Betsafe tells customers they can't win in new ad campaign
Betsson brand tackles "elephant in the room" in attempt to appeal to bettors' competitive nature
Betsafe is attempting to differentiate itself from market rivals with its new “honest” advertising campaign in which it tells customers they are destined to lose, following research that revealed punters feel patronised by most bookies’ marketing.
The campaign, which has been given the tagline “no bullshit betting”, is led by a television advert featuring a champagne-quaffing chief executive gloating about her success at running a betting business.
“Life is all about the challenge – who celebrates the status quo? I certainly don’t and I’ve turned that mind-set into making a living – a good living at your expense,” the chief exec tells the camera.
“Betting it’s actually quite simple – when you lose, we win. When you win, in some ways we still win because winners want to keep winning,” she adds.
Speaking to eGaming Review this morning, Betsson chief marketing officer Patrik Oqvist said the campaign was the result of customer focus groups telling them they felt “patronised” by the raft of adverts which always appeared to show customers winning.
“So instead we decided to take a much more honest route,” Oqvist said. “And when we discussed it we said the elephant in the room is that the house always wins – everybody knows that but nobody talks about it, so we decided to have a bit of fun and put that front and centre of the campaign.”
Oqvist said the campaign, which is being rolled out across markets in Northern Europe including Scandinavia, Germany and the UK, had an element of reverse psychology as it looked to appeal to bettors’ competitive nature.
“We are trying to target that streak in every bettor,” Oqvist said. “It is a particular target group that Betsafe is going after and that group tend to thrive on the challenge of getting it right and that’s what I think partly propels them to bet and have another go,” he added.
Oqvist said the campaign was not without risk but would enable the brand to differentiate itself in a crowded market.
“I think there is risk attached to all messaging you put out whether it’s bland or more pointed like this campaign is,” Oqvist said. “One of the key challenges I think the industry faces is trying to stand out in a pretty clustered market place and we felt strongly that this one does that,” he added.