Marketing Overview

The online gaming operator will have proprietary mobile games and wagering options available to its current and future customers.  The basic keys of marketing the mobile experience are to direct and generate traffic, build a database of players, convert the traffic into depositing accounts, build a positive reputation in the gaming market, retain clients and establish a loyal client base.   This is no different in the case of mobile.

While generating impressive growth in gross win, companies currently plough a large proportion of gross win back into marketing to fund that growth.  For example, in 2004, BETandWIN achieved 71% growth in gross win compared to 2003, fuelled by recycling 45% of that gross win into marketing expenses. In 2005, the company has guided to at least 100% growth in gross win and a marketing spend of between Euro70-80m to achieve this, representing around 55% of gross win. In other words, accelerated growth is at the expense of short term profits.

However, the concern has to be that as the industry matures and competition increases, market share will be all about branding and marketing and the marketing spend will remain at high levels without the accompanying high growth rates in gross win that are currently being realized.

Given that Mobile is relatively new, marketing costs for this segment remain comparatively low.  It is s important (or more so) to focus on customer retention as it is gaining new customers, because one regular customer is worth tens of ‘one-off’ customers. 

As such, it is worth looking at a couple of other metrics. In order to by-pass the issue of customer churn and account for the marketing spend required to reactivate customers already registered, is it better to look at the marketing cost per active customer (rather than the cost of acquiring a new one) or the marketing cost per bet placed?  Whichever way you look at it, the big question is what marketing spend will be required to achieve a given level of gross win. It is untested in this new industry how customer dynamics will develop as the market matures and becomes more competitive.

The strategy of the online gaming operator is to increase the marketing capabilities and build the company’s brand identity by implementing a guideline and roadmap that ensures success.  And the challenge is to do all this without increasing the marketing dollars spent. 

Since a foundation of customers has been built, the online gaming operator would be advised to begin by capitalizing on the campaigns and customer database currently in place.  By simply improving the current marketing methodologies and implementing new tactics to convert existing customers to play mobile games, revenues could significantly rise.

The online gaming operator should employ marketing tactics in the beginning for low dollar outlay such as:

One of the proven tactics has been to send top players pre-loaded mobile phones.  Here’s how it works:

a.     The online gaming operator would choose its top 20 players in the casino and book, and ask them if they would like to have a new mobile device.

b.     The player would provide details of their mobile carrier (i.e.: T-Mobile)

c.      A phone would be pre-loaded with the software and sent to the player.

d.     The player would contact their mobile carrier and change over the ISDN access number and enable the new phone

e.     The customer would now have a new phone with preloaded software

This has proven successful for a number of reasons:

a.      The player is happy to get a new phone as a promotion

b.      The player feels obligated to try it out

c.       The player, already being a heavy user of thr online gaming operator, uses The online gaming operator even more

d.      The player tells his friends 

*Please note:  this is not meant to delineate that downloading the software is difficult for the average user.  By sending phones pre-loaded, the online gaming operator gives their VIP’s the ‘extra’ treatment.

Such a campaign could cost as little as $200 per phone, which is comparable with current the online gaming operator deposit matching promotions.

Please enjoy the overview into Mobile iGaming, and should you be interested in more complete information, please contact information [at] gamingpublic.com

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