Gambit Gaming Marketing event 14June06 report

The Public Gambit Event focusing on

Gaming Marketing

Specifically on "What Works", (with examples, numbers and case studies)

14th June 2006

Gambit public forum on Gaming Marketing speaker lineup: (from left), Simon Mansell, MD of TBG London, Jason Chess, Partner from Wiggin LLP, Jim Thompson, MD of 20/20 Ltd., Tom Kenny, COO of Cantor Gaming, Gareth Wong, Founder CEO of GamBond (sponsor of the evening), and Founder of Gambit Special Interest group.

Event report:

Making a name for yourself

by Lorien Pilling

Not even the lure of Germany playing Poland in the World Cup could prevent another good crowd gathering for the latest in Gambit's series of e-gaming discussion and networking evenings.

The topic on this occasion was the marketing of gambling and gaming websites, which is becoming an increasingly important element of the e-gaming business, as companies fight for position and customers in a maturing industry.

Jim Thompson, MD of branding, design and strategy company 20 | 20, kicked the evening off with a case study of the re-branding of online bookmaker Victor Chandler. He highlighted the fact that Victor Chandler previously consisted of a number of sub-brands developing independently (e.g. online casino, bingo, sports book et al.), each with a disparate image.

The aim was to create a brand identity and marketing platform that were not only consistent across Victor Chandler's gaming channels but also across different languages, reflecting its international reach.

Jim presented an interesting comparison of other brands in the e-gaming sector, looking at logos, corporate colours and typography. He showed that by rationalising Victor Chandler's online products under the vc bet, vc casino, vc poker, and vc games categories, the company had achieved a more cohesive brand architecture.

Jason Chess, partner at media law firm Wiggin, switched the focus from the creative to the regulatory with a legal assessment of "what you can't do" by way of advertising online gaming and gambling.

After providing a superbly concise overview of the relevant Acts and laws in this area, he took as the focus of his talk the joint guidance on advertising remote gambling issued by DCMS and the Gambling Commission in March 2006.

Jason looked at some of the 'grey areas' of the legislation, as well as explaining the practical definitions of some key terms, such as 'factual information', 'advertising', and 'inviting'. But, by way of conclusion, he stated that the tax regime the UK Government imposes on remote gambling will be as influential a factor in attracting e-gaming companies as any advertising restrictions.

Perhaps the most thought provoking statistic of the evening was the one put forward by Tom Kenny, COO of Cantor Gaming:

· More than 1 in 10 of Greater London AB 24 - 44 year-old men play poker online

Tom raised this figure in questioning whether the e-gaming market was really reaching saturation, as some commentators are speculating. He argued that operators were just fighting for a share of the same market rather than seeking to grow the market. The real marketing challenge, he believed, was reaching the large number of new customers for whom existing remote gaming brands have no appeal.

To this end, Tom outlined Cantor Gaming's strategy of teaming up with partner companies to offer white label e-gaming services through brands that have not been traditionally associated with gambling.

He was even able to make an exclusive announcement to the assembled Gambit audience, revealing details about Cantor's new casino website the day before it went live. The website is being run in partnership with the Emap-published men's magazine FHM and is intended to be the first of several such branding deals.

Simon Mansell, MD of online marketing agency TBG London, gave the final presentation and used it to stress the importance of measuring the effectiveness of online marketing campaigns.

Simon drew upon the work his agency had done for the Cyberslotz bingo launch to demonstrate the importance of truly understanding your target customer - their interests, media consumption, and online habits.

He showed online sources for finding out which websites a user goes to before and after visiting your site and also for discovering where your competitors' campaigns are running.

For the Cyberslotz launch Simon explained that there was a concerted change in emphasis during the campaign, as more information about the performance of various elements of the campaign became available. Very simply, he said, identify the sites, formats, and even times of day that are producing most conversions and focus on them!

In the discussion that followed the four speakers, one of the main talking points was whether e-gaming is anything more than marketing because a lot of companies offer exactly the same casino and poker games. Success is, therefore, achieved not through product differentiation but by having the most trusted brand and most effective player recruitment campaigns.

The relative merits of above the line marketing compared to direct marketing of e-gaming services were also covered, as was the idea that the focus of marketing activity should broaden out from just the brand name to include other elements, such as payments.

The marketing event rounded off an excellent first half of the year for Gambit, which has seen three highly successful events hosted at Cass Business School. After a well-deserved break for the summer, Gambit will return refreshed on Tuesday 5 September ready to tackle the subject of "Talent".

Report finished.

We had over 180 people registered, including representatives from these companies below: e.g. Party Gaming, Barclay Capital, Deutsche Bank, Clark McKay & Walpole, Leisure report, Open University, WagerWorks, William Hill, Heidrick & Struggles, Gambling.com, ArkSports, Atos Origin, Flytxt, Earthport Plc., Unibet, Edgar, Dunn & Company, Sportingbet Plc., Gaming Corporation Plc., Betting Corp, Deutche Bank, Cantor Index, Victor Chandler, Prism-e, Price Jamieson,

Pentasia, ABN Amro, Chartwell Games Corp, Fox Sports, PIMS-SCA, Berwin Leighton Paisner, Endemol Gaming, Interactive Investor, BETonSPORTS plc, ATE, PartyGaming Marketing UK, Adurion Capital, Betex Plc, Mfuse, PKR, M&C Saatchi, Wand Agency, Ovum Plc., Press Association, Clara.net, J.M.Finn, BetOnMarkets.com, Ukash, BetBrain, WBX, Global Leisure Partners, EuromoneySeminars, betbrokers, Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham LLP, etc.

Further Networking on the evening after the Gaming Marketing event.

Speakers on the night:

1.) Tom Kenny, COO of Cantor Gaming - Case study on the new house hold brand white labeling that just launched, new developments in Las Vegas

2.) Jim Thompson, MD of 20|20 Ltd. - Case study on re-branding of Victor Chandler's on and offline estates, download his presentation here.

3.) Simon Mansell, Managing Director, TBG London

Cyberslotz – Bingo Launch – A Case Study - Understand your target audience - Ensure your offer is competitive - Come up with an engaging idea - Place media appropriately - Optimise - The Results! download his presentation here.

4.) Jason Chess, Partner, Wiggin solicitors - advertising of gaming: Section 42 - regulation of gaming on TV: OFCOM rules and product placement. download his presentation here.

Thank you goes out to the event co-sponsors:

Gaming Marketing Event media partner:

Email us if you have any suggestions or indeed want to be kept informed about future Gambit event.

Speaker Profiles:

Richard Sowerby, Gala Group Sales & Marketing Director:

Richard started his career with Gala in 1997, leading the management buy-in along with John Kelly. Richard began his career as an account executive at the international advertising agency J.Walter Thompson in London. Over the following years his advertising career took him to a number of international advertising agencies, where he held senior positions and was responsible for the advertising of clients such as Coca Cola, Birds Eye, General Foods, Friends Provident and most recently Burger King and Western Union. Richard lives in Weybridge, is 52 years old and is married with three children.

Tom Kenny, Cantor Gaming, Chief Operating Officer:

Prior to Tecbet, Tom was Vice President e-business with Citibank in London. He is a graduate of Balliol College, University of Oxford and has an MBA from ESADE Barcelona.

Simon Mansell, Managing Director of TBG London:

He founded the company in 2001 when he was 22 years old. Under his management TBG has grown every single year of its existence and is now one of the UK's most successful full-service digital marketing agencies.

TBG won its first client - Britannia Music - in its first month of existence. Britannia spent £1m with TBG that year, despite the market for digital advertising being at its lowest point, during which time TBG delivered it 100,000 credit-checked customers. In 2001 TBG also won a project from Vauxhall.

In total TBG billed £1.7m in its first year, growing to £2.1m in its second year and £3.7m in its third, by which stage it was ranked as the ninth-largest online marketing agency in New Media Age's tables. It billed a total of £4.1m in its fourth year. TBG's fifth year has started extremely well, with the agency winning accounts for Dating Direct, American Express and Ocean Finance.

Before TBG, Simon worked as Corporate Sales Manager at Scoot.com from 1997-99, selling its directory products to national accounts. While there he won clients including The Army and Buy.com. From 1999-2001 he was Business Development Manager at GUS Plc, where he worked on the interactive launch for MyPoints.com, an online loyalty programme. There he won clients including Britannia Music, BCA and John Lewis.

In November 2005 Simon was voted Media Week's "Young Media Personality of the Year".

JASON CHESS, Partner, Wiggin
BROADCAST & TECHNOLOGY

HEADLINE EXPERTISE
All aspects of media and technology, in particular broadcasting (television, radio, online, cable, satellite, DTT); content (production and licensing of programming); technology (interactivity, internet and online, e-commerce, walled garden services, transmission agreements, satellite and uplinking, DTT retransmission, production facilities); software and information technology (software licensing, systems implementation, outsourcing), and the associated regulatory and statutory background such as the Broadcasting Acts, Data Protection Act and EU broadcasting law.

Jim is managing director of 20|20 design and strategy.

He joined the business in August 1996 as director of brand and
communications and has been responsible for the creation of retail brand
identities for Victor Chandler, Arsenal football club, Supermercati Pam in
Italy, as well as the rebranding of Sainsbury's supermarkets and its sub
brand formats - Central, Local and 'Sainsbury's to You'.

Jim has lead strategic retail design programmes in the UK and across Europe
for Ford, Orange, Boots the Chemist, Mothercare, Axfood, Electrolux, P&G,
Interbrew and Douwe Egberts.

Prior to joining 20|20 he was responsible for the new Saab dealership
environment in Europe, Piaggio's brand communication in Italy, the creation
of a global brand identity, dealership design, guidelines and implementation
programme for Mitsubishi Motors in Japan. Jim worked on a variety of major
corporate design and signing programmes including BP, Credit Suisse and TSB
bank.

Upcoming Gambit Events

Previous Events
This site is organised by Gareth Wong, you can email him to discuss any aspects relating to this site.

Order your copy of the new InBusiness magazine (cover article about the gaming gambling market), Cass Business School's in-house magazine.