EGR Marketing Monthly Insights - April 2020

Highlights:

Market Watch: Forget the future, what can we achieve here and now?

RB Capital co-founder Julian Buhagiar urges investors and work-from-homers to capitalise on the countless opportunities that spring from turmoil

It’s deliciously ironic that Churchill is credited with the phrase “never let a good crisis go to waste”. Given the current situation, and instead of prophesising about the future, it would be more productive to show what can be done here and now, from a gaming, investment, and – crucially – personal perspective.

Casino

Let’s get this out of the way first. Contrary to popular belief, casino is not ‘safe’. While this market is enjoying a spike from stymied gamblers, slots-administered endorphins are triggered and rewarded very differently to that of sportsbook. Besides the exorbitant cost to cross-sell, the seasoned sportsbook punter has a well-honed endocrine that will not get its longer-term kicks from all those Book of Ra clones out there.

A more intelligent game is needed, one wielding a longer yield curve. One that fulfils short-term thrills, but also constructs wider arcs encouraging players to embark on quests that offer longer-term rewards. Content developers such as Green Jade and Kalamba (disclaimer: of which I am an investor in both) recognise this, and balance RTPs with longer, more intangible gifts that incentivise the hunter-gatherer in all of us. Casino needs to evolve to meet needs of new demographics, and just heaping rehashed content with different graphics will soon undergo high bounce rates from increasingly disincentivised casual players.

Esports

Which leads nicely on to the non-solution to sportsbook. It’s disingenuous to believe that traffic flows unilaterally from Livescore to Twitch, especially not without significant conversion costs, and eyeballs won’t linger there forever. Esports has a different engagement model, one that has a contrasting sit-back/lean-forward ratio and failing to understand this – i.e. which games convert from sportsbook – is as much of a car crash as asking sportsbook affiliates to use the same techniques to promote casino.

Just because the affiliate industry is not regulated – yet – that doesn’t mean player protection is someone else’s problem, argues Matej Novota at Casino Guru

At a House of Lords Select Committee on the social and economic impact of the gambling industry last month, GVC CEO Kenny Alexander said he believed affiliates should be licensed and regulated by the UK Gambling Commission, just like operators.

The UK Gambling Commission has largely left affiliate marketers to go about their business undisturbed, but could that be about to change?

As the gambling industry comes under the harsh glare of the media spotlight in markets like the UK, so, increasingly, do affiliates. And in an era of tightening regulation, responsible gambling has never been more of a watchword for those who want to futureproof their business and the industry.

Currently, affiliate sites are required to abide by the advertising laws of any jurisdiction they engage with. In the UK and elsewhere, this includes not using misleading language – such as suggesting that gambling can lead to wealth and sexual attractiveness, for example.

But we are also answerable to the gambling companies we represent, and any transgression – particularly one that paints an affiliate partner in a bad light – is likely to lose us business.

This creates a form of loose self-regulation, where affiliates are required to conform to the standards of the gambling operators – a highly regulated industry – or face the consequences. But politicians are increasingly suggesting this does not go far enough.

TAG Media MD Tom Galanis is adamant affiliates should have been given the opportunity to contribute to a charitable cause

The Betting and Gaming Council’s (BGC) decision to host the Virtual Grand National on Saturday and contribute all revenues therefrom to support the NHS is a noble gesture that has received backing from most corners of the industry. Even Tom Watson labelled it “ingenious”.

There are naysayers in the anti-gambling crowd who are labelling it a crass move to push the vulnerable towards virtual sports betting – the Gambling Harm APPG argues – a far more dangerous pathway to problem gambling. While I would tend to see the good in this endeavour – an effort to bring some form of excitement and sporting normality to the public, albeit in a surreal manner – it is incredibly easy to wag fingers at this as a means of maintaining the great branding bump the Grand National tends to bring operators in the UK and for it to be seen as a vehicle to cross-promote a (small) proportion of customers acquired in to more frequent gambling activity.

Tom Galanis, TAG Media director

The altruism acclaim takes a further hit within the industry with the BGC operators’ treatment of affiliate partners in all of this. Coming on the heels of the BGC’s announcement this week that they plan to develop and enforce the adherence of a new code of conduct on affiliates within months, operator affiliate programmes have fumbled the PR football in successive days, going from advocating the promotion of the Virtual Grand National earlier this week to strictly forbidding it today.

Read more…

Campaign of the month: Direct Line

UK-based insurance company refreshes TV ad campaign to feature classic superheroes

Direct Line has launched a major new advertising campaign that features some of the world’s most iconic heroes including RoboCop and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.

The ‘We’re on it’ campaign replaces the insurance firm’s ‘Fixer’ campaign, which saw Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs star Harvey Keitel play Winston Wolfe since 2014.

In ‘We’re on it’, which was created by ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi, the heroes spring into action to help people in need only to find that Direct Line has already solved the problem.

RoboCop, Donatello the Ninja Turtle and Transformer’s hero Bumblebee are the first characters to feature. The content marks the first time that Direct Line has brought all its product lines under one umbrella campaign. The advertisements were directed by Academy Award-nominated director Bryan Buckley.

In a series of monthly articles, Crystal Content takes a look at how gambling brands are using newsjacking to their advantage

The concept of newsjacking has been around for many years but more recently, this trend is catching on due to the increased use of social channels. Many of the top retail brands have been using newsjacking strategies to connect with their target market and now casino operators across the UK are catching on.

With more than 330 million people using Twitter globally per month, this channel can be extremely useful for newsjacking strategies. Here, we look at what newsjacking is and discuss some of the top operators that are giving this a try.

What is newsjacking?

If you are not familiar with the term ‘newsjacking’ then you should know that this process involves creating content based on popular events such as sporting events, TV shows and awards ceremonies. Breaking news stories can also be used by brands who want to increase their reach and align their casino with certain audiences.

While it might be harder to align a casino brand with a popular TV show, it is something which is happening much more often. We thought we’d look at two brands that are increasing their following and their reach with this kind of strategy in place.

NetBet Casino

NetBet Casino is a top casino operator based in London in the UK. This operator has a strong social media following with their Facebook fan page having over 35,000 likes. Over on Twitter, NetBet has almost 9,000 followers but has a reasonable level of engagement.

Recently, NetBet Casino has been trying out some newsjacking in relation to the Oscars ceremony. The Oscars is a massive event that takes place every year and there is always a massive buzz around it across news channels and on social media.