IGT
Acquisition and retention C
In last month’s GiGse preview we spoke briefly to Interactive IGT’s Director of Player Marketing, Peter Laverick, about his session: “Online marketing – acquiring and retaining online players”. This month CIO brings you the interview in full.
asino International Online (CIO): Peter, where do new players come from?
Peter Laverick (PL): There is an almost never- ending list of marketing opportunities out there today, and each region obviously has its own individual characteristics. Such a long list of opportunities has the potential to become very expensive in the long-run. We advise our operators to focus on tried and tested methods and focus on refining them to be the most efficient and cost- effective they can be. Typically we are focusing on Google Pay-per-click and Search Engine Optimisation, backed up by a solid affiliates strategy and, if budgets allow, some wide-scale media brand promotion.
CIO: To what degree is acquisition about
‘stealing’ from competitors? PL: In established territories it is obviously an
important part. If you look at the UK market I would say the majority of time is spent trying to take customers from competitors. In particular during high volume established sporting weeks like Cheltenham, all the major operators are constantly battling against each other. Newly regulating territories are different though, and it is here where I see the most growth in the immediate future.
“This industry is hugely competitive, and that means that if you stand still you are quickly left behind.”
CIO: With a more ‘mature’ industry are there
still vast numbers of potential players just waiting to be discovered and captured? PL: I think it’s a very UK centric view that the industry is mature, and potentially some parts of Europe too, but outside of that this is still a very new industry (for operators and players) and that means there is a huge opportunity to market to new crowds, but market with more innovative messaging than happens in the UK.
66 MAY 2012
CIO: In player acquisition which is more effective, brand marketing or specific product promotion? PL: I’ve always considered product promotion to be the most important, but you cannot ignore the significant effect TV advertising has had on the industry in the previous years. My final day as Marketing Director at Victor Chandler was negotiating their first TV ad campaign, and my biggest regret is we didn’t do it 18 months earlier! The answer is not really a yes or a no, it’s a balancing act between the two.
CIO: How has social media changed acquisition and retention?
PL: The definition of social media here is
important. If you are asking me do I think that creating fan pages and multiple twitter feeds give you an important and sizeable source of new player acquisition, then no I don’t. I do think they will become more important retention tools in the future as the newer generation of players expect to be communicated to in that fashion, but I don’t see them ever being significant acquisition channels. There are two ways in which social media is very important for acquisition, firstly for the organizations who have fully embedded gaming products within social media, and secondly optimizing a PPC strategy which can be much more targeted than Google. The ability to target specific demographics and other data within Facebook is something that will become of increasing importance.
CIO: How much harder do companies have to
work to keep their products evolving and remaining attractive to the players?
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