Online gaming is an industry that continues to divide opinions across the world. Despite the sensitivity around the online gambling industry, it continues to attain new heights while increasingly becoming competitive. The difference in gambling laws worldwide gives gambling operators must be creative to reach their potential customers without being on the law’s wrong side.
Unfortunately, several traditional and promotional tools freely used by other industries to reach their potential market are not open to online casinos in restrained markets. The regulation and the industry itself are continually changing. It gives the iGaming operators a unique challenge to create innovative ways of reaching their targeted audience and make their products attractive to all players.
New advertising synergy for gambling operators
It is instinctive for online gambling operators to focus their advertising efforts on all possible online channels to maximize their patronage and ROI. In countries such as the United Kingdom, European and African countries with no crackdowns, casino operators leverage traditional advertising media, including print advertising, radio, outdoor advertisement, and promotions at big sports events.
In the long view, these marketing formats help stamp the brand identity in potential customers’ minds. Though the results from these methods are hard to measure, but quite disruptive when mixed with digital advertising. A bit of this synergy is now standard in significant sporting events across the world.
How Does the Industry Attract New Users in restricted markets?
Regardless of the geographical regulations, the gambling industry has new technologies and the internet to thank for open and creative strategies of reaching their audience. An iGaming company only needs a bit of innovation and up-to-date competitive intelligence.
Reputable gambling companies in New Zealand and other non-regulated grey market countries are thriving despite the restrictions. Their goal is to create compelling messages to build relationships with their current and potential customers and stay on top of their game via a variety of legal marketing workarounds.
Missing out on traditional marketing strategies, specifically print media, TV ads, radio jingles, and contemporary ones such as Google Pay per Click and Facebook ads, highly successful online casino websites in New Zealand can use unconventional strategies to a great effect. Content marketing with SEO practices is one popular digital method for providing information and being discovered easily via search engines.
Affiliate marketers also employ the same strategy to refer new players for monetary compensation based on the referrals’ actions or transactions. Other digital marketing techniques include email marketing, mobile marketing, retargeting, etc. Same as the affiliate marketing that ‘recruit’ armies of brand ambassadors create content and promote a brand for a commission, influencer marketing employs social media’ celebrities’ to endorse and promote their brand or products for pay.
Increased in social media presence, interactions, and promotions
The emergence of web 2.0 has seen new social interaction culture thrive on the internet. The evolution introduced social media as a new norm as almost everyone can create content and improve social interactions with no distance limitations. The gambling industry, which is known to embrace new technology, wasted no time offering social casino gaming and advertisements on social media.
Social casino gaming is simply providing gambling games on social platforms; it remains technically legal in almost every country. Many countries’ laws do not include social gaming, as they were most likely non-existent when those laws were made. In the same vein, advertising gambling on social media and the internet was absent in many gambling laws.
With that, social platforms have become an excellent tool for operators in countries with restrictive gambling regulations. These platforms fare way better than traditional marketing to reach targeted audiences via direct advertising and social engagements to increase conversion and brand exposure.
iGaming companies also have an added advantage of tailoring and tweaking their marketing messages to appeal to the young demographics, who are the most significant part of their market. The glamorization of gambling, imagery, influencers, and models’ endorsements help catch the audience’s attention.
Social media companies have their gambling policies. Facebook and Instagram have a real-money policy that prohibits the promotion of games of chance unless granted permission. All games of chance in an authorized jurisdiction must also target people over age 18. But gambling companies can only be limited by their creativity.
Final verdict
More than most industries, players in the online gambling industry need to stay on top of technological trends and continuously strategize to stay competitive and legally beat strict regulations. The leading operators are doing just that with their marketing strategies. However, it is essential to discourage underage gambling and promote responsible gambling in clear terms while harnessing several creative and working digital marketing strategies.
