The Works + Mindshare pick up award at last night’s Astra Awards for Wentworth Rat chatbot

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The Wentworth Rat image (1).jpgAn Australian broadcast first chatbot developed by The Works’ social messaging agency On Message in partnership with Foxtel’s media agency Mindshare has picked up the Most Outstanding innovation Award at the Astra Industry Awards held last night.

The awards which recognises excellence in subscription television gave ‘The Wentworth Rat’ top honours for the most outstanding use of technological innovation in programming, production, presentation or delivery of a platform, program, channel or event.

Fans of hit Foxtel drama Wentworth were introduced to a new virtual character during its recent series five run, a Facebook Messenger chatbot which smuggled out gossip and exclusive content for fans.

‘The Wentworth Rat’ was a virtual inmate locked up behind the famous Wentworth bars who dished the dirt on some of the show’s favourite characters and storylines.

The Rat interacted with fans via Messenger, asking them questions and revealing exclusive content including videos, GIFS and audio, as well as giving teasers about upcoming storylines.

There were more than 2.3 million message interactions with The Rat and users spent one hour and nine minutes on average chatting with the bot during the season.

To view The Rat in action, click here.

Click here to view the full list of winners.