GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 31 - February 2015

iGaming trends for 2015: Choosing to market more effectively By Corey Tardiff C hoices permeate every facet of our personal and professional lives, each one carrying with it an assortment of po- tential outcomes. There are the easy choic- es, like determining attendees for a board meeting. There are also the harder ones, like how your marketing team can launch a cross-platform campaign while sticking to a budget. The tough choices faced by marketing and iGaming professionals in 2015 will need to be met with uncompro- mising resolve. The U.K. Point of Consumption (POC) tax will, in some cases, result in difficult decisions. This will include the challenge of maintaining, or even elevating, brand positioning. To achieve that goal while preserving effectiveness and efficiency, iGaming stakeholders must be discerning about the tactics that make up their digital marketing strategy. The POC emphasizes a challenge that marketers face with increasing frequency: an overabundance of choice. Having too many options can either cripple a brand’s creative drive or inspire more thoughtful and strategic practices to improve posi- tioning and engagement. What follows are several trends we ex- pect will emerge in 2015 in response to this situation. Clearing strategic clutter Barry Schwartz, an American psycholo- gist and author of The Paradox of Choice , was recently quoted in Fast Company , stating that "as the number of options increases, the costs, in time and effort, of gathering the information needed to make a good choice also increase." Schwartz goes on to say that "the level of certainty people have about their choice decreases. And the anticipation that they will regret their choice increases." Fortunately, this glut of choice also of- fers top brand strategists and creative minds an opportunity to collaborate and iGaming trends for 2015: Choosing to market more effectively