As regulation around slots marketing continues to heighten, the role of streamers and ambassadors is magnified for operators seeking to best engage consumers. 

The CasinoBeats Summit brought together industry leaders, who emphasised why slots operators need to show creativity and utilise alternative methods in the way they mark their offering. 

As part of the Netgaming-sponsored session entitled ‘Marketing slots in a sustainable way’ – – moderator Martin Calvert, marketing director at ICS Digital, questioned panelists Dmitry Belianin, chief marketing officer, Parimatch International; Tereza Melicharkova, head of marketing, Swintt; and Ciara Nic Liam, commercial director, Betsson Group, on effective slots marketing techniques.

Discussing the benefits of leveraging slots streamers and brand ambassadors, Belianin observed that both can be highly useful in creating ‘engaged communities’ to whom releases can be easily marketed.

“I think why streamers are so successful and why they help to promote your brand in the right manner is that they create trust just because of the communities,” stated Belianin.

“Communities are something which many brands in the world do not know how to work with, but streamers create these highly engaged communities around them, and it’s easy just to showcase games, to show some brands just to point somewhere in any direction and the players will follow. 

“I think that the way the audience has changed over the past few years, micro influencers and streamers is a way for smaller brands in both major and emerging markets to help to build their trust and to position themselves in a very tactical and cheap manner.”

Responding to Calvert’s line of enquiry regarding streamers role in balancing “organic trust-building marketing” and “traditional broadcast marketing”, Melicharkov emphasised the role streamers and brand ambassadors can play in educating gamers about new titles.

“It is quite a new trend that started a few years ago when the B2B side of the business started teaming up with streamers – talking to each other educating streamers and athletes about the game and the features, and then transferred this information onto the players,” she began.

“It’s extremely important and I see it as content which will continue growing. Of course we have to follow the regulations and we have to think about how we are going to run promotions but definitely building relationships with streamers, and the right streamers – this is definitely something which I see growing, and it will continue for B2B businesses because that’s the way it gets really close to the players.”

Meanwhile, Nic Liam praised the role brand ambassadors can play when gaming companies expand into new markets, focusing on Betsson’s experiences in Latin America, where the firm partnered with the COPA America tournament this year.

The director said: “In some of our emerging markets like Latin America – Peru, for example – where we know people are not aware or as conscious of things like Betsson’s history and the strength of the brand, when we things like sponsoring Copa America – the image where Messi realised they had won with the Betsson LEDs in the background, is incredibly strong for our brands and breeds customer trust.

“If you don’t bring a lot of the branding with you and you don’t build customer trust along that way, then customers come in and as soon as the jackpots’ gone they start to leave. Whereas if you can use athletes, personalities, influencers and streamers, then what you start to do is build a community and you build brand awareness and you build trust.”

“I think building trust and getting brand awareness and associating yourself with trusted people or with trusted communities is important. When we recently launched in Greece we branded on all the trams in the town and we essentially tried to turn them orange. 

“Getting that brand out there as a challenger brand when we go in against some of the people who’ve been in the market for a long time is incredibly important because otherwise it’s a brand that’s quite hard to say in a lot of local languages and it doesn’t mean anything to people.”

The CasinoBeats Summit 2021 conference and exhibition on 14-15 July takes place in an innovative integrated live and digital format. A select audience of senior executives will attend in person at the InterContinental in St Julian’s, Malta, while a global audience of industry professionals will participate in the event online. 

The conference agenda focuses on the next generation of slots and products, key established and emerging markets around the world, leadership in igaming, and marketing and affiliation. The programme also includes the inaugural Game Developer Awards ceremony. 

Register for a free online pass for the event at the CasinoBeats Summit website.