In this month's Founder's Column, in collaboration with GameOn, Jo Dennis, UK & EMEA Director at Incline Gaming Marketing, explains the importance of data and seasonality in creating personalised experiences.
Making your promotions contextual and incorporating seasonal social elements will not only improve the performance of your earned ads, but it will also increase engagement with your brand.
In the lucrative run-up to a crowd-pulling event, whether it's a tournament like this summer's Euros or a festival like Halloween, marketing that taps into the excitement, anticipation and emotion can help build stronger connections that motivate people.
Find the hook
Few industries are as seasonal as sports betting, and the complexities are even more pronounced than in other industries such as e-commerce or retail. The ever-changing calendar of high-profile sporting events creates significant variances, especially for user acquisition efforts.
But seasonality isn't limited to sports: the world shares a common schedule of holidays and celebrations, each of which provides an opportunity to market around a common theme.
For example, in the U.S., Incline's UA campaigns leveraging 4th of July creatives saw an average 32% increase in click-through rate and a 13% increase in conversion rate. Similarly, Halloween-themed video ads saw a 21% increase in click-through rate. So the data doesn't lie.
Leveraging Data
Data has been at the center of industry discussions for years. From understanding player behavior to customizing products to deliver better experiences, data is essential to the success of any igaming marketing campaign. The best way to leverage this is to create personalized, targeted campaigns and messaging based on player preferences, activities, and demographics.
But really, it's all about tracking – continually looking at your library to understand which campaigns performed best, what specific elements drove that engagement, and what features you can replicate in future promotions to get the same or better results. It's data science wrapped in a creative flavor.
While the majority of igaming operators are already using seasonal and geo-specific creatives, I definitely think there is room for further sophistication.
Take Spotify Wrapped, one of the GOAT seasonal campaigns: Spotify provides a beautifully packaged, interactive, personalized, and sentimental yearly gift to all its users, building a lasting connection simply by giving engagement data back to its customers.
Driving performance
Creating a strong connection and resonance with our target audience is what we specialize in. I co-founded RCA, a creative design agency focused on the iGaming sector, in 2018. At the time, our core services were focused on brand development.
I knew that to achieve success I needed to win big projects and build a portfolio.
Our first brand brief came from a sportsbook just entering the market, at the very beginning of their journey. What started as a brand identity assignment quickly moved into UX/UI design. We created full specs for their desktop and mobile platform screens, as well as all marketing, campaign and event assets. This was the perfect starting point to learn the igaming design language.
As of 2024, RCA is part of Incline, a Conexus Group company. There is great synergy between the two companies, not only in providing end-to-end digital marketing solutions, but also in their corporate philosophy. When Incline CEO Pete Laverick shared his presentation, one phrase immediately stood out, a phrase we have used since launch: “We don't just paint.”
Understand the nuances
As we all know, regulations vary widely from region to region, so there is no one-size-fits-all approach to digital marketing. In the US, with its focus on iOS native apps, advertising regulations vary widely from state to state, while the UK is facing increased compliance around vulnerability, financial and age verification checks, and direct marketing opt-ins.
In Europe, advertising regulations vary widely from country to country. Some countries have very strict restrictions on promotions to address responsible play. However, as we have seen in Spain, bans on gambling advertising are not always permanent. Some provisions, such as promotions targeting new customers or using celebrities to endorse a brand, were invalidated by Supreme Court rulings.
Naturally, we leverage Incline’s US digital marketing best practices to accelerate our partners’ success, but being part of the Conexus group also gives us access to vast amounts of data and market insights that allow us to strategize a nuanced approach to brand advertising for operators across the UK and EMEA.
Secret sauce
Behind all the data and mechanics of advertising, a successful campaign ultimately depends on a compelling brand personality that resonates with customers. This isn't advertising, this isn't design, this isn't marketing — it's your company's entire belief system, communicated consistently across all touchpoints.
The problem across all sectors (not just iGaming) is that investment in “brand” isn’t tied to a tangible ROI like other marketing strategies – for example, advertising performance can be tracked with hard data, but quantifying the impact of a brand refresh requires a more complex set of metrics.
But without a strong brand core to pivot around, your marketing assets and activities can seem disjointed, scattered, and worst of all, lacking in style, substance, and personalization. For advertising to be effective, viewers must instantly connect with the visuals, words, and emotions it evokes. Promotion is only half the story.
Especially at igaming, the mindset is, “We're still making a ton of money, so why does brand matter?” The reason brand matters is because at the heart of any successful business are loyal customers who understand the brand experience better than you do. Customers expect to experience a moment of delight with every interaction. If they don't get that, they'll move on and put their money somewhere else.
As an industry, iGaming could focus more on narrowing the gap between branding and advertising, injecting more personality into promotional offers to drive engagement and strengthen reputations. This could lead to a more diverse industry, with more differentiation and depth.
