With an uncommonly deep understanding of and enthusiasm for mobile at the core of its operations and mission, Joingo is a mobile loyalty solutions company on the move in the gaming world.
In an exclusive interview with mGamingWatch this week, Joingo co-founder and Vice President of Business Development Alex Kanwetz shared his insightful take on the future of mobile in casino marketing and the role his thriving company expects to play in that evolution.
MGW: How is Joingo contributing to the emergence of mobile as a dominant force in modern casino marketing?
Kanwetz: We feel that in order to be able to monetize mobile, you need to be able to encompass a number of key components, which include a native app, a mobile web presence, and an SMS solution. With those combined together we’ve created a TPT (targeted push technology) which, in effect, gives a casino customer the ability reach out to 99% of the handsets known to mankind that their customer or player may have. So our targeted push technology and being able to integrate geofencing and micro-location services give an operator the ability to personalize a message and allow the casino operator to reach out to an infinite number of segmentations that are customized to that particular player, giving them greater value.
MGW: What makes Joingo so particularly proficient at driving repeat business and building customer engagement?
Kanwetz: Every campaign is designed to collect different analytics and backend calculations of how successful a campaign has been, therefore creating the next opportunity – a better opportunity – to give greater satisfaction to that particular player based on sending them something relevant and something of interest to them. Our ability to connect to systems – whether it’s the CRMs, slot data tracking systems, point-of-sale systems, etc. – really encompasses an ecosystem of marketing within the mobile loyalty solution that Joingo provides.
MGW: What does it take for mobile marketing in the casino space to be effective?
Kanwetz: Joingo is a one-product, one-service-product company. We do mobile. And we know how to monetize mobile. And our core competency revolves around the fact that not only do we understand the very complicated fragmented ecosystem of mobile, we’re able to encompass a number of different solutions, from the ability to push content out to an ever-changing handset market, to being able to connect to the specific systems that I spoke of earlier. For casinos, their biggest challenge is that they’re not experts in the mobile space. They’re not experts in software development. And they’re not experts in having best practices and experience in the marketplace like we do. So it’s a big challenge. It’s definitely something that a lot of casino companies want to do, but when you look at Joingo, we make mobile simple. And we have a proven track record that’s substantiated through our key performance indicators.
MGW: For casino entertainment companies, is mobile a high enough priority for most or should they be doing more in mobile?
Kanwetz: That’s a great question. Having been in the gaming industry for almost three decades, I can tell you that this product – the Joingo mobile loyalty solution and system – is a must-have product similar to bill validators back in the last 90’s. For instance, if you’re not familiar with that, the slot machines on the floors in the late 80’s did not have bill acceptors attached to them. Within about a 24 to 36 month period of time, casino operators realized the double-digit increase that they could achieve on that particular gaming device based on the fact that it has a bill validator. Today we’re seeing that same type of double-digit result with a loyalty player who is now a mobile loyalty player.
MGW: What are you most excited about in terms of what Joingo is doing and what it has the potential to accomplish in the future?
Kanwetz: Clearly, mobile is the next best direct marketing channel and it will continue to grow. We’re on the beginning of a wave. Given the number of devices that are out there, if it’s marketed respectfully to players and consumers, mobile can be an absolutely fantastic channel. We see nothing but growth in this area. And, again, Joingo is agnostic to other verticals and industries. Right now, we’re focusing on gaming. We want to dominate the gaming space by being able to provide not only the best product but to support it and really understand the market and create a real acceleration or revenue and decrease of expenses for casino customers.
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