Simon Spaull, chief development officer, TBG Digital
Simon Spaull of online advertising agency TBG compares egaming's use of emerging marketing channels to that by other sectors.
eGR: The advent of TV advertising in 2007 aside, what would you pick out as the most important developments in advertising and marketing for UK operators in recent years?
Simon Spaull (SS): Google Adwords have been one of the defining developments in the last year, particularly for egaming operators, who are otherwise heavily restricted by gaming addendums and seeking approval for their adverts due to strict regulations. However, there is still a huge challenge for the gaming industry to advertise online, partly due to competition and the fact that certain types of games hold more resilience in the social media space as they have a strong community element, for example bingo.
eGR: TBG works across a variety of sectors, how does egaming’s use of social media compare to that by other clients you work with?
SS: Although the retail and FMCG [fast moving consumer goods] sectors have shifted from mainstream agencies to specialist digital advertisers, it is still a bit too early for the gaming industry to take the leap into social media. Traditional forms of advertising that are offline are still a preferred medium for this sector, such as TV and sport sponsorships. Educating the gaming sector into the importance and value of social media is key to initiating the sort of shift we have witnessed in the retail sector. The value TBG now attaches to social media is reflected by the fact we have shifted the entire business to focus on Social.
eGR: What particular challenges does measuring the impact and return on investment (ROI) of campaigns present to egaming operators. Again, how do they measure up to other sectors on this front?
SS: For gaming, measuring online impact is a challenge, particularly compared with traditional channels, where the metrics are well known. Online, there are often high costs to get a player in and then a long wait to see if they monetise. In terms of utilising Facebook as an online and social media channel, we find gaming operators tend to be more nervous to spend the cost per acquisition (CPA) rate because of the additional costs that are attached such as CPC.
Retail however, has benefited the most in their online ROI. This is down to a variety of reasons, key of which are the promotional offers and deals they can use to target a wide variety of audiences online, the ability to react faster to demands and consumer attitudes and the wide variety of opportunity available online. In the next year or so, we anticipate retailers will take the next step in consumer engagement by offering consumers the chance to purchase goods via Facebook using credits. This trend is growing, particularly in the FMCG sector where more purchases are made outside of the operators dot.com websites “ Coca Cola is a classic example, who receive 300,000 visits to the corporate website, but have 32 million fans on Facebook.”