way to do so than creating our very own chatbot? And who doesn’t like Game of Thrones?”

GoTBot's popularity is growing, he's already been featured on MashableThe VergeAdWeekCreativity and Esquire magazine.

To meet GoTBot - The Game of Thrones Chatbot, visit him on Facebook http://m.me/G0TB0T

19 Oct 2016

DADIs - Best Use of VR nomination

We're thrilled to announce that our Fantasy Flight VR experience for Thomas Cook Airlines has been nominated for Best Use of VR in the 2016 DADI awards. We are up against some stiff competition with campaigns for Google, Virgin and Reebok, so let's get our game faces on and see what happens on awards night, Oct 19th!

Thomas Cook Airlines' engaged Catch as their social agency of record, and in March 2016 we launched a new activation for them, "Fantasy Flight". It brings to life 360-degree exploration that lets you try before you fly.

www.thomascookairlines.com/fantasyflight

Best experienced on mobile devices via the YouTube app, viewers change their perspective of Thomas Cook Airlines’ refurbished premium and economy class cabins in real-time by moving their device around. The video features real pilots and cabin crew going about their normal duties while the cabin comes to life with characters connected to three new routes launching 2016.

If the user explores thoroughly they can find clues to three of the airline’s newest destinations which could win them a £3,000 Los Angeles holiday.

“We’ve used recently-developed 360-degree video technology to open the doors of our great new cabins on our Airbus A330 fleet.”

Tom Morely, Senior Marketing Manager Thomas Cook Airlines

Founding Partner of Catch, Jonathan Smith, said: “2016 is set to be Virtual Reality’s breakout year. This new technology is perfectly placed to highlight Thomas Cook Airlines’ new routes and high-end A330 aircraft. We used three GoPro cameras assembled to capture an entire spherical perspective of the cabin scene, creating an innovative experience. We had a lot of fun with a 50+ strong crew of actors, airline staff and impersonators to bring the new destinations into the cabin, as well as providing clues which viewers can find to enter a competition to win a holiday to LA.”

Senior Marketing Manager for Thomas Cook Airlines, Tom Morey, said: “We’ve used recently-developed 360-degree video technology to open the doors of our great new cabins on our Airbus A330 fleet."

“By summer this year, we’ll be operating seven of these long haul aircraft on direct flights from Manchester to Miami, New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Orlando and Las Vegas. Customers don’t have to wait and see how it looks, they can find out right now by interacting with these amazing videos.”

Join the fun on social at #TCAFantasyFlight www.facebook.com/ThomascookairlinesUK or dive straight into the 360-degree experience at www.thomascookairlines.com/fantasyflight

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