Dare to Engage: Captivate Your Audience with Messaging Apps and Interactive Content

In recent years, messaging apps have seen a meteoric rise in marketing, transforming how businesses communicate with people. Gone are the days of relying on traditional methods like phone calls and emails. Over 5 billion people use messaging apps worldwide, spending hours enjoying their convenience and multimedia features that make communication more engaging and interactive.

This innovation is necessary because people have an average attention span of just 8 seconds – an excellent reason to use interactive content. People engage with it two times more than with static content, and turning to interactive experiences is a general trend. 

Rakuten Viber is a frontrunner for delivering fun and interactive experiences to users. From vibrant stickers and chatbots to rich media-sharing features, its superapp capabilities create opportunities for businesses to drive brand awareness and foster meaningful connections with their audience. 

This article explores how Rakuten Viber tools can be used by businesses to provide dynamic experiences to their audiences.

Rakuten Viber Lenses: Viral Engagement with Augmented Reality

Let’s begin with Rakuten Viber Lenses, a tool introduced in 2021 leveraging AR technologies' popularity among wide audiences and especially Gen Z users. With its help, one can add various 3D elements, including objects and animals, to photos and videos and then share them within Rakuten Viber or save them to the gallery.
 

This Augmented Reality tool helps increase awareness about brands’ products or services in a fun and interactive way. For instance, a fashion retailer can let users virtually try on accessories, such as sunglasses or hats, or test multiple lipstick shades via a special lens. 

Here is how brands should go about creating branded Rakuten Viber Lenses:

1. Identify your target audience and their interests.
2. Research popular lenses and see what other brands are doing for inspiration.
3. Create high-quality lenses that reflect your brand's values and message. Or have Rakuten Viber create them for you – contact us to discuss the design and cost.
4. Promote the lenses to your audience via the brand's communication channels.

Rakuten Viber Lenses – in the form of interactive games, quizzes, character interactions, and more – can encourage users to share your content and strengthen your brand visibility.

A brand can create a series of lenses celebrating various holidays and seasonal events and become viral while users share this content with their friends and families. An effective tactic is creating Rakuten Viber Lenses related to local context, culture, and events. For instance, feature local languages or iconic landmarks on them. Brands can also design virtual trivia quizzes, sports skill challenges, or virtual dress-up lenses. The interactive experiences they offer can boost brand awareness and make the brand even more recognizable.

Stick to Success: Boost Your Brand Appeal with Rakuten Viber Stickers

To strengthen brand visibility and communicate with users in an interactive way, brands can also create customized stickers that users can download and share with their friends. There is an opportunity to build more complex campaigns with "Free & Follow" sticker packs. They automatically subscribe users to the brand's channels or chatbots on Rakuten Viber when downloaded, expanding their audience.

With over 1 billion stickers sent monthly, businesses can leverage Rakuten Viber Stickers for their marketing strategy and use them as part of brand-building and audience engagement efforts.

While creating stickers, don’t forget the following:

• The text must be engaging, relevant, and conversational. It must connect with users. Avoid offensive language and focus on the context of sticker usage.
• The visual design has to be creative, clear, appealing and represent your brand or campaign well. Don't make stickers look like generic ads.
• Add sound to enhance the impact and capture users’ attention.

We can help you create fun and engaging stickers that will click with your audience and build awareness about your brand. 

Rakuten Viber Chatbots Ignite Brand Loyalty and User Interaction

Rakuten Viber Chatbots contribute to engagement via instant and personalized communication with people. These are the bots’ benefits:

• 24/7 support ensuring assistance is always available for users.
• Virtual storefronts showcasing the brand's products and services within the chat interface.
• Efficiency in handling customer queries, which reduces wait times and increases satisfaction.

To use a chatbot effectively, follow these steps:

1. Determine goals and desired outcomes, such as increasing engagement or providing instant support.
2. Understand your target audience and their preferences, needs, and expectations. You can integrate your chatbot with a CRM system to collect and analyze insights about the audience for even more successful campaigns.
3. Define the chatbot's unique identity, tone, and style that aligns with your brand.
4. Identify use cases where the chatbot can assist users.
5. Design the conversation flow and interaction patterns, including user inputs and bot responses.
6. Test the chatbot for smooth functionality and user satisfaction.
7. Launch and continuously optimize the chatbot based on feedback and data analysis.

Success Stories of Companies That Used Rakuten Viber Chatbots and Stickers in Synergy

The examples below demonstrate how Rakuten Viber Chatbots and Stickers can effectively work together helping brands to build awareness and drive users further down the marketing funnel. 

Coca-Cola

The company launched a Rakuten Viber Sticker pack and Chatbot experience in Bulgaria to increase the reach and conversion rates of its promotional campaign. It led to almost 30 000 cap codes redeemed within 1 month and an impressive 30% conversion rate. This campaign was recognized at The Digiday Awards Europe and won the prize in the “Best Use of Mobile” category. 

Raiffeisen Bank

Raiffeisen Bank in Serbia leveraged animated Rakuten Viber Stickers that led users to subscribe to their chatbot. In order to engage customers and provide quality customer service, both the sticker pack and the chatbot were created in Serbian. They achieved remarkable success: 850K exposed Serbian users, more than 209K sticker packs downloaded, and over 120K users subscribed to the chatbot where they could interact with a brand.

Human Improvement Project

In collaboration with the Human Improvement Project, a non-profit research institution specializing in psychology, neuroscience, and relationships, Rakuten Viber has developed a chatbot called "Happiness Tips." It offers a relationship quiz, videos, and helpful advice to users. A themed sticker pack was designed to promote the bot, allowing users to share positive emotions while also subscribing them to the chatbot upon download. This approach resulted in 5.3M sticker pack downloads and 1.1M users interacting with the chatbot weekly.

Worddio

A similar approach was used by a language learning platform Worddio which launched the Worddio Language chatbot and sticker packs on Rakuten Viber to reach a global audience. This campaign resulted in 6.8M sticker pack downloads, 2.4M bot subscribers, and 529.1M bot messages sent. 

​​Harness the Power of Interactive Content & Messaging Apps for Lasting Connections

Embracing new marketing trends and harnessing the power of interactive content on messaging apps is imperative for businesses that want to stay ahead of the competition. By integrating innovative strategies and engaging people through multimedia experiences, marketers can unlock immense potential for building brand awareness and increasing customer interest.

To secure a competitive edge, marketers must step out of their comfort zones and explore the boundless opportunities that interactive content and messaging apps offer. So, be bold and creative and let your brand's voice shine on Rakuten Viber.