Affiliates need to move out to move on
As the egaming industry experiences consolidation, the challenge for us all is to find opportunities to attract new players and retain current ones, says Gaming Media Group's head of affiliates, Mary Griffin. The key to this is to be able to provide the player with increasing gaming choices ranging from traditional offerings to the newly expanding area of soft gaming.
AS THE EGAMING INDUSTRY experiences consolidation, the challenge for us all is to find opportunities to attract new players and retain current ones. The key to this is to be able to provide the player with increasing gaming choices ranging from the traditional offerings such as poker, casino and sportsbook to the newly expanding area of soft gaming.
Online bingo has become one of the fastest growing gaming products and it continues to grow both in the UK and in Europe, opening up a whole new demographic of players to target. Online scratchcards are another product that has mass appeal and the range and frequent addition of new games are key to attracting and retaining the players.
Scratchcards present a good opportunity for affiliates to bring in a new product that they can quickly start to see revenues combined with a high-conversion rate to real money players.
It is a familiar game offline and presents a low risk entry game for new players.
We should not ignore the power of TV advertising for affiliates to boost player numbers. At Gaming Media Group we have already seen a steady number of players coming to our recently launched ScratchcardHeaven.com site through our exposure on Poker Channel Europe. The proliferation of TV advertising for bingo was a major factor in the rapid growth of this market.
In addition, affiliates need to know when adding a new product that their chosen operator/affiliate programme can provide good marketing intelligence. This can be from player profiles to most popular games and best converting banners. To work with an affiliate-facing brand it will make a difference in the operators’ investment in communications, creatives, promotions and multi-media marketing to support the affiliate’s acquisition efforts.
It’s the ability of both operator and affiliate to stay a step ahead of consumer trends and to use these openings in the market that create a real business partnership and form the basis to find new customers in this crowded market.
This article first appeared in the October issue of eGaming Review.
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