75
executive of cer Andrew Klebanow says. “I haven’t seen it work. All I’ve seen it do is give employment to people who sit on the web all day.”
Relevant and local The rst step to reaching the mainland market is localisation. “You can’t just translate your online material
from
English,” Mr Wieners says. Beyond language, changes range from hav- ing the Chinese page served as a stan- dalone site, separate from other pages, to accepting mainland design and usage patterns, and further localising content to take into account geography and de- mography. “Western-branded casinos are at
the forefront of digital marketing [in Macau], speci cally because they have large teams in the U.S. that are able to help build strategy and learn from past mistakes,” Mr Wieners says. “Sometimes,
though, what these
organisations don’t take into account is the importance of a unique message when speaking to Chinese consumers. I look at the work Galaxy Macau did prior to its opening, including the dig- ital postcards and animated mascots that were shown across Chinese media. These gained huge traction across the Hong Kong and mainland audiences.” Mainland netizens have bypassed some Western patterns of use, such as
If casinos can get customers to join their social networks, they create a communication channel, gaining access to the surprisingly large volume of information people are prepared to share online
the use of portals, in favour of social media. Mainland users prefer content rich pages where they can nd infor- mation located in one place, although leading portal Sohu is moving towards a more graphic style. Mainland users also prefer to click
more, but type and search less. Click- through rates for online advertising run as high as 2.3 percent, Mr Wieners says, in a eld where 1.2 percent is con-
SOCIAL MEDIA HOPE FOR LOYALTY BOOST O
sidered very strong. The click-through metric is the number of clicks on an ad in relation to the number of times it is seen.
Full spectrum Reaching the mainland market also means understanding the unique equiv- alents of key social networks. The equivalents to Facebook are Kaixin001 and RenRen, YouTube is Youku, and Twitter is Sina Weibo. Mr Wieners says social network-
ing is heavily segmented with many narrowly targeted networks. Market- ers nd
P1.cn the most intriguing niche community because of membership
of individuals with
ages casino marketers. “I believe this will be the way forward in China and much of Asia.” Of the mainland’s 485 million In-
ternet users, 318 million accessed the Internet
from a mobile device, while
the number of home computer netizens stood at 390 million as of June last year, according to the latest survey from the China Internet Network Information Centre. Some experts believe that mo- bile Internet use via smart phones and tablets will overtake access via compu- ter before the end of next year.
its restricted a
monthly income of at least RMB8,000 (MOP10,055). “Go mobile,” Mr Wieners encour-
ne dilemma for casino marketers in Macau remains the reluc- tance of players to sign up for loyalty marketing programmes.
These reward schemes are the backbone of casino marketing in the United States, enabling casinos to identify and target their best customers by tracking player behaviour and other spend- ing habits. The payoff for customers is that tracking lets casinos personalise services and offers to their individual preferences. In the U.S., loyalty programme participation reaches as high
as 85 percent of players for Caesars Entertainment, the owner of Caesars Golf in Macau, according to Gaming Market Advisors chief executive Andrew Klebanow. In Macau, the estimated card penetration ranges from 10 to 40 percent, with Mr Klebanow sug- gesting 25 percent is a realistic gure. At Singapore’s two casino resorts, card penetration is estimated at 20 to 30 percent. So- called “uncarded play” leaves a big hole in marketing plans and nancial projections. Social networking and mobile apps could help bridge the
chasm, according to Hogo Digital vice-president for operations Chris Wieners. Mainland Internet users are keen social network- ers and mobile Internet use is growing explosively. To reach mobile users more effectively, Mr Wieners suggests
applications such as way- nding and game- nding for exploring property features. Those activities could be integrated with loy-
alty programmes to enable people to check and even earn points by smart phone or get special promotions while on the property. Tracking technologies could help properties identify which
followers are on-site, where they are, and where they spend most of their time, information companies seek via their loyalty programmes. “It’s a natural,” Mr Wieners declares. “The reason it’s not be- ing done, no operator is taking the lead.”
JANUARY 2012
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