Not everything in the casino industry revolves around winning and losing bets.
Case in point: The latest offerings from Engaged Nation, a digital engagement marketing company that empowers operators to keep customers involved in a variety of ways.
The company, which specializes in what it calls “edutainment,” has more than 50 different forms of engagement on its platform, ranging from games to trivia, among others. CEO and co-founder Jerry Epstein said the outfit will demo some of its new offerings at this week’s Global Gaming Expo at the Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas.
“Our value proposition helps operators break through the digital clutter,” Epstein said. “So many companies are sending so many messages to people these days, we try to make sure our messages are the ones that break through and get customers to make the choices that our clients want them to make.”
Engaged Nation doesn’t have one solution; instead, the company designs unique and customized digital marketing campaigns for each of its customers. This marketing-centric approach is supported by a loyalty engagement platform dubbed REACH, which operators can access through a private-label portal.
The REACH platform generates email requests to participate and rewards engagement for positive replies. That means users get points for participating in trivia, games, and other instant-win experiences.
As users accumulate points, the REACH platform also doles out other rewards for participating, including free virtual currency, drawing entries, and other instant prizes in exchange for users’ time and participation. Operators can then activate participants by driving them to complete a desired outcome, such as a sports promotion, survey or a poll.
The goal is to inspire customers to get out of the virtual world and visit a casino in real life. And, according to Epstein, by enabling customers to become invested in the challenge to win or earn a reward, operators enjoy a higher conversion rate.
“We call it clicks to bricks,” he explained. “The real revenue-generating opportunity for an operator is that we drive incremental visitation to the physical property itself.”
Epstein said there are two reasons why the Engaged Nation approach works.
For starters, operators are looking for increased connections with customers, as well as greater brand loyalty from customers once they’re connected. REACH games and other interactions provide these bonds.
Second, REACH drives more business to the operators in question, increasing the number of touchpoints for particular customers, all while improving the bottom line.
Whatever you think of Engaged Nation’s approach, one thing is certain: The approach itself is a sign of changing times. Years ago, casino operators spared no expense to get customers on-site. Today, operators realize that while nothing replaces face-to-face interactions, digital engagement can be a conduit to drive more visits.
“We’re trying to capitalize on the emotional aspect of people and their engagements,” Epstein said. “We want to give them something that meets them where they’re spending so much of their leisure time, and something that’s going to inspire them to spend more of that time [at a casino].”
