INSIGHT
MULTI-CHANNEL AND AFFILIATES
The term “multi-channel” is bandied around everywhere these days, but what could it mean for affiliates?
Mecca Bingo’s Harry Lang provides a few kick-start ideas.
BACK IN MID-AUGUST of last year,
Henry Birch, the then new (ish) CEO
of Rank Group was interviewed by the
Telegraph. He’d recently passed his first
100 days in office, and the broadsheet
had enquired as to his plans for Rank
moving forward. One stand out section
of their appraisal stated:
“Key to his strategy for Rank will be
‘multi-channel’, a buzzword that is now
bandied around almost every industry
from retailers to bookmakers. In practice,
it means encouraging customers to spend
in more ways than one, on the web and in
bricks and mortar venue”.
As far as the UK gaming industry goes,
there are only a handful of participants
who have the legitimate ability to push a
true, national multi-channel strategy (I’ll
abbreviate it to MCS for the purpose of
brevity). The big sports betting operators,
including Will Hill, Ladbrokes, Paddy’s,
Betfred (including Totesport), Coral and
Jennings Bet. Then for bingo, you can
count a two-horse race between Rank
Group’s (my paymasters) Mecca Bingo,
and Gala Bingo. Finally, for casino,
you’ve got Rank’s Grosvenor Casino and
Genting’s casino brands.
MCS marketing is about delivering
motivating sales messages to customers
in both their online and offline worlds to
create an exponential and ever available
sales opportunity. Online agency Dream
Consultancy has demonstrated it rather
better in their handy infographic opposite.
MCS focuses on putting the customer
at the heart of all communications and
leveraging technology and data to drive
player acquisition, loyalty, customer
retention and cross sell. The ultimate
aim for MCS is creating a single
application, as Dream Consultancy
summarises “…seamlessly connecting
“As far as the UK gaming industry goes, there are only a
handful of participants who have the legitimate ability to
push a true, national multi-channel strategy.”
all channels for unprecedented visibility
into your business resulting in customer
loyalty and retention”.
It’s v