Arjan Korstjens is Strategy Director at Quince Amsterdam, an international Activation Agency. In the past he has worked as an independent Marketing Consultant for, amongst others, Holland Casino, Lottomatica, Sisal, Merkur Casino and Grand Casino Luzern. He is specialized in customer journeys, looking at communication from a user point of view. How to get the right message to the right people at the right time is his belief of success in Marketing.

He is the speaker of this year’s EEGS Masterclass on the “Casino Marketing and Communications” topic and also going be a voice in the “Customer Experience Transformation” discussion.

EEG: We have been creating several researches on how Eastern European players are different from West European players. What are the key factors that shape a marketing plan for casinos?

Arjan: The key factors for any Marketing Plan are the guests and making choices. Casinos tend to think they know the guests because they see them daily, but most of the time they are wrong. To have a great Marketing Plan you have to group your guests into a couple of target groups. Different Target Groups have different expectations. The main target groups for casinos all over Europe are Fun Players. Time Players and Risk Players. Where the Fun Player, who visits a casino only a couple of times per year, seeks the thrill and ‘Wow” excitement, the Time Player, who are most of your frequent guests, comes to the casino for a social escape. And the Risk Player really wants to be left alone and seeks the thrill of the game. If you know your guests, you have to make choices. Most of the promotions I see try to target all groups or have multiple messages. That does not work, make sharp focused choices.  It sound easy, but believe me, not that many casino’s do this.

EEG: Casinos are trying to find new ways to attract Millennials. In your opinion what is the right approach in terms of casino communication?

Arjan: What I see is that a lot of casinos think that moving to Facebook or start Twittering is enough. But there they do the same as they do in their casino or use Social Media as an extension of their ‘old media’ promotion.  When you want to reach Millennials you have to start thinking as Millennials. Keywords like Sharing, Multitasking and Gamifiction have to come in to the plans. For a long time Holland Casino placed photo booths in their casinos where people could make a snapshot of themselves in the casino and place that on the Holland Casino Facebook. That was very successful, click here for the examples. Older casino visitors don’t like to be photographed in a casino, Millenials love to share what they are doing. So create a separate part in the casino where you encourage people to share what they are doing. Gamification is another thing. Create games around the casino games. When you look at the casino all games except Poker are you-against-the-bank games. We should think of more shared experiences. What every casino could do is start Tournaments. Have guests pay to participate in a tournament and let them play Slots, Roulette or Blackjack for let’s say 15 minutes. The one with the highest stack or most credits wins a prize. 15 Minutes of excitement, fun and show. And in those 15 minutes the Millenials learn the excitement of the games, so they will start playing afterwards. But again here, start thinking from your target groups and service them to their needs.

EEG: As the right marketing of a brand is essential, and branding being one of the key factors. Do you think that large marketing agencies in Eastern and Central Europe could grow their client base do to the recent regulations that enable foreign operators to apply for a license?

Arjan: Casinos underestimate the power of Branding, so yes, I see a lot of opportunities for marketing agencies. But only when those agencies begin with understanding a casino and their guests.  Almost everywhere I come I see the same kind of advertising: a group of young, very good-looking people winning at a table. Boring…. I think when you would make an overview of 20 years of casino advertising of all over Europe you would see about the same, except for changing clothes and hair cuts. We should broaden our view. Not the casino around the corner, but also the cinema, restaurant, bar and club is our competitor. Our guests can only spend their time and money in one place at a time. In my advice to casinos I use the Brand Key model, developed by Unilever, to force casinos to really come down to the essence: what makes them different from the rest, who are you competing and what are the key insights in your target group. When you have a strong definition of your Brand and how you can stand out, campaigns and promotions will be strong and consistent, building your Brand in every effort you do.

EEG: You have been working as an independent marketing consultant for well-known brands like Merkur Casino, Holland Casino, Grand Casino Luzern and more. Looking back at this experience, which was your biggest challenge so far in the land-based sector?

Arjan: In the last years there were two projects that really stand out. The first was re-inventing Game Explanation for Holland Casino. The casinos had become a place for and by experts. The regular guests knew how to play and the croupiers and rest of staff serviced these guests very well. But at the same time the casino had become a place where First Time Visitors were easily scared off. The Game Explanation were large booklets with a lot of text, explaining all the rules of the games. And it was not easy to approach staff at the tables, because they were focused on their regular guests. We started the project by making the Game Explanation simple again. Boiling down to the basics: what does a new guest needs to know to make the first step, only the essentials. After that we made communication campaign. Staff was trained to recognize First Time Visitors and these guests were encouraged to ask if they needed more explanation. In the end it was a complete package: small booklets with only the essentials; video clips on the Multi Media system, per clip explaining one topic; a website with videos explaining the games; and staff training to help these guests.

The second was the introduction of Cash Fever in Grand Casino Luzern. Caused by a change in the law in Switzerland the successful Cash Express bank had to be replaced. The successor, Cash Fever, had a couple of issues we had to overcome. The minimum bet tripled from CHF 0,50 to CHF 1,50. The progressive jackpot was changed to have more frequent hits and all slot machines were multi-game with 4 titles. For the introduction we made a complete communication campaign. In the weeks before introduction we made teasers, making people aware that something new was on its way. And from the first day nobody in the casino could miss that there was something new. From the entrance of the casino to the 2 banks we made a trail of floor sticker. We placed Quick banners and a life-size display of the game, containing mini-cards with the basic explanations: which games, what is the minimum bet and how the Bonus Game was played for the progressive prizes. To complete this all we created a mobile website with more game explanation. This campaign was on the floor for 4 months. It was a great success. People knew where to find it, how to play it and what they could win. This resulted in a lot of people playing it. And that makes the other part come true: because it was played a lot, a lot of people were winning, causing a success because more people wanted to play. All goals were more than met. The Royal Jackpot was planned to have a hit frequency of once a month, but by the success the frequency was once every two weeks. Within 3 months this bank was the most profitable of the whole casino.

But the biggest challenge is in production now. Like I stated before, First Time Visitors are very important to give your casino a future. But this group is not being taken care of in most casinos. This group needs attention and that is where the crisis has come in: most casinos have laid off staff. So we are developing a new communication concept for helping First Time Visitors. Give them Game Explanation, helping them find the right game or right Slot Machine so they can learn and making them familiar with the casino. This concept involves iBeacons to help find the way, animated video game explanation and everything is developed for smart phone and tablet. I can not disclose more details, but people can ask me more at the EEGS Masterclass or Summit.

EEG: And last, but not least, what will be the key learnings that all participants will take away from EEGS Masterclass 2015?

Arjan: The Masterclass will give attention to the specific casino target groups like Fun Player, Time Player and Risk Player and their expectation. Also we will see what kind of promotions work for which target group, illustrated by examples from all over Europe and how to calculate the ROI on promotion. I think if casinos pay more attention to these topics they can get more result out of their Marketing budget, because in the end it is about the bottom line: how can we earn more money with effective Marketing.

Hope to see all of you at the Masterclass or the EEGS Summit!

If you would like to get the unique opportunity to ask all your important questions and learn first-hand details from Arjan or attend the EEGS Masterclass be sure to attend the Eastern European Gaming Summit. For 8th consecutive year on 23 – 24 November 2015, Inter Expo Center in Sofia, Bulgaria will bring together under one roof world’s leading figures and companies from the industry to present and outline current market developments and future trends with global vision and focus on the Eastern European market.

Visit the EEGS website here.