GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 4 - April 2008

34 explain the offer, terms of bonuses, etc. The ads are only served to people outside the U.S. If a user checks a box to receive an offer from a casino or poker room, then that user’s full contact details are immediately sent over to the advertiser. “The return on investment for the advertiser is huge,” Gray says. “If you have 200 people, already active in online gaming, and we guarantee it’s a real person, tell me you can’t convert 20 of them.” And PerfSpot is betting that their platform is a good way to get those kinds of users to their advertisers. “Through behavior filtering, we sort out those who are not valuable to the industry and those who re- ally want to play the game,” Gray says. “TV can’t do that. Newspapers can’t do that. We have a wonder- ful tool in Perfspot that can do that. “Yes you can advertise in a poker magazine. But in advertising in poker magazines, the call to action is to someone who is distracted and not at their com- puter. Having that call to action while they’re play- ing, it opens up opportunities – that person already has the forward momentum of playing.” “There is a word of mouth advertising aspect to this as well,” Gonzalez says. “Our grapevine (feature) keeps you updated with other friends. The ‘This per- son is currently playing’ notice creates awareness in other sections.” PerfSpot believes that advertisers will be willing to pay a premium to reach this audience. They’ve set up a bidding process for advertisers to get on the co-registration page. And they’re charg- ing a flat rate for appearing there. In addition, PerfSpot is a creating list of “PerfSpot accredited sites” to be released this spring. The demographic breakdown of PerfSpot’s audience indicates that the site has found the right recipe for success. Twenty-seven percent of its traffic is al- ready gaming related. PerfSpot’s poker game saw more than 10,000 people sign up for it in its first week. Seventy-two percent of its members are over the age of 21. And according to Quantcast, its mem- bers also have discretionary income to spend, with 13% earning over $100,000 and 23% earning from $60,000 to $100,000. Social marketing ready to go mainstream PerfSpot predicts that social marketing concepts will be heavily involved in the marketing of the future. “All sites will have some form of social interaction in the future,” Gray says. “Whether you’re selling books or are a car enthusiast group, you have to give your users the capability to create a profile and have some sort of interaction. “People spend 30 minutes designing their own profile on PerfSpot,” Gray adds. “The more time they spend on a profile, the more important it becomes to them.” And the key to advertising in this climate is interac- tion. “From a marketing aspect, there are two parts to the interaction, user and advertiser,” Gray says. “You can’t just put something out there and not give back.”