Mecca Bingo boss: no 'TV arms race', free bingo to hit back
Mecca Bingo will not be drawn into the TV advertising arms race or offering free bingo as it tries to convert its high-street dominance into online strength this year, Rank's online boss has told eGaming Review
MECCA Bingo will not be drawn into the TV advertising arms race or offering free bingo as it tries to convert its high-street dominance into online strength this year, Rank’s online boss has told eGaming Review.
Speaking to EGRmagazine.com, Angus Nisbet, director of gaming for Rank Interactive Development, the umbrella for the Rank online brands, said Mecca will instead focus on using search enginge optimisation (SEO) and pay per click (PPC), and on leveraging its land-based brand and customer base.
Nisbet said: “When a huge amount of TV advertising appeared from nowhere in May last year, that was a wake-up call. But all the ads are similar. They all focus on a sign-up bonus.
“On a busy night, Mecca Bingo clubs have 80,000-100,000 playing compared to 15,000-20,000 online. Converting our customers who are already playing online to playing with us would do more for our business than a TV campaign ever would.”
Despite a recent Mintel study which found Gala and Mecca have converted their 80% share of UK land-based revenue into just 23% of online, Nisbet said he is not alarmed by the lead in egaming taken by rivals such as Foxy Bingo
“It’s a challenge as our customers are playing somewhere else, but a positive as they are playing online. It shouldn’t be difficult to convert them to playing with us.”
Nisbet also expressed scepticism about the ability of free bingo to build sustainable online businesses. “Foxy and Cashcade have grabbed a lot of traffic using that model, but that is not a long-term strategy. We’ve operated free bingo in the clubs, and although it fills the club, it annoys existing customers. These aren’t people that come back.”
Nisbet is also confident that a lack of club management buy-in due to fear of online bingo cannibalising their customer base, which has historically hampered the transition of several land-based gaming brands online, has now been resolved.
“Marketing is controlled centrally, so we no longer have 101 franchises doing what they want. We’ve also opened up online databases to allowing these players to be targeted with club promotions. Both sets of schedules have also been organised to avoid clashes between online and land-based games,” Nisbet explained.