The significance of the creative in betting advertising strategy

Consumer concern regarding the issue of data and privacy when using social media channels has increased in recent years, contributing to changes in policy by many platforms, which has had consequences for commercial advertising strategies.

Speaking to Joe Streeter, Editor of Payment Expert, two experienced marketing professionals discussed the impact of changes in data and privacy policy on sports betting advertising on a Spirable-sponsored panel entitled ‘The Sports Betting Marketing Revolution: How to Win with Data-Driven Creative’, at SBC Digital North America.

Commenting on changes in privacy policy, Daniel Toledo, Head Of Performance Marketing at Entain, remarked: “Digital marketers are used to change and we always adapt. I think the discussion about privacy is a fair one, customers need to be protected and we as individuals don’t want our data to be sold.”

“Looking at the topic from a ‘different angle’, he continued: “There’s three sides here. There’s the customer who wants to use products from Facebook, Snapchat and Google for free. Facebook has built a business model around the fact that they can sell ads, that’s why it’s free for the customer, and we use the Facebook platform to serve relevant ads.

“The shift that I’m seeing is that we will be less effective from an advertising point of view. We will probably go more broad and will go more towards interest targeting, while today with all the cookie data in place we are able to serve the right ads to the right customer.”

He added: “With the privacy talks that are happening and the changes that we are seeing  I think that advertising will be more broad, and I don’t know if it’s necessarily a good experience for the customer.”

Building on Toledo’s comments, Dave O’Meara, Co-Founder and COO at Spirable shared his belief that creative advertising and leveraging of social platforms will become increasingly important as a result of enhanced data safeguarding and privacy checks.

“One thing we believe firmly in is the power of the creative,” he stated. “Targeting capabilities on platforms across the web will evolve and change, and the macro outlook here is that privacy will become more important.”

Acknowledging Toledo’s concern that the media side of advertising is falling out of marketers control, he argued: “That’s not going to shift back, that’s the macro trend. What you put out in terms of creative, that’s 100% in your control. 

“Levels of targeting and social channels will become even more relevant because their first party data on how a user engages with content within their platform allows them to see what customer’s indicate with and what they interact with.”

He continued: “Social platforms will become platforms where you’ll have more visibility because they control more of that. I think on social media, the creativity that you deliver becomes really important. 

“Making that creative more relevant – updating offers, countdowns or game schedules, making that creative work harder, and being more relevant – ‘future proofs’ you to a certain degree because you have the most control.”

When quizzed by Streeter about the process for developing and pushing creative advertising initiatives, Toledo remarked: “In reality, everything you have on site, every piece of data you have available, can be pushed on a creative. 

“The main challenge is making those creatives as appealing as possible, to still reach an audience that has an ability to engage with your creative and make sure that the journey is still relevant for people and make sure advertisers do not have a lot of wastage in their expense.

“I also keep in mind that the customer service needs to be good, and that’s the interesting piece – can the customer experience still be good even after all these privacy changes that we are seeing? I think it can, but it will be different.”

Pointing out that using manual methods to push creative advertising  requires a lot of manpower and effort, Toledo highlighted the significance of automated systems, which enable operators to deliver skill and reduce time.

Noting the versatility of the sports betting sector and its ability to create useful and inspiring content, O’Meara stated: “You’ve got to create that reason for someone to engage with the content, and I think that sports betting as a industry has a great ability to do that because there’s just so much variety in terms of what’s happening every day.”

The Industry experts were speaking on the Leaders in Sports Betting Track sponsored by Sportradar at SBC Digital North America, which ran from June 9 to 10, 2021. To access this panel and more, click here https://sbcevents.com/sbc-digital-north-america/