TPI has not always worked with casinos. The company, which began in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1973, started as a direct mail distributor for a variety of businesses.
By 2001, TPI started working with casinos, beginning with five, growing to 125 operators in 2010, and to its current roster of more than 300.
TPI Director of Sales and Marketing Mark Neely says the company hasn’t changed, “but the world has.”
“It used to be you connected through your mailbox or your email inbox, but now it’s the phone,” Neely says during an interview with CDC Gaming. “But it’s the same goal we’ve always had. We’re getting the message to customers, and now it’s done through the phone.
“And the nice part is, as we look at TPI’s mission, that connecting casinos and players is almost a challenge because it makes us adapt and grow. Five years ago, we weren’t doing stuff like hotel booking engine integrations because we couldn’t do that in a mailbox. Now we are, but it’s the same challenge – to connect our customers to their players.”
TPI integrates information seamlessly through direct mail and other marketing channels. Products include its Player Connect app, which offers rewards and notifications; the Player Connect Flipbook, which coordinates all direct mail ideas, promotions and offers online into one digital version; and Player Connect Cashless, which allows players to access money for cardless slot and table game play.
While TPI embraces digital methods of marketing, the company still uses tried-and-true direct mailers that arrive in mailboxes. Neely compares the marketing landscape to food pyramids that balance grains and meats.
“You need a balance of your digital, your mobile and your direct mail, your email and your text,” Neely says. “I would never, as a marketer myself, cut one of those channels out. I want to be in every channel that I can to talk to my customers, and I think the casinos feel the same way.”
While younger players tend to live their lives on their phones or on other digital devices, they are always cognizant of snail mail communications.
“They’re going to tell you, just email me, but then they stop showing up,” Neely says. “Even younger guests do respond to direct mail, as long as it’s quality. Don’t send stuff that doesn’t even have their name on it, or anything super cheap. The younger generation responds very well to a premium invite.”
J.C. Cerda, TPI’s Director of Mobile sales, notes that it takes a certain balance to straddle the line between direct mail and digital.
“You have to have the right team, the right company, to be able to merge those two and have that direct mail piece that is actually starting action and getting the want and the need from it, that’s a big thing to do,” says Cerda, who previously worked as a sales executive for a hospitality booking platform. “I’ve known of TPI for a while, before I started up with them. And to be able to do both things is great, spectacular.”
Neely says many of TPI’s customers are tribal or regional properties that are forward thinking and have connections with their patrons. Those casinos are very progressive when it comes to promoting their events and operations.
“They’re all very established, very professional, kick-ass properties that are known inside their community as kind of that place to be,” Neely says. “Where locally, they’re more than a property. They’re kind of this nexus for events, for concerts, for action, for the average consumer. Those properties we’re seeing are the quickest to adapt and most engaged in the mobile space.”
Cashless payments have become increasingly popular in recent years. But for a project at Rolling Hills Casino and Resort in Corning, California, TPI had multiple partners to make sure the process went smoothly.
TPI brought in a payment processor and then tapped into Acres Manufacturing, a hardware and software supplier to the gaming industry, to allow it to focus on the customer experience.
“Everyone had their expertise,” Neely says, “and the goal was to make sure this launched smoothly, that there were no errors, that the customer could use it. I’m very proud of what we did with the Rolling Hills on the cashless side, and I think it’s the first step to more projects like that. I think the key difference is we weren’t the payment processor also trying to slap together the UI or the slot provider also trying to slap together mobile. We were the mobile app company that was focused on what we do best, which was creating the app. And the customer was very happy and the players love it.”
Every TPI employee has a stake in the company. As owners, they don’t necessarily work harder.
But, according to Cerda and Neely, they think harder.
“They’re thinking more outside the box,” Cerda says. “What else can I do to make my company even better? You’re getting more thinking going on, not just going to do my job and get things done. I’m going to go outside the box and think, ‘What can I do to make this even better than it already is?’”
