Nowhere is the evolution and fusion of mobile and marketing more apparent than in the gaming industry today. And perhaps nowhere is the help of mobile more sorely needed.
To that end, the team at Up All Day Creative Solutions is helping its clients gain a competitive mobile edge in their marketing.
And so far, the results have been nothing less than remarkable.
All told, those who have opted to go mobile in their marketing strategies are now among the biggest cheerleaders for why it is truly imperative for companies in the hospitality and gaming industries to intelligently reach customers who are constantly on the move and too frequently bombarded with irrelevant offers and annoying promotions – most of which aren’t even optimized for the mobile screen.
This week, mGamingWatch connected with Aaron Righellis, one of the partners at Up All Day Creative Solutions, to discuss what his company is up to and what the future of mobile marketing in the gaming space may hold.
MGW: For those who aren’t familiar with Up All Day Creative Solutions, what do you do?
Aaron: We’re a full service advertising agency that focuses on the gaming and hospitality industries. All three of our partners came from the gaming industry. And we all used to work at the Venetian in the marketing and advertising departments. That’s where we grew up in the industry. And now being headquartered in Las Vegas, we know that there’s a lot of casino work to be done around here.
MGW: Why has responsive email design been such a high priority for Up All Day?
Aaron: One of the things we’ve been doing a lot of recently is designing responsive emails. Traditionally, email blasts tend to be static images that don’t really adjust the size for the screen that you’re viewing it on. So how we do it now – and we’ve been working closely with Luxor and Excalibur on this – is to create responsive emails to deploy to their casino patrons. And what that does is, it basically adjusts the content and images to the size of the screen that you’re viewing them on. You can view an email on your desktop or you can view it on your tablet or on your phone. When we program these responsively, it’s tailoring the email so that each user can digest the content in the best way possible.
MGW: On your website, you talk about the importance of speed to market. Why is that element so critical in the casino and gaming industries?
Aaron: As you know, in the casino industry it’s very competitive– on a national level and even on the local market levels. Since the market is so dynamic and what each casino is offering can change at any minute, you have to stay competitive with those times. So a lot of the times we notice that casinos go through a good amount of spending when they schedule a lot of direct marketing efforts or email deployment efforts, and social media efforts. But there’s always going to be times when they have to adjust. And the speed to market is key. So with us being geared toward the gaming industry we understand those timelines and necessities that gaming clients have when it comes to turnaround times.
MGW: What makes Up All Day so particularly proficient at helping companies in the casino space with their marketing needs?
Aaron: I think there are a couple of things that attribute to it. We are a smaller group, so we’re nimble. We are able to adjust with the times and such. We do have that background in the gaming industry. So a lot of the time when we go in to meetings, we are speaking the same language. We do have a knowledge base from past experiences being on the casino side and on this side servicing clients as well. So we’ve been exposed to a great deal of marketing tactics and creative strategies. And, again, the speed to market, turnaround times, accuracy, and just the one-to-one service we offer clients as well. Part of our company philosophy is to become an extension of our clients’ teams, not necessarily a vendor for hire. That’s one of the reasons we’ve retained so many clients for so long. And when they move to new properties, they tend to reach back out to us as well.
MGW: Looking ahead, what will it take for mobile marketing in the casino space to be truly effective in 2014 and beyond?
Aaron: I think there are a couple trends that people really have to look at. Email, for example, is less expensive to send out than a direct mail piece. With that mindset, paying attention to more interactive efforts will be important. Same with paying attention to the different touch points. Social media has a big buzz, as does mobile marketing. So it’s really about how you want to strategically communicate to your customers when you have all these tools in your tool belt. And the mobile marketing tool belt is getting more and more robust as the days go on.
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