Ads Off Target, UK Online Survey Finds

Fri, Jun 6, 2014

What British gamblers want in their online choices and what advertisers are pitching often are two different things, according to a new player survey. One key finding shows that while social responsibility rates high with consumers, marketers have counted it as relatively unimportant in their messaging.

A new survey of online gamblers in the UK suggests web site marketers are not fully connecting with the consumers they’re trying to reach.

Two-thirds (67 percent) of the 2,000 adults polled by digital analysts IgnitionOne and research firm ComRes said they are concerned about the quantity of advertising while only one in five believe online gaming companies target the right audience.

For example, the marketers believed that TV remained important as a medium to build strong brand awareness, but 24 percent of the active or previously active online gamblers in the survey said online advertising was equally important.

Other important drivers for them included an easy user experience (73 percent), the quality of the game (69 percent) and word of mouth (43 percent).

Most of the industry marketers did not believe that gaming consumers cared much about a brand’s social reputation, yet 40 percent of respondents said they would be more likely to place a bet with a company that contributed financially towards research, education and treatment of problem gambling.

“Brand reputation and a brand’s corporate social responsibility policies are big factors when it comes to positive perceptions among consumers,” said Simon Hayes, managing director of IgnitionOne.

In other findings, the report confirmed that the National Lottery is the most popular form of gambling for UK adults (58 percent), followed by bingo (45 percent), horse racing (44 percent), other sports betting (42 percent) and casino games (36 percent).

At the same time, the UK Advertising Standards Authority has banned an ad by online bookie Coral Interactive saying it links seduction to gambling.

The ad features two men discussing a horseracing wager in a barbershop when a blonde model in a skimpy jockey outfit appears and hawks Coral betting offers.

Coral Interactive argued that the men made the same bet they were planning to make before the model appeared in the ad, but the ASA ruled “the introduction of the female character in that manner directly after the men made reference to gambling created a link between gambling and seduction which continued throughout the ad.”