How The Fraunhofer Society conducts storytelling via Apple Business Chat
How do organizations and institutions such as the Federal Employment Agency in Germany, the Bavarian Broadcasting or the Fraunhofer Society use chat services to present their projects and stories in an innovative and contemporary way?
The project by Fraunhofer Society is one of the most recent. On the occasion of its 70th anniversary, the society brings its patron Joseph von Fraunhofer back to life via Apple Business Chat. In the context of the storytelling project “Hallo, Joseph! #WHATSNEXT”, Joseph from Fraunhofer travels to the present world and reports regularly on new developments in personal text messages, pictures, video and audio messages.
How does innovative and contemporary storytelling work?
Today, many companies and organizations are facing the challenge of how to communicate projects and services to their customers, employees and interested parties in a contemporary and appealing way.
The Federal Employment Agency in Germany was looking for a new way to support young people in their career planning.
On the occasion of the centenary of the revolution in Bavaria, the Bavarian Broadcasting wanted to retell the story of the first Bavarian Prime Minister, Kurt Eisner.
With this pilot project, the Fraunhofer Society created something quite unexpected.
The Solution: Messaging with Apple Business Chat
With its “WhatsMeBot”, the Federal Employment Agency in Germany clearly addresses its target group – young people who want to know which type of occupation suits them – in a modern way and in the appropriate style via messaging.
On the occasion of the centenary of the Free State of Bavaria, the Bavarian Broadcasting brought the first Prime Minister of the State of Bavaria back to life. The bot named “Ich Eisner” (translated to “Me, Eisner”), the bot tells in real time what happened 100 years ago.
The Fraunhofer Society is one of the first organizations to take the opportunity to use Apple Business Chat for its information service.
It tells the story of Joseph von Fraunhofer, who comes from the past into the present and reports on recent developments in society, science and research from his perspective and enriches them with anecdotes from his past.
He regularly tells small stories, which together become one great story – it is Joseph’s journey through time. Most of the small stories are personal experiences, such as a visit to the Fraunhofer Annual Conference or the Hannover Fair.
In addition, interested parties and employees can actively participate in Joseph von Fraunhofer’s journey through time and ask questions. This results in a very contemporary and innovative communication of the society’s own history.
By tapping the messages contact button integrated into the Fraunhofer Society website (mobile/desktop), a conversation will instantly open in the messages app on any Apple device.
After actively agreeing to receive regular messages via notifications (opt-in), users are informed that they can stop the notifications at any time by typing “Stop” (opt-out).
In this storytelling project on the life and work of Joseph von Fraunhofer, the List Picker feature of Apple Business Chat is used to present the privacy statement. Through this feature, the user has a choice of whether to accept the privacy statement, which informs about how The Fraunhofer Society will use the customer’s data. With the List Picker option, the user gets to pick from a variety of categories that he/she is interested in receiving information on a regular basis.
Rich links are also used. These are links enriched with images, videos or audio files. For users, rich links offer added value and an enhanced experience.
Read the first feedback of “Hallo Joseph! #WHATSNEXT”, which is very positive:
In recent months, this has led to a lively dialogue both with Fraunhofer employees and with the general public. We have also observed a high level of user loyalty: Anyone who has made friends with Joseph remains loyal to him.
Sibylle Gaßner, Communications Department, Online Editorial Office/Community Management, Fraunhofer Society
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