Why Marketing a Bingo Brand Needs a Creative Approach

It’s a bit of a cynical point but the popular image of bingo isn’t one that’s immediately compatible with the kind of hip, modern people online brands need to get on board. It’s an unfortunate situation given that bingo is the perfect pick-up-and-play experience – it’s easy to learn, games are short, and there are plenty of incentives to attract a wide audience.

Tech-Savvy

With that in mind, bingo websites like www.bgo.com had to re-brand the game almost by necessity, building an experience that appealed to bingo’s old guard (a typically older demographic) as well as a new tech-savvy generation, one that favours the immediacy of mobile play and a more involved gameplay experience.

Using bgo as an example, the brand’s advertising has offered a unique approach to the above; firstly, by enfolding charismatic film star Verne Troyer into its marketing materials and, secondly, by issuing a challenge to customers: “Beat the Boss”. The campaign has had players trying to unseat Troyer as the belligerent, albeit fictional, chief of the company by playing games.

The Beat the Boss campaign has been running for almost three years now, with a new TV advert released at the end of 2016. During that period, bgo has evolved to become a brand offering twelve chat games every day, a significant draw for the younger demographic, which has grown up surrounded by social media.

techsavy

Convenience

Changing tastes in gaming have also proven significant in bingo’s recent growth; specifically, growing interest from women. Around the mid-point of the current decade, women became the dominant demographic in all forms of gaming, making up 52% of the audience. As many of those women prefer smartphone games to testosterone-fuelled thrillers like God of War, it’s perhaps no surprise that online bingo, long the domain of female players, is doing so well on mobiles.

The influence of women on the bingo industry is so pronounced that some brands don’t even bother marketing to men. A mobile company like Lucky Ladies Bingo caters almost exclusively to the “modern girl about town” with a pastel aesthetic and pictures of women on its website. It’s not as hare-brained a scheme as it might appear given that only 25% of UK bingo players are male.

It’s hard to put a price on the value of convenience too. Online bingo has taken the game to new places – the bus, the garden, even the bedroom – and created an on-demand gaming product. The extra variety that a brand like Gone Bingo has to offer, inclusive of slot machines and blackjack, is also a boon for players.

Finally, online bingo brands are almost uniquely placed in the online gaming niche for the rewards and other incentives they can offer to customers. Ignoring the casino staples like Welcome and Deposit Bonuses, loyalty schemes like bgo’s “Candy Club” offer access to VIP rooms, birthday presents and a personal manager.

It’s probably fair to say that online bingo is only just getting started as a part of mobile gaming so it’ll be interesting to see how brands continue to appeal to new and existing fans in the future.

gaming