Ho Ho Hotels.com Launches Festive Chatbot Charades Game

In his latest appearance for the brand in the UK, Hotels.com cult character Captain Obvious today pops up in his own chatbot, drawing members of the public into a game of hilariously #ObviousCharades (http://m.me/obviouscharades - viewable only for those in the UK).

A stalwart of the British festive season, the game of charades traditionally relies on drawn-out, cryptic mime.  In the Hotels.com™  chatbot version, Captain Obvious however remains true to his name, diving straight in and going for the most obvious interpretation possible of several well-known films.

To create the bot, creative agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky London partnered with Howdy, owner of Botkit and Botkit Studio, and enterprise platform bCRM to be the first to make use of their advanced technologies for a Facebook Messenger chatbot.

By providing the building blocks of conversational experiences, Botkit Studio gave CP+B and Hotels.com the tools needed to rapidly design, test and deploy this new type of experience for customers in the quickly-evolving chatbot space.

"With the proper framework in place to build our bot, we then then wanted to look at user engagement and analytics to best understand the user experience while playing charades with Captain Obvious - bCRM were the natural partner," commented Alex Budin, Head of Tech at CP+B London.

Unique in its deployment of intelligent CRM data, bCRM delivers powerful campaign management capabilities through its rich understanding of complex nuances in user population growth, engagement, and segmentation. "The seemingly basic capabilities of the Captain Obvious bot – playing charades with you, albeit in an entirely offbeat way – mask a complex and advanced application of bot insight, technology and creativity for brands," added Budin.

With brand bots appearing increasingly often in recent weeks, usually to provide clients with newly streamlined forms of customer service online, the Hotels.com Captain Obvious bot bucks the trend by unashamedly offering nothing but entertainment.  Vincenzo Bruno, Digital Brand Manager, EMEA, Hotels.com Brand at Expedia, commented, “Today’s chatbots combine machine learning , natural language programming and AI to create opportunities for brands to drive sales through enhanced customer service.  But for us, the Captain Obvious Charades chatbot is a chance to flex our creative muscles, use new technology in a divergent – purely fun - way, whilst still riding the wave of latest digital marketing trends.”

“Thanks, Captain Obvious” has for decades been a pop culture reference in the US, brought to life by Hotels.com in 2014 in the US market in the guise of a super fan – the Captain – who revels in pointing out the self-evident.  Captain Obvious made his first appearance for the brand in the UK earlier this year as part of the Hotels.com 2016 ad campaign.

A hotel booking site for the modern age, Hotels.com seeks to blend the best of digital engagement with a large pinch of fun. This latest campaign comes on the back of the successful UK launch of Captain Obvious in May, where his ‘skip ad’ saw a record engagement rate on 4OD.