INSIGHT
Everything from the brand’s ‘human
qualities’ to the content they promote falls
within this bracket. A brand’s social voice
must live and breathe this personality.
Where Paddy Power have their bold,
distinctive brand personality both on and
off the radar, Betfair have adopted a much
more honed social strategy that has a
greater focus towards content relevancy.
Social media scientist Dan Zarrella (2013)
found that tweets with images get 2x the
engagement rate than those without, and this
could be down to the human brain processing
visual content 60,000x faster than text.
Betfair create and promote bespoke
social graphics that often advertise their
The most promising factor of the ‘This
Is Play’ campaign has been its evergreen
capability, as it still remains an active and
trending hashtag to this day.
Coral
Paddy Power are breaking down content
barriers, Betfair are engagement
perfectionists, and then there’s Coral.
Coral have adopted a hybrid stance located
somewhere in-between these two approaches.
Although there’s never a guarantee
that any piece of social content will go
viral, this still remains, and always will
remain, the goal of many operators in the
industry. Utilising video content, however,
“We can expect to see gaming operators exploiting
micro-videos more than ever through social platforms,
with users more likely to actively digest, connect and
ultimately share this type of content.”
running offers and promotions. It’s tailored
content like this, with which users actively
engage, that is more likely to result in direct
conversions.
To kick-start the 2014 summer World
Cup, Betfair launched their new strap line
and integrated marketing campaign called
“This is Play”. This campaign featured
TV ads, digital media and countless PR to
advertise the tournament.
The campaign quickly established
itself on social media and the #ThisIsPlay
hashtag quickly became a phenomenon
in the sports betting realm. The hashtag
became a new centralised hotspot where
users could publish and discuss their bets
and create new and exciting talking points
throughout the tournament.
Like Paddy Power, Betfair identified a
clear trend in the market and timed their
new strategic push, to socially associate
their brand with the trend, to perfection.
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iGB Affiliate Issue 48 DEC/JAN 2014/2015
helps to significantly maximise the viral
potential of any content.
It’s the year of the micro-video, and with
the largest micro-video platform, Vine,
experiencing a 403% user growth in 2013
alone (Marketing Magazine, 2014), it’s left
a hot medium opportunity which Coral has
been capitalising on.
Coral’s social media tactics focus on
delivering a mix of comical branded
video content with hot topic video and
image content.
Promoting the latest goals, touchdowns
and historical sporting moments in
short, snappy videos makes it easier for
their audience to emotionally connect
with the content.
To enhance their social strategy further,
Coral recently introduced their ‘Farley &
Carly’ online series.
The ‘Farley & Carly’ video series, where
actors comically impersonate famous
footballing figures, has quickly taken off on
social media, sparking a number of talking
points. Some readers found it funny, while
others struggled to find the humorous
aspect within it. However, the point was that
subconsciously or not, people continued to
generate a social buzz around content, which
ultimately met Coral’s marketing aims.
Coral continues to exploit the video
content avenue, and by channeling
engaging content that also happens to
be branded, it will continue to reap the
strategic benefits.
The final say
The gap of social influence between not
only these three operators, but between
all operators and affiliates in the market is
getting narrower. More and more operators
are taking a leaf out of Paddy Power’s book
by thinking outside of established norms
and trying to pinpoint what it will take for
their social content to go viral.
What does the future hold? The future
is video. It’s forecast that video content will
continue to dominate the digital landscape,
where 74% of all Internet traffic will be
video by 2017 (Brainshark, 2014).
We can expect to see gaming operators
exploiting micro-videos more than ever
through social platforms, with users
more likely to actively digest, connect and
ultimately share this type of content.
DAVID DONALDSON is an
SEO Consultant at Blueclaw
Media, an SEO agency
and content marketing
company based in Leeds, UK.
Specialising in iGaming SEO and
social media marketing, David enjoys
pushing the boundaries and bringing a
fresh way of thinking to the table.