It’s not the data, it’s what you do with it.

It’s not the data, it’s what you do with it. Retention strategies lead to loyalty …

Recently, Tim Poole from Gambling Insider and I sat down to discuss the gaming industry, building brand loyalty and 3radical. Interestingly, the interview appears to have garnered significantly more interest than I expected. When I posted it on LinkedIn the article generated more comment and reaction than pretty much anything else I’ve done recently. This included, however, a comment from someone with significantly more experience in the industry than I have who strongly disagreed with me.

I love healthy debate, so I decided to find out exactly what we were disagreeing on; and it turns out, we weren’t actually disagreeing at all! We were both seeing the huge amounts of data in the gaming market – a possible by-product of regulation and legislation. And we were both observing that many operators are only using some of that data for real, mutually beneficial player-brand relationships, possibly because of historical over-analysis and misuse of data. What’s more, we agreed that operators want to be transparent in their relationships with players – and that using purely transactional data isn’t quite cutting the mustard. 

Building an emotional connection, however, on top of any behavioural or transactional data, allows operators to get players to understand why they’re offering them what they are; things like new games, different bonuses, exclusive content. In other words, using all relevant aspects of data and truly understanding the individual player builds a healthy, open and transparent relationship with both parties. To put it simply – it builds loyalty. 

So, how do you get players to understand that this is what a brand is doing? You can take a horse to water, but this does not give players a reason to engage beyond the purely financial incentives offered at the beginning. Avoiding the ‘race to the bottom’ helps build relationships and loyalty by offering a value exchange that goes beyond the deepest bonuses. Concentrating on retention strategies and focusing on creating adult, open and responsible relationships will build a brand players will have emotional connection with. On that I think we can all agree.   

Of course, this is all great when an operator has access to their own data. What about the affiliates and white label sites, though, where player data sits elsewhere? Surely the principles should be the same? That, however, is the topic for our next discussion. I wonder if the outcome will generate as much debate… 

To read the full Gaming Industry Report click here: