Q&A: Matt Booth, 32Red commercial director

Booth discusses the importance of data-led marketing to the firm and how it’s ramping up its capabilities in a post-PoC environment

The introduction of the new Point of Consumption regime in Great Britain late last year was the biggest shake-up in the world’s largest online gambling market for a decade. But although many experts concluded the 15% tax rate would force operators to trim their marketing budgets and scale-back many of their UK-facing campaigns, some companies, including 32Red, saw things a little differently.

“We will be looking to continue our growth in marketing spend both as a percentage and as an actual cash figure,” Ed Ware, CEO of the online casino operator, told eGaming Review in April. “It’s not a certainty but I can definitely see a scenario when we conclude others are reining back on marketing spend and presenting us with an opportunity.”

32Red is keen to grab market share in this new operating environment and expand its presence into other potentially lucrative jurisdictions such as Italy where it kicked off a new TV advertising campaign earlier this year. The man in charge of leading its global marketing charge, commercial director Matt Booth, has more than 15 years’ experience in the sector and knows the company better than most with more than five years’ service at the company under his belt.

Booth was previously head of marketing at the company between 2006 and 2008 and, after a five-year stint in numerous marketing roles at Betfair, returned to the online casino-focused operator in 2013 to take up a newly created role. His affection for the company is clear for all to see. “When I left 32Red eight years ago, on my last day Ed Ware got me very drunk and I said to him that I would come back at some stage in my career,” he recalls. “The brand and company have always been a special business to me.”

His decision to return to the firm two years ago appears to have been a wise one as 32Red’s increased marketing investment has seen its financial clout continue to go from strength to strength with consistent double-digit revenue growth. eGR Digital Marketing caught up with Booth to discuss the operator’s recipe for success and how he plans to optimise its data to keep its momentum going.

eGR Digital Marketing (eGR DM): How would you sum up 32Red’s current digital marketing strategy and how does it differ compared to some of your competitors?
Matt Booth (MB): All of our marketing is data-led and I believe we have one of the most sophisticated data set-ups in the industry. This allows us to market in real time and understand the immediate effectiveness of our advertising spend and in turn the impact of advertising on business performance. We are constantly learning and optimising our thinking based on what we learn from the data.

With regards to how this differs compared to the competition, I can only see a handful of gaming marketing brands that seem to be doing something similar. There are many traditional marketing teams in the industry who operate marketing in silos – they’re product rather than customer led. They optimise to the point of conversion (rather than to value) and manage their acquisition spend to CPA (rather than develop value predicting models).

I don’t want to give too much away but at 32Red we are not complacent or satisfied with what we have achieved so far. We are ambitious and building upon sound foundations to allow us the opportunity to grow.

eGR DM: What was your background before joining 32Red?
MB: I have spent my whole working life in advertising and marketing, initially working for three of London’s racecourses – Sandown, Epsom and Kempton – before returning to Leeds Business School to complete a master’s degree in advertising and marketing. Since then, and for the last 14 years, I have worked for Stanley Leisure, Littlewoods, Betfair and 32Red, which I returned to for the second time at the end of 2013.

eGR DM: Why did you decide to rejoin the company after your stint at Betfair? What was your key focus when you initially rejoined?
MB: 32Red puts the customer first in everything they do. Many businesses say they are customer centric but in reality they are not. 32Red, on the other hand, is truly customer first in its thinking and that is testament to everyone’s hard work at the business in every department.

I am attracted to businesses that have a true point of difference. Betfair was a similar business. The invention of the exchange shook up the world of betting and gave every punter the opportunity to bet freely without restriction. That was a very exciting time in my life helping Betfair grow to one of the leading brands in global gaming, but I believe there is a different focus at Betfair now and it was the right time for me to find a new challenge.

When I rejoined 32Red I could see we had so many opportunities to grow and my key focus was to make sure we had real-time data so that we could make decisions quickly, support investment decisions and build models to increase the output of our marketing capability.

The Master of Wow welcomes players to 32Red

eGR DM: How did you set about changing the marketing approach at 32Red?
MB: We spent the first six months building models and code to understand the effectiveness of every pound we spend and the effect that every £1 spent now would have on future growth. We created an attribution model for both online and offline so we understood how our marketing activities supported each other in the conversion process. We developed a customer value scoring system that kicks into play as soon as a prospect engages in some form with our advertising and is optimised based upon over 80 different factors and continues to optimise based on how a player interacts with the brand throughout their lifetime with us.

We also use the new player scoring system to segment players to understand their current and predicted future value. These models form the backbone of all of our marketing as they feed into our forecasting and help us deliver automated marketing solutions.

eGR DM: Did you always want to pursue a career in marketing?
MB: Understanding human behaviour has always been my major interest and to learn how advertising can influence someone’s behaviour fascinates me. I also have a passion for sport and the fact gambling and sport are intertwined makes understanding the behaviour of the gambler that much easier. I not sure I would be equally as passionate about marketing the finer details of the new Xerox RS50 photo copying machine.

eGR DM: How has the digital marketing landscape changed in recent years?
MB: So much has changed in the time since I completed my master’s degree back in 2001. Marketing 10 to 12 years ago was traditionally led by offline advertising. Print and direct mail were the key components in a bookmaker’s advertising mix, as were partnerships with the media to get promotional messages across. Marketing was less data led, less dynamic and digital marketing was a new opportunity and many marketing directors were unsure about its value. Digital marketing really had to fight for budget.

Most betting brands would use third parties to conduct their marketing or rely heavily on affiliates and pay sky-high rates to attract new business. Now most of the better digital businesses in our space are doing it themselves with exceptionally talented people and sophisticated marketing technology to help them. The consumption of information is also so much greater and the target audience is always connected, while new technology has improved the speed of internet connection and the cost to be connected is far less.

eGR DM: What have been some of the biggest trends you’ve seen in marketing recently?
MB: We are now more exposed and open to advertising but in a number of ways we probably don’t even know we are consuming it. Advertising is less interruptive more engaging and entertaining, and advertisers are generating two-way conversations with their prospects and current player base. The biggest change though for me is we have become more scientific with the use of data, the development of modelling and how we attribute value so we manage the marketing mix performance as a whole rather than first-or last-click analysis.

Two big differences in this period have meant big changes to marketing budgets. The first being Google accepting advertising in the UK and the second allowing gambling brands to advertise on TV. Most brands now will understand the inter-relationship between online and offline and develop campaigns in a connected way rather than as separate campaigns.

eGR DM: What is the current set-up of the 32Red marketing team and how does digital fit in within it?
MB: We are structured around the player lifecycle and the key is that digital marketing is at the centre of our setup. We optimise lifetime value and the role of acquisition does not end at the point of registration or first bet for that matter. We have spent a lot of time working out how to maximise our marketing spend and can now confidently say we are in a position to accelerate our digital spend. We can tell from day one how effective our campaigns are. We measure every click a player makes to inform our understanding of them and what they are likely to do in the future and market to influence behaviour rather than reaffirm what we know they will do.

eGR DM: How much of your marketing functions do you outsource?
MB: We outsource when we need to but as much as we can we do in-house. We use a number of well-briefed agencies as extensions of the marketing team. We work with the same people and we retain and guarantee them a certain level of business during the year. They mainly help us with creative, planning and data optimisation.

eGR DM: How important is search marketing for 32Red and is it mainly SEO or PPC driven?
MB: From birth 32Red has always prioritised natural search and if you look at the keywords and drivers of casino traffic 32Red will be on the first page for nearly all the key search terms. We work hard to ensure we optimise search fairly which takes a lot more hard work but the results are longer lasting. On a pound-for-pound basis natural search is far more effective for 32Red than paid for traffic.

Paid-for search requires deep pockets in the casino space. Sports-led brands drive the cost per click as do a new breed of ‘super affiliates’. We are in the mix and are in the process of driving down our cost per click levels as we get better at converting the traffic.

eGR DM: Is 32Red now ready to make its planned big marketing push into Italy?
MB: We are spending a good level of our marketing budget on Italy in 2015. We are working with local agencies to create and buy media with a brand-led message using a local celebrity to fast-track trust in the market.

eGR DM: What channels are you particularly focused on and why?
MB: We use TV to help drive awareness and get our message across but search again is our core focus. We have quickly got to number one position for the key search terms in Italy. We work closely with affiliates and key media partners. Italy is a tough market as the competition is fierce and I think it will take time but we are confident our investment will pay off.

eGR DM: How are you approaching social media channels like Facebook and Twitter?
MB: We have generally found that Facebook and Twitter from a purely new player point of view doesn’t drive valuable new players. It’s an acquisition manager’s dream if they are down on their volume target for the month and need to get an extra 500 new players quickly but historically we haven’t been able to make these channels work. There is more of a chance for these channels to work on a sports betting front but I haven’t seen an online casino use these channels well yet.

eGR DM: Do you see much potential for 32Red on new channels like Instagram and Snapchat?
MB: Instagram and Snapchat are not in our immediate plans. Our audience is very niche and again these channels might be effective for a sports-focused brand that has a natural story that will engage its target audience, but for casino this is difficult.

eGR DM: What can we expect from 32Red’s digital marketing strategy for the rest of the year?
MB: We will invest in channels that we know work and look to try and crack programmatic and retargeting. We will also optimise the conversion process to be even more personalised. We are also spending thousands of working hours on responsive and adaptive dynamic marketing experiences.

We will continue to communicate the reasons why 32Red is different and better. We know we are taking share from our competitors. We are not trying to educate the market because most of our players will have switched because they believe 32Red can offer them a better casino playing experience.