Advert regret: Is GambleAware's latest campaign the best use of industry donations?

It’s clear that over the past few months the online gambling industry has been tackling the issue of responsible gambling head on. But when charity GambleAware launched its latest gambling-harm awareness campaign Bet Regret in February, it received a rather mixed reaction.

In its first campaign by London agency M&C Saatchi, Bet Regret aims to raise public awareness of betting triggers and impulsive behaviours. Bet Regret aims to support 2.4 million young men aged 16-34, considered the group at highest risk, to avoid developing a gambling problem by driving self-reflection about their gambling.

According to Marc Etches, GambleAware CEO, the charity conducted extensive qualitative and quantitative research to create a message that would resonate with the target audience. “We took advice from academics and public health experts and looked at equivalent awareness campaigns from around the world. But it was really in the focus groups with young men that we learnt the concept of Bet Regret would resonate well with them.”

Led by director Chris Palmer of Gorgeous Productions, the set of three ads illustrate higher risk, impulsive forms of betting when drunk, when bored and when chasing losses.

The message GambleAware wanted to convey through the new TV ads was to bring “to life the universal feeling of regret when one makes an ill-considered bet”, explains Etches. The hope is that it will prompt gamblers to reflect on any feelings of regret so they can recognise it in the future and avoid the feeling by moderating their gambling over time. “Fundamentally, this is a preventative campaign so needs to appeal to gamblers who don’t consider themselves to have a problem. Indeed, we were advised that if we targeted problem gamblers, most of the audience would never feel it had any relevance to themselves,” he says.

Chasing losses

GambleAware says it has received largely positive reactions to the campaign from sports bettors and key stakeholders such as the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport and Public Health England. While the charity looked for other examples of ads with the same goals, it found that there were no tried and tested answers so it’s a case of testing and learning throughout the campaign’s evolution. “We were careful to keep the industry at arms’ length as we developed the campaign but we will need to demonstrate to them that their funding is delivering results,” explains Etches.

Mixed bag

The latest ad offering from GambleAware is “a dramatic step change from the usual placid and preachy efforts we’ve seen in the past”, says Harry Lang, managing director at Brand Architects. He believes that the new ads take the fight directly to problem gambling and having racing pundits like Oli Bell questioning a punter about how it feels to throw their money down the pan is “a pretty clear shot across the bows of the sports betting industry”.

Sky Betting & Gaming (SBG) executive chair Richard Flint, who tweeted his opposition to a live bet regret campaign, acknowledges that there are always a wide range of views on marketing campaigns. “Personally, I think the TV adverts are reasonably effective at highlighting some of the risks and downsides of ill-considered gambling. It’s important to note that they are not targeted at compulsive or highly problematic gamblers,” he explains.

Ipsos Mori has already conducted a major national survey to establish a baseline to measure the effectiveness of the campaign. Etches expects to receive the initial results from the survey after the first phase of TV ads has concluded at the end of the current football season. “In its first year, the campaign aims to affect attitudes and build awareness of the concept of Bet Regret. In 2020, we will challenge ourselves to achieve measurable impacts on gambling behaviour,” he explains.

SBG’s Flint feels that the impact of the campaign will be hard to measure amid the sheer amount of other safer gambling adverts and media commentary but he believes it will have a positive impact on raising awareness of responsible gambling. “My personal view is that they will have a small positive effect in highlighting some risks around gambling, as will operator advertising and Senet Group advertising and messaging. This advertising also helps open up a conversation between friends around gambling and risky behaviour, which is positive,” he remarks.

Sports betting analyst Joseph Buchdahl generally supports the Bet Regret campaign’s desire to tackle problem gambling and he hopes “that follow up research into its efficacy will prove to alleviate some of my concerns about the current tone it has struck”.

Raising concerns

While the intention of the campaign is to encourage moderation and to reduce gambling-related harm, some critics raised the question of whether the TV ad has the potential to increase self-blame. According to The Guardian, some experts were also concerned that gambling should not be promoted and that the advert effectively defected focus away from the industry’s aggressive marketing of long-shot bets.

As reported by The Guardian, Liz Ritchie, co-founder of the charity Gambling with Lives, told the BBC: “Given that gambling addiction is highly correlated with suicidal feelings, messages should not in any way increase a sense of regret or self-blame and we call for a ban on all gambling advertising.”

Etches responds to the criticism by saying GambleAware is acutely aware of the needs to manage the risks associated with any kind of campaign that talks about gambling. “We have ensured through rigorous script development processes, including testing and research with lived experience, that the campaign messages do not blame or shame the individual; rather that they demonstrate relatable experiences that will encourage gamblers and their peers to moderate their gambling and to seek advice and support before it becomes problematic.”

Flint says while he understands the argument, he doesn’t think mainstream gamblers will interpret the message in a literal enough manner to feel self-blame. “I also believe that for compulsive gamblers these adverts will not cut through at all, however I would value the views of those that have personally been in that situation as I haven’t.”

Kindred Group’s UK general manager Neil Banbury says it is important that GambleAware runs campaigns that are independent of bookmakers and not just a message that has been influenced by bookies. “It would certainly be good to see whether the industry could collaborate a little more in regards to what we actually should be saying about safer gambling.”

However, Banbury did echo the concerns of others about the perception of shaming of the characters in the TV adverts. “For anyone who does have a problem, the imperative should be to help them and make them aware of what help is available and what steps they can take. The more we develop messages around that and all of the stakeholders get on the same page the better. We certainly don’t want to be creating any feelings of shame when somebody has a problem,” he adds.

Lang also notes that there is a fine line to tread between influencing behaviours and being ignored as bland and irrelevant (as previous campaigns have been). “Yes, the scenarios reflect real life experiences that likely happen across the UK every night with problem gamblers and those on the path to problems in the future. As such, they might make people self-blame. My personal view is that in this instance the potential benefits of a successful campaign outweigh the risks.”

No Bet Inn

As part of its Bet Regret Campaign, the charity took a bold move by launching its first No Bet Inn pub designed to discourage betting made while drinking. Ex-Liverpool player Luis Garcia fronted the campaign by encouraging customers at the No Bet Inn pub in Liverpool to voluntarily give up their mobile phones and cut out gambling for the duration of the Liverpool versus Chelsea game on 14 April.

However, the campaign has ruffled feathers within the sector, with many industry executives questioning its premise and suggesting the focus on in-play betting was misplaced. SBG executive chair Flint argues that money could be better spent on research, education and treatment. “I think that this, and the ‘Can I have our ball back’ social media campaign, are ill-considered and poorly targeted stunts,” he explains. “All of these initiatives (and indeed the Bet Regret campaign) should be lower priority for funding than high quality, widely available treatment services and independent, high quality research on the causes of gambling addiction.”

Totally agree. This is a shameful waste of RET funding (which comes from the industry). I absolutely believe (as you do, I know) that much much more needs to be done to reduce gambling harm but not through stunts like this.

— Richard Flint (@YorkshireFlint) April 23, 2019

Others like Buchdahl feel that in-play betting is a part of gambling that most people enjoy responsibly and therefore should not be demonised. Although Buchdahl does make it clear to EGR Marketing that he is not an addiction expert and these are his own personal views. “I don’t like to see such activities regarded as immoral by campaign groups, newspapers and political parties, which seems to be the trend we are heading along,” he explains. “These are not immoral. The best way to tackle excessive or compulsive behaviour, whether it be betting in running, any other type of gambling or anything else for that matter, is via education, not ridicule or prohibition.”

It appears the message from the Bet Regret campaigns are certainly open to interpretation with many experts having different views on the purpose of the project. “If the No Bet Inn campaign is designed to educate, then I would think it useful. On the other hand, if it is designed to stigmatise people who bet in play or make them look silly then I would not support it,” says Buchdahl.

For David Billing, chief creative officer at The Beyond Collective, the new campaign falls into the “safe and laddy” space rather than opting for the hard-hitting campaigns that aim to shock. “They’re nicely executed, but in the end there’s no real jeopardy,” he explains. “The ‘problem’ of losing money or whatever is thrown away at the end. At ‘best’, the intended viewer will feel ashamed, which isn’t going to help. At worst, they’ll just think so what. This is a gentle tickle when a massive jolt is probably what’s required.”

Under fire

And it’s not the first time GambleAware has found itself in hot water over the content of one of its ads. Back in March 2017, its ad campaign featuring a girl sitting in her bedroom while an older man sits at a desk in the corner of the room was banned for being “highly distressing”. The man is meant to represent the girl’s subconscious willing her to gamble however viewers felt he appeared “predatory and sexually abusive”. The Advertising Standards Authority agreed and ruled that the ad should not be shown again because it contained “sexually coercive and abusive scenarios that victims of abuse would find highly distressing and traumatic”.

On the previous advertising faux pas, Lang at Brand Architects doesn’t expect GambleAware will make the same mistake again. “After that last debacle, you’ve got to assume GambleAware CEO Marc Etches had a pretty firm and absolute chat with the marketing team and agency. To get through, it helps to be close to the edge but I reckon it’s highly unlikely they’ll cross it again,” he comments.

But can more be done in general to address problem gambling across the industry? GVC clearly believes there is as last month the operator boldly called for a total ban on all televised UK sports betting ads at any time of the day, with the exception of horseracing. At the start of the year Sky Betting & Gaming also pledged to reduce gambling-related harm. This included improving the visibility, accessibility and awareness of its self-help tools, which featured in the firm’s second high-profile TV ad campaign dedicated to responsible gambling messages.

PR expert and former PR manager for Ladbrokes Alex Donohue believes problem gambling ads should avoid “finger wagging” and instead focus on using humour, feeling relatable and not appearing to preach.

Lang believes the egaming sector should take note from the tobacco and alcohol industries, which have also faced similar issues of weighing up commercial objective versus addictive products. “Ultimately, marketing campaigns can be ignored while a balanced ‘tripod’ approach of customer education, voluntary proactive responsibility from the whole industry and mitigating the ways in which gaming is promoted would be a good start.”

With GVC calling for the industry to go beyond the whistle-to-whistle ban due to take effect this August, where will operators turn their marketing budgets to next? In a world where people spend a huge majority of their time on their mobile phones, Donohue believes social media marketing is where the focus should be. “The whistle to whistle ban looks set to save operators huge sums spent on less targeted TV advertising that is harder to apply an ROI to,” he adds. “The fact that the industry has been so willing to give it up says a lot about where the most effective ad pounds are spent, with the less intrusive nature of the digital activity being a huge added bonus.”

Even with the whistle-to-whistle ban coming in, GambleAware’s CEO Etches expects there will still be a great deal of TV advertising pre and post games and for that reason keeping the safer gambling message high on the agenda remains critical across the board. And with support from heavy hitting operators such as GVC, it is clear the industry is taking its role in responsible gambling very seriously indeed.