BBC Earth, the BBC’s global factual brand has partnered with fan interaction company Monterosa to deliver ‘Real Happy Moments’, a bot for Messenger which serves up individually tailored video montages for natural history lovers globally.
Monterosa has delivered the solution based on its new FanBot™ product which taps into Messenger’s growing userbase of more than a billion monthly active users. Running on Monterosa’s award-winning interaction platform LViS, FanBot is made for large scale usage, working simultaneously across territories. In addition to personalised video, it has the ability to entertain audiences with live interactivity including voting, ratings and predictions based on user preferences.
For the BBC Earth solution, the Bot asks users a short series of questions, creating a personalised Happiness Profile. It then correlates those user preferences with BBC archive footage to produce individual Real Happy Moments: personalised, sharable montages with scenes selected using intelligent tag matching. Available through Messenger at any time of the week, based on their specific preferences.
Each video clip contains the name and Facebook profile picture of the user. Deploying machine learning techniques, the Bot uses feedback via emojis to improve the algorithm. It comes just as American audiences are tuning into Planet Earth II, which premiered on BBC America in February and forms part of BBC Earth’s Real Happiness Project.
Bots for Messenger are growing in popularity as a convenient, conversational way for companies to communicate and serve content to consumers, and this is the first time a broadcaster has utilised archive footage and smart automated editing to create content for each user individually. In order to start a ‘chat’ with BBC Earth, Facebook users simply need to follow the link, tap the Message button on the official Facebook page, or to search Messenger for bbcearth.
Alex Ayling, Head of Digital Studios, BBC Worldwide said “We’re always looking at new and innovative ways to bring BBC Earth’s vast archive of incredible natural history content to our audiences around the world. We’re excited to partner with a leader in digital innovation like Monterosa, so that our fans can – for the first time – create personalised moments of Real Happiness and share them online to give even more people a chance to enjoy their uplifting effect.”
Tom McDonnell, CEO, Monterosa: “Personalisation, short-form video and bots are three of the hottest topics in entertainment. We’re thrilled to partner with the BBC to break new ground with the launch of FanBot, utilising the growing Messenger platform as a new channel for video and the BBC’s amazing natural history footage.”
Monterosa, an existing Facebook Media Solutions partner, has extensive experience delivering high-profile, live fan interaction products for leading broadcasters, brands and sports rights holders. It recently produced the chart topping ‘I’m a Celebrity’ fan app for ITV in the UK, and worldwide it delivers fan interaction technology to a wide range of entertainment properties from Dancing With The Stars, Big Brother, The Voice, Q The Music to UEFA EURO 2016, World Rugby, Copa America, TF1 (France) and France Télévisions.
Staff Writer
