If one thing resulted from the pandemic, it was that digital content, engagement, and nurturing are requirements for any business in 2022. For Engaged Nation (EN) 2022 was a breakout year.
By the end of this year, EN, a leading digital-engagement company, will have successfully executed over 200 unique digital engagement and nurturing campaigns, more than double the number in 2021, using its award-winning REACH platform. This doesn’t include the hundreds more completed by the email-services division. The growth of the email division is due in part to their strategic Salesforce partnership and being the number one full-service provider for the casino industry.
“This year has been a banner year for our company and clients. We clearly saw that digital engagement is not a one-off. Would a casino send out one piece of direct mail, buy one billboard for a single month, run one TV, radio or digital ad or a single social post? Of course not,” said Engaged Nation CEO Jerry Epstein.
Epstein explained that its successful programs feature continuous digital nurturing. It keeps a property’s brand top of mind as it produces quantifiable results, including driving more property visits and incremental revenue. On average, Engaged Nation programs generate more than a 7X ROI for their clients.
EN clients include a major national ad and experiential agency, Advantage Marketing, and the leading brewer in the world, Anheuser-Busch. Based on independent research and expertise from a Media Post.com survey of CMOs and other agencies,’ EN’s form of consumer connectivity and interaction is like buying a digital ad. Yet the EN approach creates much greater value, to the tune of $1.81 per minute for consumer engagement and connection. Keeping players connected to a property brand full-time has never been as valuable.
“We have achieved success in breaking the traditional marketing paradigm of catch, release, and retarget. That approach is not as efficient and cost-effective as our proprietary system that focuses on our TRIPLE R – Recruit, Reward & Retain approach. Having a long-term digital strategy and system provides the most significant engagement and financial return possible, as players become brand ambassadors,” added Epstein.
Based on market need and demand, the innovators at EN developed a variety of new digital nurturing programs this year, including the Festival of Games, Festival of Fun, Sports 101, and Team Internal communications to its library.
All the EN programs include an interactive player website that engages, rewards, and drives them to a quantifiable action, from a single action, such as a visit to a property or online casino/sportsbook, to boosting incremental revenue or increasing player lifetime value. All programs are branded for each individual property and can double as a property’s online player portal.
The new products for 2022/2023 and the show specials are as follows.
The Festival of Games is an ongoing customized 6-month to 2-year sports program that creates interest in sports betting, helps build a qualified sports betting database, and generates incremental revenue. This program highlights major games and sporting events such as the World Series, March Madness, World Cup, PGA, horse racing, and other notable sporting events. In addition to the sports-themed activities such as Field Goal kick and Hot Shots basketball, players are incentivized to participate with a $100,000 insured prop card.
“It’s the perfect way for properties and online sports betting operators to generate a competitive edge and incremental revenue,” Epstein continued. “For example, at one property, we configured a program that required a $100 bet at the property for additional prop cards. The result is that we helped to drive nearly $400,000 at the property’s sportsbook. It became competitive at the property, as players were trying to earn the most cards among their friends. The bottom line is its fun for the players and profitable for the operator”
Sports 101 “edutains” players about sports betting, creates more interest in and drives betting, and helps to create what has become very difficult in sports betting: loyalty. It’s a short-term program that can be incorporated into Festival of Games or run as a standalone.
The Festival of Fun is a similar ongoing program geared to the typical casino patron. It has the specific goal of edutaining players about the property and its promotions, ultimately driving incremental property trips and revenue.
“Providing players with a fun, engaging, and rewarding experience, much like they enjoy on the property floor, pays dividends for our clients. Specifically, most programs require activation at the property, which drives visits and incremental revenue. These types of programs tend to create some of the largest GGR days in a property history, such as at Rampart Casino and The Resort at Summerlin and Akwesasne Mohawk Casino Resort.
“We have been successfully partnering with Engaged Nation for more than four years. Our players have become conditioned to look forward to each new program. The key is that it drives more visits and is responsible for some of the largest drawing turnouts and gaming days at our property. It is one of the best, most economical, and yet most effective marketing programs we run on ongoing bases,” said Craig Fuller, Director of Operations at Akwesasne Mohawk Casino Resort.
The Engaged Nation programs have been anchored by its email division. That division, with nearly 50 clients and almost 100 million sends per year, has established itself at the leading full-service provider in the casino industry. One reason is that both MailChimp and Constant Contact have clauses in their terms that prohibit gaming content and offers. Properties such as CGD, operator of Colonials Downs and Rosie’s in Virginia, were abruptly terminated from MailChimp.
EN was well-suited to quickly migrate Colonial Downs Groups to a unified Salesforce Marketing Cloud business unit. Deliverability and engagement soon reached a record level under the EN banner. In addition, Engaged Nation already has integration with Everi’s kiosk product, allowing for email and SMS data collection, validation, and compliant opt-in, as well as awarding promotional offers and drawing entries through the REACH Digital Engagement Platform. Other Everi product integrations are on the near horizon. This will be a tremendous advantage for CDG and other EN clients, as this automation will significantly reduce the need for internal resources and serve as an ideal, easy-to-use player interface.
“Engaged Nation has gone above and beyond to build a working partnership with our team in Virginia. Through ongoing collaboration, E.N. has shown an outstanding sense of awareness for current email marketing strategies. Rosie’s & Colonial Downs truly value their expertise in the digital advertising field,” said Nate Mize, Director of Marketing at CDG.
“Our partnership with Salesforce enables us to provide the most comprehensive email service, in a very cost-effective way to our clients,” said Epstein. “We are very excited to announce what we know will be a game changer for email deployment and engagement with our REACH Email Reward Program. This element will incentive players with a reward, such as drawing entries, instant prizes, and virtual currency for opening and engaging with our clients’ emails. We feel the addition of gamified mechanics to email will be significant.”
EN’s final show special is for its Team/Internal system. Given that unemployment has been at the lowest rate in US history, hiring and retaining quality talent is a challenge. Talent is hard to find and, in some cases, easy to lose to a competitor or another industry.
Team members contribute or detract from a property’s success. On one hand, every employee can serve as an “ambassador.” Conversely, any employee, from management to the back or front of the house, can have major ramifications on customer and/or employee relations that negatively impact your property. Given this, creating deeper levels of engagement and buy-in across your team becomes even more critical.
“We have perfected our edutaining system to help elevate team member understanding of any property’s priorities and initiatives, from customer service to learning about promotions and creating understanding, buy-in and retention for policies or corporate culture. Our daily engagement, quiz component and on-floor team member extensions provide an ideal fun and engaging learning center that produces quantifiable results,” added Epstein.
Engaged Nation will be offering G2E specials for all their continuous digital nurturing programs.
“2022 has been an amazing eye opener and greater understanding of the need and value of interactive digital nurturing,” concluded Epstein. “We know our expanded offerings now provide something for every land-based on online operator. We look forward to seeing so many of our current and potential clients at G2E.”
Engaged Nation will be in Booth #3637 at G2E next week and will be sharing space with their strategic partner, Salesforce. For more information, visit the website.
