Online casino branding & marketing trends in 2017

A brand-new trend: online casino users prefer videos.

The popularity of video content has grown significantly, gradually replacing former market leaders such as photo content and textual news. According to the statistics for May 2016, 11,4% of users prefer watching videos, while 10,6% of them flick through photos, 9,3% follow various links and 5.1% still track status updates. In the longer run, the popularity of videos will prevail.

Marketing Trends 2016–2017: The Most Promising Advertising Platform

The shares of money invested into the advertising campaigns of land-based and online casinos have recently become almost equal. Such types of media as television, newspapers, and magazines are gradually losing their positions. The statistical evidence is quite relentless: online casino users spend one-fourth of their time gambling via mobile devices.

With the gradual increase in the number of smartphone owners, the percentage of social network users such as Facebook has gradually climbed up, which makes advertising on this very webpage the most promising. The quantity of players who prefer visiting gambling resources through mobile applications on their cell phones is increasing exponentially.

Advertising providers prefer to invest in online casino ads posted on such websites as Facebook because social networks enable operators to keep up with the interests of their target audiences. You might have no idea what are the preferences of your client, however, Facebook knows for sure. In such a way, advertisers figure out what their visitors’ tastes and preferences are.

Mobile Applications: Trend of the Future

The amount of traffic from such mobile applications as “Periscope” is gradually increasing, overtaking, as a result, foreground positions on the current market. The majority of contemporary applications are communication-oriented (social networks, online broadcast services, etc.) and designed in a way that would stick not only to the high standards of the entertainment industry but also match advertising criteria:

• 24-hour technical support contributes to customers’ loyalty.
• Prompt launch of new products followed by appropriate advertising.
• Execution of online events and tournaments with substantial prizes.
• New format of the interviews.
• Product Placement involving studies of the users’ feedback.

Online casinos encourage their lucky customers to make live-stream videos of their winning experiences. Such video recordings increase the influx rate of users and contribute to the retention of loyal customers on the resource.

Mobile applications such as “Periscope” are turning into real marketing tools. Live users of such applications are customers and viewers at the same time. Such circumstances contribute to the creation of a special medium where simple users turn into active participants in the whole process, having a strong feeling of involvement and participation, which turns the whole idea into a promising trend of the future.

The Key Brand Marketing Trends of 2017

Previously, we could witness instant fashion for the brands that relied on gamblers´ involvement and were oriented on their needs, could have ironic slogans or be generally characterized as well thought and customer-friendly. However, the trend has promptly changed and edged away towards cheap tricks that do not really correspond to the facts. Advertising has become openly aggressive, haunting customers almost everywhere.

After facing the negative consequences of such advertising, customers of 2016-2017 are looking for moderately advertised products; however, the content of such advertisement should not distort the real qualities of the product, so that its image matches the reality. Customer-friendly brands promote personal values peculiar to their target audiences.

These brands comply with the following qualities:

• loyalty to the gambler;
• involvement and understanding of customers’ needs;
• persistence, insistence on high standards, nonintrusive counselling on important for clients' values (this might match with their personal needs and moral standards, as well as their abilities to play poker, etc.).

Target Audience Research

In order to have a better grip on the needs of their target audiences, both land-based and online casinos conduct thorough market research including making up a generalized image of an average consumer of the services offered by gambling houses. This generalized image is based on a whole variety of factors such as age, gender, income level, preferences, devices used daily, the amount of time and money spent on gambling; as well as tastes, habits, attitudes, personal and material values.

The whole combination of factors is instrumental in shaping an all-embracing type of gambler in order to address particular promo offers to particular clients. The focus has to be on the future audiences, a so-called younger generation, that will eventually replace the current generation of gamblers.

A typical online casino gambler of the future:

• adores travelling and exploring the world;
• is capable of handling multitasking challenges;
• creates an ideal online image of himself/herself;
• prefers comfort and protects his/her freedom;
• does not like being manipulated and puts many restrictions;
• while choosing his/her pastime, opts for trendy goods and services;
• thinks a lot while making his/her choice.

In the upcoming years, precisely the younger generation will make up the main target audience that has to be attracted by the means of online casino advertising and branding.

Popular Branding Techniques in 2017

The current trends in advertising involve the creation of commercials that could be characterized as above average, grotesque or even absurd. These videos are hard to forget. And, basically, it does not matter what kind of emotions they evoke, because they are predominantly aimed at grabbing attention, sticking in one’s memory and reaching out to the consumers. In 2017, the use of such methods of advertising will move to a new level.

Currently, celebrities are involved in ads, contributing greatly to promotion campaigns. A familiar face inviting a potential client to the online casino has proved to be a trend that does not lose its popularity over time. Celebrities become the face of the brand and clients start associating the gambling house with a particular personality, getting the sensation of involvement and attachment to someone’s stardom.

Humanity has turned into a global community of consumers willing to get all and everything right here, right now. No wonder why supermarket shelves are filled with so-called “three-in-one“ products giving small samples of various brands so that buyers might get all of them for little money.

Sharing and smart living are coming to the fore these days and in terms of online casino branding such practices comprise all the needs of the consumers. Such trends can be easily implemented in online gambling.

Conclusion: The Main Online Casino Branding & Marketing Trends in 2017

1. Focus on advertising on the Internet and in mobile applications. In 2017, advertisers will focus more on social networks and mobile applications in order to promote their ads. This is exactly the pattern that is observed concerning the European market of online casinos. By 2017 advertising budgets will increase significantly, especially in such developed countries as Germany, Great Britain, and the Czech Republic. The highest rate of expenditures on advertising is expected to occur in the mobile sector, to be more exact, it will increase up to 49.7% by 2020. This number accounted for 34.7% compared to 2015.
2. Global expenditures on advertising will continue climbing. At the end of 2016, the number will reach $538 billion, which is 4.6% more than the index of the last year. A significant decline in numbers is observed in the sector of the European market, as budgets have been reduced by 3% compared to 2015. By the end of 2017, experts predict some improvements and a slight growth of 2.2%. in the advertising share.
3. Commercials and slogans will become much more daring and explicit because it is getting harder and harder to attract online casino gamblers as the years go by. In order to accomplish it, advertisers tend to use creative ideas and innovative solutions.
4. Video content will continue to replace photos and informative content. By 2020, the volume of video traffic will increase by 4 times, and the proportion of video content is going to reach 79% (compared to 63% in 2015).
5. Active implementation of supplementary advertising, product placement and trendsetters’ choices. The use of these methods is not a really new approach but is going to be used more intensively in the future. Such advertising will undergo changes: the content will become more quality and creative.
6. Promotion of self-improvement. This type of advertising will encourage people to develop more and broaden their horizons. Brands targeted at this philosophy will get the green light from consumers.

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