Snapshot: Chatification

UNDERSTAND TODAY. SHAPE TOMORROW.
Explore how brands are using messaging platforms as the new
marketing and communications channel.
SNAPSHOT:
CHATIFICATION
1

Welcome to the latest edition of our Snapshot. In this edition, we explain
the increasing importance of messaging platforms and highlight how
businesses and organisations are using chat apps as marketing and
communications channels in innovative ways. Finally, we end with some
key implications on what the future of messaging platforms might look
like.
The report is divided into three parts:
- WHAT IS HAPPENING - We explain the increasing
importance of messaging platforms.
- THE BEST OF MESSAGING APPS - We highlight
innovative ways businesses and organizations are
utilizing chat apps.
- LEARNINGS
ABOUT THE SNAPSHOT. This is a collection of cases and signs
related to messaging platforms.
LHBS Inspiration-Hub
INTRODUCTION
2
INTRO
DUCTION.
LHBS SNAPSHOT SERIES // MESSAGING APPS
Caroline Smith
Consultant at LHBS
lhbs.com | cs@lhbs.com

Chapter Two
BRAND & BUSINESS
BEST PRACTICES
CONCLUSIONS AND
IMPLICATION
Chapter One
THE RISE OF
MESSAGING APPS
3
Chapter Three
CONTENT.

Chapter Two
BRAND & BUSINESS
BEST PRACTICES
CONCLUSIONS AND
IMPLICATION
Chapter One
THE RISE OF
MESSAGING APPS
4
Chapter Three

THE RISE OF MESSAGING APPS
The Rise of Messaging Apps
How many of the messaging apps on the left do you recognise? Here’s
a statistic that might surprise you: all of them have at least 100 million
registered users (one of them has one billion).
With Facebook’s purchase of WhatsApp for $19 billion last year, a lot
of attention has been placed on the rapidly growing messaging app
market. Some messaging apps have even evolved into their own social
platforms with gaming and commerce capabilities.
The appeal of different chat apps depends on the user. For some, it’s a
way to get around SMS fees. For others, it’s a way to keep
conversations private. The popularity of chat apps also changes
depending on the country.
5

THE RISE OF MESSAGING APPS
6
Source: Statista
WhatsApp
QQ Mobile
Facebook Messenger
WeChat
Skype
Viber
LINE
Blackberry Messenger
Kakaotalk
0 225 450 675 900
48
100
212
249
300
650
800
860
900
Monthly active users in millions
The Most Popular Messaging Platforms Globally
WhatsApp leads the pack.
According to the Financial
Times, WhatsApp "has done
to SMS on mobile phones
what Skype did to
international calling on
landlines."

40 %
60 %
UNDERSTAND TODAY. SHAPE TOMORROW. 7Source:
32 %
68 %
60%
Percentage of
teens with
smartphones who
have messaging
apps
Source: PEW Research
THE RISE OF MESSAGING APPSLHBS SNAPSHOT SERIES // MESSAGING APPS

40 %
60 %
25 %
75 %
75%
Percentage of global
smart phone users
who have used a
messaging app at
least once a month in
2015
Source: L2

40 %
60 %
Messaging apps are used, on average, almost 9
times every day
Retention rates of messaging apps out-perform the
average of all apps
Source: FLURRY MOBILE

40 %
60 %
62 %
38 %
38%
Percentage of
customers who would
rather use chat apps to
engage with customer
service
Source: WEBSITE MAGAZINE

Chapter Two
BRAND & BUSINESS
BEST PRACTICES
CONCLUSIONS AND
IMPLICATION
Chapter One
THE RISE OF
MESSAGING APPS
11
Chapter Three

REPORT TITLE // IMPLICATIONS.
CUSTOMER
SERVICE
One Brands are increasingly seeing
the importance of meeting their
customers where they naturally
congregate
Two Brands are offering a range of
customer services, from fashion
consulting to travel booking
Three Speed is key and brand
response time must be quick for this
medium
BRAND AND BUSINESS BEST PRACTICES
12

ZALANDO CURATES ORDERS
VIA WHATSAPP
EXPLORE SIGN
Zalando Germany is testing curated shopping via a personal chat with
their customers on WhatsApp.
Undecided shoppers will be able to ask for outﬁt recommendations
based on certain occasions like work or wedding, their lifestyle,
wardrobe matching, their ﬁgure type and style preferences. A real
person will then ask questions and provide them with general style
advice and links to the items. It will also offer the possibility to order
items directly from the app, without the need of having to add the
items manually to a basket.
13
LHBS SNAPSHOT SERIES // MESSAGING APPS CUSTOMER SERVICE

KLM FIRST AIRLINE TO
PARTNER WITH FB
MESSENGER
EXPLORE SIGN
For the first time, people can use Facebook Messenger to manage
flights.
The partnership with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines allows KLM travellers
to check-in, receive flight confirmation, access boarding passes,
receive check-in reminders, get flight updates and make flight changes
through live customer service chat without leaving the Messenger
app. The feature will be available to all KLM customers who purchase
their tickets on KLM.com.
14

KAYAK & SLACK TEAM UP FOR
EASY TRAVEL BOOKING
EXPLORE SIGN
Users of the messaging platform Slack can now book flights, hotels and
cars on Kayak directly from the platform.
Just like when users post random gif's to the platform by writing "/
giphy [fill in the blank]," users can ask the kayak bot for flights by
typing "/kayak [text]."
For example, if a user writes "/kayak flights from Boston to NYC from
Thursday morning to Friday 6p," the bot would return a list of possible
results.
15

HELLMAN’S MAYONNAISE
SENDS RECIPES VIA
WHATSAPP
EXPLORE SIGN
Unilever launched a recipe sharing program for Hellmann’s
mayonnaise on WhatsApp, playfully called WhatsCook.
Users sent the company pictures of food and raw ingredients they had
on hand and a team of chefs would respond with a recipe based on the
available ingredients that also included Hellman’s. The inspiration
came from research that found four out of ﬁve people hadn’t decided
what they wanted to eat in the evening on a daily basis.
16

BRANDED
CONTENT
One Brands use chat apps to offer
everything from breaking news to
entertainment
Two Brands are beginning to
experiment with bot marketing to
simulate conversing individually on a
large scale
Three Users can opt-in to receive
content which they can pause or
leave any time
17
LHBS SNAPSHOT SERIES // MESSAGING APPS BRAND AND BUSINESS BEST PRACTICES

BURBERRY'S CUSTOM
FASHION SHOW
EXPLORE SIGN
Burberry teamed up with WeChat to personalize viewers’ runway
show experience.
The partnership let fans customize their experience by allowing them
to unlock special WeChat-only audio content, access exclusive details
about the inspiration behind the collection pieces, and follow VIP
guests during their experience at the show.
18
LHBS SNAPSHOT SERIES // MESSAGING APPS BRANDED CONTENT

CHAT WITH MOVIE
CHARACTERS
EXPLORE SIGN
As part of a promotion for the new horror film Insidious: Chapter 3, users
of the messaging app Kik could have a suspenseful chat with its main
character Quinn.
The promotion worked by letting fans of the film chat with a bot version of
Quinn. For the campaign, Insidious targeted Kik users with Promoted
Chats, so they could opt in to the film's marketing. Users were given the
option to text with Quinn, who is recovering from an accident. Users
engage Quinn in what begins as a normal conversation but quickly
becomes intense. The suspense builds as the chat continues over a few
days. Every time she initiates a chat, things are scarier as it becomes
apparent that she is being haunted.
The campaign is a good example of the growing phenomenon of bot
marketing on messaging apps, where brands increasingly have the chance
to communicate individually to thousands, even millions, of consumers.
19
LHBS SNAPSHOT SERIES // MESSAGING APPSLHBS SNAPSHOT SERIES // MESSAGING APPS BRANDED CONTENT

MERCEDES-BENZ CREATES
WHATSAPP NEWSLETTER
EXPLORE SIGN
Mercedes-Benz fans can now receive updates about the F1
Championship or the Deutsch Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) season via
Mercedes' newsletter on WhatsApp.
All fans have to do is add the corresponding numbers to their contacts
and send the number a message saying “Start”. Users can also
unsubscribe and stop or pause the updates by sending “Stop” or
“Pause” respectively.
On race weekends, Mercedes will inform subscribers about the
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team’s training, qualifying and racing
results. Additionally, Mercedes will send users the latest news about
training, qualifying and races of the Mercedes AMG DTM team during
DTM race weekends.
20

DEUTSCHE TELEKOM ON
WHATSAPP
EXPLORE SIGN
Users can now hear about network issues from Deutsche Telekom on
WhatsApp.
Deutsche Telekom recently added WhatsApp to its social media roster.
The company boasts it's the ﬁrst DAX30 company to use the app like a
news channel for corporate communications and plans to publish news on
innovations, products, network issues and major corporate or industry
news.
Telekom stated that WhatsApp messages are read more often than on
other platforms. While news on Facebook and Twitter is either not
displayed for all users or disappears rapidly in the timeline, WhatsApp
messages go directly to the phones of subscribers, without exception.
The company said news is currently written for its entire customer base,
but in the future could target speciﬁc groups with regional news, such as
expanding the grid.
21

TRANSAC-
TIONAL
SERVICES.
One Messaging apps are ideal hubs
for shopping and payments as they
have a ready and waiting audience
Two There is a value for the user in
that they don’t have to leave the app
to conduct business
Three Brands are using messaging
apps to sell products and offer
coupons
22

WeChat
China’s WeChat has over 650 million active users. In addition to
offering messaging options such as text messaging, voice messaging,
broadcast (one-to-many) messaging, video conferencing, sharing of
photographs and videos, and location sharing, it also offers payment-
based features. Here are a few:
- WeChat Lucky Money (Think PayPal)
- WeChat for Bills and Payment (Think Apple Pay)
- WeChat for Merchants and Brands (Think Shopify)
- WeChat for Banking (Think Ally Banking)
- WeChat Fundraising (Think GoFundMe)
23
LHBS SNAPSHOT SERIES // MESSAGING APPSLHBS SNAPSHOT SERIES // MESSAGING APPS TRANSACTIONAL SERVICES

McDonald’s Offers Coupons on
WeChat
EXPLORE SIGN
In 2012, WeChat opened its platform for businesses to create ofﬁcial
accounts. McDonald’s China was the ﬁrst to join in. Initially launching
coupons and branded games, McDonald’s started accepting WeChat
payments in 2015 on a small scale to sell a special line of toys. By 2016,
the company expects to roll out the payment option for all of its
products.
In McDonald’s mobile WeChat store, customers can also order
delivery and locate stores. McDonald’s has 6.3 million followers on its
WeChat account.
24
LHBS SNAPSHOT SERIES // MESSAGING APPS TRANSACTIONAL SERVICES

Haier Launches E-Commerce on
WeChat
EXPLORE SIGN
WeChat offers a feature called Weishang, which translates roughly to
micro business. Users can sell goods and services to their contact list,
advertising them through the app's Moments status update function.
Think WhatsApp mixed with Craigslist.
In July 2015, the home appliance giant Haier experimented by
recruiting 30,000 people to sell its products through WeChat.
Authorized Haier sellers got a minimum commission of two percent.
Haier delivered the items sold by the seller directly to the buyer from
one warehouse to another.
A Haier executive announced that it hopes to have one million vendors
on the platform in 2016.
25
LHBS SNAPSHOT SERIES // MESSAGING APPS TRANSACTIONAL SERVICES

ENTER-
TAINMENT
One Different messaging apps offer
unique features which attract certain
audiences
Two There are ample opportunities
for brands to create content that
leverages the special features of each
app
Three It’s important for the content
to feel authentic and casual
26

PAUL MCCARTNEY SELLS LINE
SOUND STICKERS
EXPLORE SIGN
The hallmark of LINE, a popular Japanese messenger app, is the more
than 10,000 emoticon options. Paul McCartney became the first
western musician to sell sound stickers within the app.
McCartney's official Line profile currently has nearly 11 million
followers, The new set of stickers includes a collection of 24 images
that fans download in order to paste into conversations with friends.
The singer recorded several phrases in both English and Japanese and
the sound stickers are combined with 24 illustrated emoji-like stickers
that convey various expressions. The release was timed with
McCartney's latest tour of Japan and the stickers are available for 100
virtual coins (approximately 2€) in LINE's in-app store.
27
LHBS SNAPSHOT SERIES // MESSAGING APPS ENTERTAINMENT

DITTY TURNS MESSAGES INTO
SONG
EXPLORE SIGN
California-based Zya released their app, Ditty, for Facebook
Messenger, which allows users to type text messages that will be
converted into auto-tuned song lyrics to send to friends.
Ditty converts up to 70 characters into music via auto-tune, setting
them to the tune of several popular songs, such as Hickory Dickory
Dock and more recent music such as Sia's Chandelier. After typing
their message, users are able to preview how their text sounds when
sung through various tunes which are displayed in a scrollable list. The
messages are then converted into 20-second music clips that are
shown in a personalized lyrics video.
28
LHBS SNAPSHOT SERIES // MESSAGING APPS ENTERTAINMENT

GAMES &
CONTESTS
One Messaging apps are moving into
the gaming market
Two Messaging apps are functioning
as the sole platform for the game
rather than the game being made for
and played on iOS, Android or other
mobile platforms
Three Some messaging apps are
experimenting with games that can
be played during video calls or within
group chats
29

FB MESSENGER OFFERS
HIDDEN BASKETBALL GAME
EXPLORE SIGN
Facebook created a basketball mini-game for Facebook Messenger
which let users play directly from the conversation window.
In order to ﬁnd the hidden game, users had to send themselves or a
friend the basketball emoji. Once the emoji was sent, users tapped it to
open the game.
Players had to ﬂick a basketball into a hoop. The game reset your score
if you missed a shot and moved the ball’s starting position around. As
your score improves, the game gets harder by moving the hoop
around.
30
LHBS SNAPSHOT SERIES // MESSAGING APPS GAMES & CONTESTS

OLAY DEVELOPS GAME TO
JUDGE USERS’ CUTENESS
EXPLORE SIGN
The American skincare brand Olay developed a game via WeChat
called “Fair and Rosy Skin, Show Your ‘Meng-ness’ Cheek to Cheek.”
Meng is a neologism derived from Japanese anime meaning cute and
innocent.
The game featuring actor Li Dongxue from the hit Chinese drama
Empresses in the Palace. Users were asked to “put their cheeks against
Li’s” (up against a photo of him on a smartphone), to make Li “blush”
and were given a score for how “meng” the users were.
The users can then share their results on their WeChat Moments for
the opportunity to win WeChat red envelopes (virtual money).
31

CHINESE NAMES FOR BRITISH
LANDMARKS
EXPLORE SIGN
VisitBritain launched the ‘Great Names for Great Britain’ campaign,
asking Chinese people on social media platforms like Weibo and
WeChat to give amusing and memorable Chinese names to a list of
101 British attractions. Submissions will compete for the most ‘loves,'
a chance to win prizes, and have the best names recognized in the UK.
The campaign plays on a common Chinese practice of giving
nicknames to favorite celebrities, places and foods. The attractions
range from Kensington Palace to things like the Scottish kilt and Loch
Ness Monster. Celebrities will also be renamed: Sherlock Holmes star
Benedict Cumberbatch has already been nicknamed ‘Curly Fu.’
32

Chapter Two
BRAND & BUSINESS
BEST PRACTICES
CONCLUSIONS AND
IMPLICATION
Chapter One
THE RISE OF
MESSAGING APPS
33
Chapter Three

IMPLICATION 1
People are starting to use messaging apps for more than just
communication. As the trend continues, brands will be able to
get deeper customer insights, become a part of conversations
in a nonintrusive way, and reach audiences where they spend a
great deal of their time. Markets, content and context are key
to connecting.
UNDERSTAND TODAY. SHAPE TOMORROW. 34
IMPLICATIONLHBS SNAPSHOT SERIES // MESSAGING APPS

IMPLICATION 2
Messaging apps are not just cheaper alternatives to texting,
they’re content portals that can facilitate direct interaction
between brands and their fans.

IMPLICATION 3
Messaging apps have the potential to be more powerful tools
than traditional social networks to build communities,
provided brands can seamlessly integrate themselves in
conversations without disrupting them.

IMPLICATION 4
Messaging apps provide retailers an additional channel to
increase and enhance interaction.

IMPLICATION 5
Messaging apps are a great way to reach Millennials who have
a higher propensity of using messaging apps.

Need more cases?
Get in touch with us
This presentation has been created with
help of the
LHBS Inspiration-Hub.

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INSPIRATION-HUB The Inspiration-Hub is a service that
gives marketing teams constant access to the latest insights
and inspiration, so that they can develop more relevant
marketing ideas.
http://www.inspiration-hub.com
INSPIRATION-HUB
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