Has the time come to stop segmenting via age?

October 5, 2017 9:02 PM
  • Nick Sortal, CDC Gaming Reports
October 5, 2017 9:02 PM
  • Nick Sortal, CDC Gaming Reports

We’re in an era where it’s easy to collect player data, but people, not computers, are still the ones that put that cash into a slot machine or on a blackjack table.

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So panelists encouraged casino marketers to go beyond the data Thursday morning in a session titled, “Age is Just a Number: Behavioral Player Segmentation.”

“I think we’re scientists, but were also artists,” said Karen Gray, director of corporate marketing and engagement for the British Columbia Lottery Corporation, which runs the lottery and casinos in Canada.“There is data, but there are also stories.”

Roberto Coppola, vice president of advanced products for Aristocrat Gaming, called all the data that is compiled a “quagmire.”

“We’re drowning in data but lacking insights,” Coppola said. “A lot of us working for data centric and math centric companies but there needs to be a balance.”

And some companies need to do better with the data they already have, notes Danielle Rankin, director of business development for Konami Gaming Inc.

“You want it to be relevant,” she said. “I live in Vegas and I got mail saying ‘Come here for vacation.’”

Coppola and the others emphasized that it all starts with recognizing that a one-size-fits all solution doesn’t exist anymore.

“We need to be thinking of segmentations between segmentations,” he joked about a previous job that rolled out Nevada-created product in Argentina. It featured sombreros and chihuahuas – to the point that it was, at best, patronizing.

“You can have glaring missteps if you don’t do your homework,” he said.

Jennifer Welshons, senior vice president for marketing in the Scientific Games lottery group, again emphasized: “You just can’t treat everybody the same.”

Not being able to anticipate, too, creates problems, Coppola said.

“At Blockbuster, in 2000, their motto was ‘Be kind, rewind,’” he began. “Their retail model was working, but they had their blinders on.

“A company came along they could have bought for $50 million, but Blockbuster asked, ‘Who would download movies from the Internet?’ and they passed on that company.

“And that company was Netflix. They’re doing $8 billion in revenue and Blockbuster is out of business.” They also discouraged marketers from a standard approach toward millennials.

“Nothing ticks off a millennial than being lumped into a group of homogeneous millennials,” Rankin said. “Using demographics is my least favorite.”

Added Gray: “We have a strategy: ignore millennials.” Rankin supported the idea, noting that her data showed there was no statistical significance based on their motivation and age.

Instead, she said, her company studied people who are “twins” – their data is the same but one is an active player and another hasn’t really decided to hand over the cash yet.

“That’s where we focus,” Rankin said. “I will say within that, it skews younger with those not spending. But it’s because they have no money. That part is a life stage part.”