Inside Asian Gaming

JUly 2015 inside asian gaming 35 a successful promotion, marketers need to entertain players to get them to buy into it and remember it. “I actually still do drawing drum promotions and I do it intentionally,” said Mr Thornton. “I have virtual drawing systems, virtual kiosks, I use those as part of a larger marketing plan. Quite honestly there are still a large number of our guests out there that don’t trust those systems, that will never trust those systems and believe we’re cheating them. They want to be hands on, they want to feel it. Plus, one of the things that I believe is still very true is that the guests want to come to the casino to create a memory… winning on one of those kiosks is great, and that’s fun and exciting, but if they hit a $5 shell on the shell game, they win $5. But if they get to play the same game physically and there are people watching and rooting them on… they remember that.” Also in the virtual realm, concerns of the survival and future of direct mail marketing were also raised. The panel was quick to answer, agreeing that they don’t think it will be going anywhere anytime soon, but e-mail marketing should absolutely be integrated into marketers’ plans. “I don’t think direct mail is going away,” said Ms Gordon. “But you have to remember that the Millennials are coming and they’re online and mobile. So as you look forward in your marketing plans, you have to start building in digital to your direct marketing.” “I have been lucky and unlucky to have done tons of research for a couple of different operators in many markets,” Ms Carcamo added. “Our core customers right now still love getting that mailer… they love seeing what the offers are, they start planning their calendar according to what you’ve mailed them.” ASK QUESTIONS When it comes to the casino patrons, the audience wanted to know how marketers can inexpensively find promotions to appeal to a specific set of players. Ms Carcamo was quick to answer. “I think ask them,” she said. “We started using something as simple as SurveyMonkey… You know that customers love to give you their opinion. And it’s a really simple way to collect information. Send it out in an e-mail, they answer the questions and you get really good answers very quickly.” Mr Meister posed a question to the audience, asking how many of them had used SurveyMonkey and about a third of the room raised their hands. He added that Google Analytics was another service marketers could use to create and track questionnaires. The layering of promotions and tiers was a hot topic at the session that raised many additional questions from the audience. For example, how can marketers go about determining revenue allocation for each promotion when layering? “I think there are customers in your database in the higher tiers CASINO MARKETING The “sweet spot” for a promotion was another question generated by the audience. They wanted to know how long a promotion should be in order to be successful, especially long term. All panelists agreed that a month was usually best