32Red makes Italy push with TV ad campaign

32Red has launched its first major Italian marketing push with a TV advertising campaign aimed at kick-starting its Italy-facing casino business.

The operator has teamed-up with Italian media agency Fosbury ADV to devise a series of adverts, which all feature Italian comedian Mago Forest (pictured) – or Mr Forest, as he is more commonly known.

The 15 and 30-second adverts, which hit Italy’s television screens earlier this month, show Mr Forest in a number of mundane situations suggesting 32Red can be used to “add a bit of fun” and “shake-up” an otherwise boring day.

Speaking to eGaming Review, 32Red commercial director Matt Booth said the campaign marked the operator’s “first major push in the market to gain market share” after having launched in Italy in November 2012.

“We have signed up Mr Forest, a well-known prime time TV personality, with the aim of increasing the awareness of 32Red and positioning the brand as a fun and trustworthy place to come and play,” Booth said.

“We wanted to get the tone right, which is why we appointed a local agency and production team to manage the TV campaign creative development and production,” he said.

“It is very early days but we are very happy with the results we are seeing so far,” he added.

Last year, 32Red chief executive Ed Ware told eGR the firm’s Italian business had “not been as fast growing as we would have liked” and had only made “limited marketing investment” in the country, with a 2013 shirt deal with Serie A football club Bologna its only notable expenditure.

32Red posted £1.3m of Italian gross gaming revenues (GGR) in 2013, its first full-year in the market, while H1 2014 saw it record GGR of £1.05m.

The growth of Italy’s regulated casino market has been stunted by a persistent black market, however the regulator recently struck agreements with a number of B2B suppliers in order to halt the supply of games to unlicensed operators targeting Italian players.