Financing for growth in the gaming gambling sector worldwide.

Gambit on marketing

10 Oct. 2007

Above picture: (left to right), Clive Hawkswood, CEO Remote gambling association, Nick Blunden,UK MD Profero, Malcolm Phillips, CAP/BCAP, Gareth Wong, GamBond and Gambit founder, Ed Barlett, Founder, IGA Worldwide.

Report by Lorien Pilling, Asia gaming consultant

Getting ahead(ache) in advertising?

Gambit once again showed that it had its finger on the pulse of the gaming industry with its October event. The assembled panel of experts was invited to discuss the possibilities, risks, and uncertainties associated with the new advertising regime issued in by the 2005 Gambling Act. The importance of the topic and the need for clarification was brought home just a fortnight after the event when the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) decided that one of the first TV adverts for a gambling firm warranted investigation after a handful of complaints.

Nick Blunden, UK MD of Profero London, opened the meeting with a note of caution, saying that, whilst there are undoubtedly more advertising opportunities available to the gambling industry, more opportunities also means more competition.

Although television is a medium that has just become available to most gambling operators for advertising purposes, Nick questioned whether it was actually the most effective one for the industry. Drawing on data from Ofcom’s 2007 market report, he highlighted the rapidly increasing spend on Internet advertising compared to the stagnation of spending in other media. Perhaps not surprisingly for the MD of a digital marketing agency, Nick concluded that ‘online’ is the new battleground for brands.

Several of Nick’s points were supported by the next speaker, Ed Bartlett, of IGA Worldwide. He focused specifically on the area of ‘in-game advertising’, a sector which is forecast to have more than USD 1bn spent on it by the end of this decade.

Whilst there might be no end of regulatory and age-verification difficulties about placing adverts for gambling companies in computer games, there might be opportunities for non-gaming brands to place adverts in gambling products (e.g. online casinos and poker rooms) to support a real-world advertising campaign. Indeed, IGA Worldwide has just begun working with PKR.com, although Ed was unable to give the Gambit audience any more details!

Clive Hawkswood, CEO of the Remote Gambling Association (RGA), and Malcolm Phillips from the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) provided the regulatory angle to the discussions.

Malcolm ran through several examples of adverts that would have fallen foul of the regulations, referring to the specific sections of the code that had been breached. He also highlighted the key components of the CAP and BCAP gambling advertising codes.

Clive focused on the Socially Responsible Advertising Code of Conduct that was adopted by his association’s members in August, ahead of the implementation of the Gambling Act. He stressed that the aim of this code was to supplement the existing codes, rather than simply duplicate them, and that it covered a few specific areas not addressed by existing, higher legislation.

The codes requirements include:

* Inclusion of a reference to the gambleaware.co.uk website in adverts
* Introduction of a 9pm watershed, before which gambling adverts cannot be aired on TV (with a few exceptions, including betting adverts around sports events)
* No gambling promotion on commercial merchandising aimed at children e.g. replica football shirts

It was agreed that all parties involved – both the gambling operators and the advertising agencies – were adopting a ‘softly, softly’ approach to the new regime, not wishing to be the first to break the code and be made an example of by the regulator. Subsequent events, however, have shown that not even this caution has succeeded in preventing complaints (albeit very few), and the attentions of the ASA.

Speakers on the night:

Clive Hawkswood, CEO, Remote Gambling Association

Ed Bartlett, VP Publisher Relations Europe and Co-Founder, IGA Worldwide, Inc., on case study of using 'in-game' advertising

Malcolm Phillips, Code Policy Executive, Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and Broadcast Advertising Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP)

Nick Blunden, Profero, UK Managing Director

Some much needed networking after the work out on the intellect.

Email us if you have any suggestions of very senior speakers, proposing to sponsor, or indeed want to be kept informed about future Gambit event.

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Speaker Profiles:

Ed Bartlett, Vice President Publisher Relations Europe and Co-Founder of IGA Worldwide is one of a new generation of multi-discipline industry visionaries, combining 14 years of videogame sector knowledge and experience with astute business acumen and proven advertising and media expertise.

Having fulfilled senior creative and production roles on key game releases for publishers including Sega, Virgin Interactive, BMG Interactive, Acclaim and Hasbro Interactive, Bartlett moved into Business Development in 1999 as a Director of the renowned games development house, ‘The Bitmap Brothers’.

Recognized as one of the first in the world to demonstrate the latent creative and commercial value of in-game advertising, Bartlett went on to found dedicated agency Hive Partners ahead of the curve in 2003. As its CEO, Bartlett led the company to six-figure revenues in its first year of trading, securing global Blue Chip advertiser accounts such as Red Bull, and striking genuinely innovative interactive in-game placement deals with leading videogame publishers including Sega and Vivendi Universal Games.

In 2005 Bartlett negotiated the acquisition of Hive Partners by IGA Worldwide before helping to raise its $17 million Series A VC round. He has since been responsible for building the foundations of its industry-leading proprietary Radial Network, securing landmark global deals with the likes of Electronic Arts, Valve, Atari and Codemasters.

Bartlett is also a multi-published author in the Business category and in 2006 was runner up in the Business Entrepreneur section of the UK Enterprise awards.

Malcolm Phillips, Code Policy Executive, Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and Broadcast Advertising Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP)

Malcolm Phillips is a member of the Executive of the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and the Broadcast Advertising Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP). He works for the Code Policy team and has responsibility for the newly introduced rules on gambling advertising. He previously worked in the Investigations department of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

This site is organised by Gareth Wong, you can email him to discuss any aspects relating to this site.