Q&A: CEGO's chief exec on its marketing strategy and UK entry

EGR Marketing talks to Allan Auning-Hansen, CEO of online casino operator CEGO, about the advantages of in-house developed content and how it will give the firm an edge in the UK market.

EGR Marketing: How would you define the approach you take to marketing your brands in the countries where you are live?

Allan Auning-Hansen (AAH): We are currently live in Denmark, Sweden and most recently the UK with our Spilnu, Lyckost and HappyTiger brands respectively. Our marketing messaging is the same in each jurisdiction, and that is to focus on entertainment and casual casino gaming where our customers can enjoy long playing sessions for small deposits.

Casual gaming is in our DNA and our brands and games have been built to deliver fun and thrilling experiences rather than providing the opportunity for players to win big prizes. It is important for us to get this across in our advertising activity, whether that be television and radio advertising, social media or digital marketing.

EGR Marketing: How does your approach and tactics differ to your rivals? Do they differ from market to market?

AAH: I would say that we use the same tactics as our rivals, but our brand values and messaging are what makes us stand out from the competition. We always test new concepts and ideas – our testimonials TV advertising campaign has been a great success – but regardless of the tactics, our messaging always remains the same.

Of course, that is our focus on casual play and providing players with long gaming sessions for small deposits. It’s all about big fun rather than big prizes.

This is why our testimonials campaign has worked so well. It features real players who explain what they enjoy about playing at our brands and in particular the high levels of fun and entertainment they provide. Not only was this an effective way of conveying our key messaging but it has also helped to build trust among potential new players.

EGR Marketing: What is your most effective marketing channel and why?

AAH: To reach the widest possible audience, marketing campaigns must be run across all channels where the player’s attention lies. This is why we run campaigns across TV, email, SMS, social media, etc to ensure that our branding and messaging is delivered to exactly where our players – and target players – are at. No channel can standalone, so activity must be broad-scale.

EGR Marketing: What role does direct mail play in your marketing strategy? What are the challenges and opportunities here?

AAH: We mostly use direct mail to communicate with our players. This could be to make them aware of a new game that has landed in our lobby, or to make them aware of competitions and promotions that we are running. Again, all messaging aligns with our DNA and ethos which is all about fun and entertainment and providing long playing sessions for small deposits.

The challenge with direct mail is the volume of emails sent out. Each email must provide value for the recipient to open it and engage with whatever messaging it contains. Send out too many emails that deliver no value and the recipient will simply delete them straight away or unsubscribe from receiving them moving forwards.

EGR Marketing: How important is content in your approach to marketing?

AAH: We have spent a lot of time fine-tuning our messaging and tone of voice to ensure we engage our new and existing players. We are not afraid of trying new things with the content created for the purpose of marketing as this is ultimately what enables our brands to stand out from others in the market. So, we innovate, test the innovation, learn from it and make improvements.

Ultimately, it is about understanding the player and what they are seeking and then making sure our content talks to them.

EGR Marketing: Around 80% of your game lobby is in-house developed content. What are the advantages to this?

AAH: It is a huge differentiator as players can only play our games at our casino brands. It also enables us to continue to develop content specifically for our players – we can use the data gathered from each game to see what is and is not working and then fine-tune the next batch of slots to ensure they not only meet but exceed player expectations.

We can also make sure that the games we stock align with our focus on casual play and providing long playing sessions for small deposits. This has resulted in tremendous brand loyalty with market leading conversion rates and high levels of stickiness on our proprietary content.

EGR Marketing: Will you be taking the same approach in the UK market where you have recently secured a licence from the Gambling Commission?

AAH: Yes, we believe our in-house developed content will give us a huge edge in the UK market where we are operating our HappyTiger brand. Regulation is becoming increasingly stringent in the UK and our casual games align perfectly with where, ultimately, I believe the market is heading. And that is fun, entertaining experiences rather than the pursuit of big prizes. In short, low stakes, long play.

Owning the full value chain from platform to games to marketing means we are not reliant on third parties, and we have a proven track record of succeeding with this approach in Denmark and Sweden. We are really excited about bringing our take on fun, online casino and bingo entertainment with long sessions for low stakes to the UK population.

The casino has been open for a couple of weeks now and the early signs are very promising. We plan to keep adding more content to the game lobby and will increase our marketing activity over the coming weeks and months. We will also use our unique insights and data to keep fine-tuning HappyTiger and the games we offer to meet the specific requirements of UK players.

This is what makes us unique, and this is what will allow us to deliver unrivalled levels of fun and entertainment to UK players.