Apple gets right to the point

While Apple’s ad blocking feature in the recent iOS 9 update has failed to ruffle to ruffle feathers, the introduction of deep linking is an exciting opportunity. Melanie Dayasena-Lowe reports.

Apple’s recent iOS 9 update, described by the company as a way of making iOS devices more intelligent and proactive while protecting users’ privacy, brought with it a raſt of new features and enhancements. Users can now benefit from better battery life, iPad multitasking, a more proactive Siri and smarter searches.

Among the new functionalities is ad blocking where users can download an extension to block advertising, cookies and pop ups on most sites in Safari. But just weeks aſter the update release, the initial furore around ad blocking seems to have died down. So what impact, if any, could this and other marketing related changes have on egaming operators and their mobile marketing strategies?

Richard Lee, head of mobile marketing at Unibet, doesn’t see ad blocking as a hurdle since it applies to mobile web only. “Most mobile advertising is done in-app these days. You have a sporting score app and then you have an advert that takes a user from one app to the App store. I think that is 90% of where advertising is coming from at the moment,” he says.

Lee points out that users have to actively download an ad blocking app in the first place and believes that most people wouldn’t pay for a top quality ad blocking app when they can get one for free, which may not be as good. He also highlights that during the first few days of the iOS 9 release, the top apps in the chart were ad blockers while at the time of speaking to eGR Digital Marketing in early October he couldn’t see any ad blocking software in the top 100 free apps.

“I don’t think it’s the be all and end all everyone is making it out to be. There has to be thought behind it and Apple wouldn’t have brought it in if it wasn’t a tool that could be used properly but I don’t think customers have worked out how to use it properly yet. In the paid apps, there’s no ad blocking soſtware in the top 25. The first is number 30. It’s not necessarily going to be the end of advertising as everyone predicted,” he remarks.

Immunity to ad blockers
Richard Downey, director of mobile at The Mobile House, agrees that the egaming sector will see less impact compared with other industries since ad blocking doesn’t apply to in-app advertising. Although he does admit that any situation where advertising is easier to block and harder to consume is cause for concern.

“It does only affect mobile web and a certain mobile web browser. We know from an iOS Apple point of view that the vast majority of time is spent in-app anyway so that would remain unaffected. From an Apple perspective, what we have found working with our gaming clients is that the actual apps are where the growth is and where the retention is. I think that, out of all the sectors, egaming is probably going to be the least affected by this as it is such an app focused iOS sector anyway. There’s still tons of opportunities to drive user acquisition and retention through in-app advertising that doesn’t come anywhere near the ad blocking,” he adds.

Similarly, Eddie Ross, native apps product manager at Sky Betting & Gaming, isn’t yet convinced that ad blocking will have an immediate effect on the industry. “There’s not enough users out there that either know or care enough about installing an ad blocker on their device. There’s also been questions to the effectiveness of these services with some ads getting through the blocking.”

He comments: “I’d say when this picks up traction with users which, in my opinion is a case of when not if, marketers will then have to react to it. But until this happens, I don’t think there’s much advantage in making big changes early, though it’s definitely one to stay on top of. Again,we’ve seen no obvious change in acquisition numbers as a result of this change.”

Lee echoes the same sentiment and believes it’s too early to tell what the monetary impact might be. “Until there’s software that allows you to see the ads you do want to see but block the ads you don’t want to see, I think it’s far too early in the
lifecycle to tell. We certainly haven’t felt any impact thus far. I’ve been monitoring clicks and things of that nature and we haven’t seen any drop yet. It may happen in the close future – only time will tell.”

Hitting the mark
One way to combat users activating ad blocking is to create targeted adverts serving the right people. That’s part of Unibet’s strategy, explains Lee. “The way we can stop people blocking our adverts is down to targeting, and making sure that
people are being served the correct adverts. I am a big proponent of personalisation, so we want Manchester United fans to  see Manchester United banners and Chelsea fans to see Chelsea banners.”

At The Mobile House, targeted advertising is a key part of its business. Downey says targeting not only ensures ads are delivered to the right people in the right way, but also has intrinsic benefits of getting round ad blocking issues. “I see it as a positive for the advertising industry. I think it’s a wake-up call for everybody to raise their game in terms of the quality of ads they are producing,” he says.

With ad blocking having been in existence for many years on desktop, why has Apple introduced it now on its iOS devices?
“I honestly think with all the changes that come in every incarnation of iOS, a lot of it is down to Apple trying to present as smooth and as agreeable an experience on their devices as they can,” explains Downey. “If they think the quality of ads being served via Safari or mobile websites are not up to scratch and it’s upsetting more users than it’s satisfying them, letting these ad blockers into the App store is one way of putting that control back into the user’s hands.”

Ross agrees: “In general, there’s definitely a clear shift towards customer retention rather than customer acquisition in Apple’s latest updates though, which I expect to be a theme in the upcoming future OS’. It’s vital that the industry pays attention to this and ensures their app is of sufficient quality to remain on a user’s device as poor quality installs at volume is clearly not the way forward.”

Both Downey and Lee believe that the type of mobile ads served in the egaming market are still of interest to their target audience. “As a company that plans and buys a lot of mobile media for our gaming clients, often they are quite responsive and quite effective as advertising channels. If it becomes the case that fewer of these ads are being served, that could potentially have a knock on effect in terms of how successful acquisition campaigns are to a certain degree. But the vast majority of our successful advertising campaigns are running in-app and therefore are immune,” says Downey.

As an industry where the customer is hungry to see prices, special offers and bonuses at regular intervals, egaming might therefore be in a stronger position than many of its other opponents.

A fluid journey
Another new feature of iOS 9 is the deep linking integration, which is expected to open up exciting new prospects for egaming operators. For the first time ever on iOS, there is a fluid system in place to help users navigate between apps, opening up more opportunities for cross-selling.

Indeed Lee says this change will serve as a boost to Unibet’s strategy of cross-selling between its casino apps.

“I think it has a huge potential for us but it’s not something we’re going to rush to market. We want to get this right, look at it and investigate it. For anyone in our industry, to be able to cross-sell is key and it’s something we can look to explore.”

The benefits not only apply to deep linking from one app to another but also to set up advertising campaigns that deep link
into a specific page. Running sportsbook campaigns with offers relating to specific events and markets for a finite amount of time is one example cited by Downey.

“Previously, if you were to click on a particular offer then you were either taken to the mobile website or the app download page and you would be able to open it from there if you already had the app or be able to download it for the first time if you didn’t,” he says.

“Now, with the ability to go straight into that page of the app is going to improve the conversion from ad click to actual transaction. It takes out multiple stages.”

There is still a way to go in terms of user awareness on deep linking and navigating from search engine will likely remain the start of most customer journeys. “But if anybody is to succeed in driving this shift in customer behaviour, Apple would be the ones to do it,” says Ross.

“That being said, I think it’s too early to say what impact and how likely this change in behaviour is, and thus far we haven’t seen any change in our site entry points analytics to suggest users are using this feature instead of the search engines.”

Content for communities
With the release of Apple’s latest mobile handsets, the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, came its new Live Photos feature where pictures are turned into short videos. Video is still an underused media when it comes to egaming marketing, notably on social media, and this feature could provide new opportunities to reverse that trend.

Downey agrees that Live Photos could come into its own through an operator’s social presence.

“You’ve already got some operators working in the social channels extremely well and if there’s a way of connecting with their community via this type of thing, I think that could be really strong and could be used as a way to invite customers to send in content as well,” he says.

“How that directly leads to acquisition or retention from a traditional marketing point of view is more difficult to predict.”

Lee can also see its potential for promotion through social media.

“We’re always looking at innovation and new ways of creating new content. I do think this will be an exciting way to create content. How? I don’t know just yet.

“There’s a huge possibility behind it because I think everyone now expects video content. Absolutely, I think there is definitely going to be potential for it. It might be more of a social thing such as on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter as opposed to mobile advertising.”

It seems like a case of wait and see on whether ad blocking will start to impact on the egaming sector in the future.

And will we start to see egaming operators take advantage of the Live Photos feature and deep linking functionality by incorporating them into their mobile marketing campaigns? Watch this space.