Bad Marketing or Misunderstanding invite? Opinions Please.

[dukesy]

I

Such problems arise because casinos insist on contracting out postal marketing, so screw-ups like this are inevitable, however it is the CASINO that gets the blame, not the faceless PR/marketing company they employed.

This is simply not the case. I work for a company who execute Direct Mail campaigns for Online Casinos, and we have so many procedures in place to avoid the erroneous sending of letters, that we actually STOP a lot of errors occurring.

Online casino operators are just that, they operate online casinos. Direct Mail companies (like us) specialise in Direct Mail. Its what we do.

Mistakes like THIS happen when Casino's choose to run a campaign out of their own office or subcontract to Ad agencies, and then fail to run the checks that we do as a matter of course. For example, we have access to tools to identify people who have moved home or even to identify deceased players and remove them from the send. Whether a casino CHOOSES to use these tools (ie pay for them) is up to them, we (and all other responsible, professional DM companies) simply make the tools available to them.

Yes, mistakes happen, but using experts in their field reduces these, not increases them.

(/gets off high horse)

[luarod]

Bad Marketing practice all the way. I can see why some other posts say that it's implied that the bonus is for new players so there is no way they are going to honor it. But the problem is that they should think who are they sending the letters to before... common sense.

[vinylweatherman]

This is simply not the case. I work for a company who execute Direct Mail campaigns for Online Casinos, and we have so many procedures in place to avoid the erroneous sending of letters, that we actually STOP a lot of errors occurring.

Online casino operators are just that, they operate online casinos. Direct Mail companies (like us) specialise in Direct Mail. Its what we do.

Mistakes like THIS happen when Casino's choose to run a campaign out of their own office or subcontract to Ad agencies, and then fail to run the checks that we do as a matter of course. For example, we have access to tools to identify people who have moved home or even to identify deceased players and remove them from the send. Whether a casino CHOOSES to use these tools (ie pay for them) is up to them, we (and all other responsible, professional DM companies) simply make the tools available to them.

Yes, mistakes happen, but using experts in their field reduces these, not increases them.

(/gets off high horse)

So, who decides upon the list of recipients, the casino or the mailing company? If this was meant for new players, the casino would have had to entrust the mailing company to come up with a list of recipients based on their own data (such as those who express an interest on their postal preference form lodged with the Royal Mail for use in filtering "junk mail"). I would expect the casino provides the copy, so would be responsible for ensuring it is clear.

Why was "new players only" not EXPLICITLY stated on the letter, given that such arrangements are bound to lead to some existing players receiving the offer. Leaving something to be inferred is not good enough, ask the ASA.

[dukesy]

So, who decides upon the list of recipients, the casino or the mailing company? If this was meant for new players, the casino would have had to entrust the mailing company to come up with a list of recipients based on their own data (such as those who express an interest on their postal preference form lodged with the Royal Mail for use in filtering "junk mail"). I would expect the casino provides the copy, so would be responsible for ensuring it is clear.

Why was "new players only" not EXPLICITLY stated on the letter, given that such arrangements are bound to lead to some existing players receiving the offer. Leaving something to be inferred is not good enough, ask the ASA.

To answer in turn :

in our case *(i am sure not everyone operates the same), the CLIENT decides on the list of recipients. This could be from a number of sources (eg "fun" players that have registered but not deposited, Lapsed players, Rented lists from list brokers , data from Social Media sites etc).

WRT The copy, this IS provided by the client, but as experienced marketeers in the sector, we would normally check the copy to ensure that the message is CLEAR and not ambiguous, and indeed is targeted towards the segmentation applied to the data in the first place (otherwise it wont be an effective campaign! )

I agree, the ASA do take (quite rightly) companies to task over "misleading" adverts, one that springs to mind is http://www.asa.org.uk/ASA-action/Adjudications/2010/3/GameAccount-Global-Ltd/TF_ADJ_48185.aspx where an advert was found to be misleading.

With reference to "Why was "new players only" not EXPLICITLY stated on the letter", I would not like to speculate on that, as this campaign was nothing to do with us !

The option to run data against (for example) Mailing preference service (the UK "junk mail" filter) is there, and indeed the CAP code states that you SHOULD run data against it, but only if "no pre existing relationship exists", which often is not the case (eg free play players)

[silcnlayc]

Thank you all for the input. The offer was NOT honored. I did reinstall the casino just for this reason and as was said, they lost a very loyal longstanding customer. To send an offer such as this directly to me (name and all), knowing I had an account already at all their sister casinos too..is kind of misleading was my thought. It also was very vague on the "new player" part since it was addressed to me personally instead of "Dear New Player".

I am just so discouraged with all casinos nowadays that it is hard to play at all anymore. This definitely puts icing on my cake on where to play. Why? Because I once said I enjoy playing free chips when I can instead of taking bonuses with my monies and I was looking forward to a nice night of spinning and relaxing on the house. Hopes were dashed...as usual...but in a very bad way IMO...I still think it should have been honored.

Again, thanks for all the input. Good perspectives and interesting to read differing opinions.


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[swampwitch]

What are we to believe?

Did CWC itself send out CDs and a bonus offer for NEW PLAYERS using a list of already enrolled players? That wouldn't simply be a bad marketing decision, it would be just plain stupid. It not only wouldn't attract NEW players, it would piss off exisitng players.

OR, is it an affiliate using a bought mailing list, a simple snail mail template with different bonus codes authorized to the affiliate for new players, and someone with the know-how to embed an affiliate code in a CD. That seems more likely to me, considering how sophisticated personal PC's CD/DVD software is getting.

If it turns out CWC sent these out, they need to give the bonuses, end of discussion. Stupidity and vague wording is beneath an accredited company.
If it's an affiliate, CWC needs to cancel this fuckwit's affiliate account.

[Silencio]

My guess would be an administration error.
It happened to me once at gowild. I asked support if they could offer me a bonus and she told me I was eligible for the welcome bonus lol.
I told her, although I kinda deserve this kind of deal, are you sure? And turned out she made a mistake. Maybe I should have insisted on getting it, but I only went in to see if they could change my opinion about them, with them being cm accredited now. So, guess not