Opinion: A fresh approach to player loyalty

Captain Up CEO Uri Admon looks at how a fresh approach to customer engagement is the key to increasing player life-time value 

Behavioural economics is a fascinating scientific field. It revolves around the way in which we make decisions and what drives us to do what we do. This is a new bonanza for online casinos – offering a better understanding of their players and more accurate compliance. There is no doubt that viewing user engagement as a revenue enhancer is an innovative concept for online casinos. [private]

What was once only part of social game mega-hits like Candy Crush and Clash of Clans is now driving new and exciting loyalty plans for leading online brands.

It’s no secret that user acquisition and online marketing are an endless challenge. It is a circular race, constantly seeking to get new players on board while prolonging existing users’ lifetime value. However, the modern online marketers’ arsenal hasn’t really evolved over the past couple of years. User acquisition tools have mainly focused on more-of-the-same marketing methodologies that generate more-of-the-same results. But there’s a wind of change blowing.

Total immersion

Playing at a casino is, at its core, an emotional experience. It is not all about the money but about the adrenaline rush created by a flawless and exciting user experience, driving players in and getting them to come back for more. This user experience is driven by what is called “total immersion”. The whole casino scenery is surrounding the player, creating a unique atmosphere and the special vibe people become hooked on.

But what creates this atmosphere? Well, in short, it’s everything. From the big picture to the smallest detail, every aspect of the user walkthrough is pre-calculated and designed to support the decision making process of the gamer. The layout and spread of the game machines across the room, the sounds, lightning, smells, the great looking decorations and the carefully planned economy joined between the games. The right floor planning is the essence of success when it comes to gambling.

But how can this be achieved in the online space? The basic assumptions for boosting revenues through engagement are:

• People are looking for a sense of belonging – being part of a community is a valid and powerful incentive to act upon.
• The right reward for the right action – customizing and offering the right rewards for preferred actions drives excellent engagement from users.
• Good design has super-powers – getting a message through to users and driving them to action is a form of art combined with psychology. Great and carefully planned design can do magic to online user engagement.
• People want to be engaged – they are just looking for a good enough reason.
• Content is king – it won’t do you any good trying to motivate and incentivize your users if your basic offering, your content, service or product, isn’t good enough. Offer great content and start from there.

A fresh approach to loyalty

Most traditional user retention mechanisms are based on straightforward rewards – redeeming points for deposits. It might work on some level but there could be so much more. The new generation of loyalty programs rewards the users for visiting, exploring, sharing and gifting. Missions and challenges are an integral part of the experience and every user has a chance to win and level up.

Captain Up has developed a SaaS platform to provide a new generation of retention and loyalty, based on insights driven from behavioural economics. The user engagement platform enables online businesses to add social and gaming mechanics, turning visitors into active loyal users.

The outcome is a casino life-like user experience, rewarding the user for any action in the game: visit, spin, deposit, click, gift, explore, download and more, exposing the user to new games, offering missions and rewards, thus creating user loyalty and new content discovery while increasing ARPU, sometimes up to 30% and more. And by altering your approach to customer engagement, you too can significantly boost loyalty and engagement.

Bio: Uri Admon is a mobile industry pioneer with experience of working with companies like Orange, Dyuna, McCann and Caesars. With a passion for gaming, data, and behavioral psychology, Admon is an instructor on the Entrepreneurship MBA program at Tel Aviv University. He founded Captain Up in 2013.