Earlier this winter, the federal government deployed what is known as a chatbot for the very first time in a bid to raise awareness about driving high.
Public Safety Canada spent nearly $40,000 on the Facebook chatbot as part of their Don’t Drive High awareness campaign, according to documents recently tabled in Parliament.
The bot targeted 16 to 24 year olds and delivered messages that smoking marijuana can lead to impaired driving, which it reiterates is illegal. The campaign ran from December 25, 2017 to February 28 through Facebook’s messenger application.
The bot was designed by the Ottawa-based Banfield creative agency which is working on all aspects of the Don’t Drive High campaign.
Public Safety’s Media Relations spokesperson, Andrew Gowing said, in a response to an email from iPolitics, that the chatbot was meant to drive home educational messaging in a more novel way.
“The chatbot was chosen to complement an overarching strategy that included both digital and more traditional advertising tactics. It was selected as an interactive way to inform and engage users, by quizzing them on their knowledge of the risks associated with driving high and providing help with finding a ride home,” said Gowing.
According to his statement, more than 50,000 Canadians interacted with the device over the two-month period. There were three reply options: find a ride home; take the quiz; or get help. Find a ride home was clicked more than 21,000 times.
Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada was the only other government department to report expenditures on tools to spread messages on social media. Ministers Navdeep Bains and Kirsty Duncan spent money on standard Facebook ads.
While the Facebook chatbot was a first for the Canadian government, it’s been used by a variety of government agencies in the U.S. and around the world.
Kansas City’s Chief Data Officer developed one for their open data portal to make stored information about city news and events more accessible to the community. Transport for London, a local government body in England responsible for the transport system in Greater London, also tested the tool out providing users with live updates on travel routes.
It’s likely Canadians will see more of these applications as more government agencies make use of social media advertising — that is if people continue to use these platforms.
Facebook is under fire for a serious privacy breach that saw the personal information of about 80 million people around the world, including 622,161 Canadians, shared with a British firm that has been linked to the election campaign of Donald Trump and the leave side of the Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom.
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