As of early 2013, SMS was already well entrenched in the marketing mentality of casinos based everywhere from Las Vegas to China.
But the full potential of SMS (along with email and social media marketing) in the gaming industry isn’t close to being realized.
While close to 90% of gaming companies regularly turn to SMS to hit patrons and gamers with welcome messages and other communications that encourage gameplay and additional interaction, only a fraction of these companies (an estimated 10% overall) are using mobile messaging for time-sensitive promotions.
And that has to change if casinos and gaming companies want to turn around their fortunes and increase engagement with gamers in an era where mobile gaming platforms could soon take business away from the physical casinos.
Recently, mGamingWatch spoke with Brian Best, Corporate VP of E-Commerce / Digital Marketing at Boyd Gaming, to discuss mobile’s past, present, and future in the gaming industry.
When asked if mobile has reached a point where casinos and gaming companies can simply no longer afford to ignore it in their marketing, Best hit the nail on the head.
“In an industry founded on direct mail, we are now seeing close to 50% of our emails being viewed on a mobile device and that number is growing and growing and growing,” Best admits. “We will continue to focus on apps, SMS messaging, responsive design websites, and email, as we believe mobile is going to continue to be an integral part of our business, and will continue to grow as our customers adopt and use mobile technologies.”
Turning to mobile for immediacy of marketing is where the farsighted companies of our time are turning their attention. And those who don’t do the same (and there are plenty in this category) could suffer the consequences in dramatic fashion in the coming years.
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