GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 7 - January 2009

| GPWA Times 47 Cheeky Power “Usually when some- one is laughing there’s someone else on the other side of the room that’soffended…Quite simply, those that are offendedbyour humor aren’t going to be our customers anyway.” our competitors because of the value we provide.” Paddy Power has alsomade a concert- ed effort to differentiate itself online. In September, the company launched a Ryder Cup spoof video that defined effective viral marketing. Visitors to the site could enter a friend’s name and hometown and instantly have a mock video-newscast produced that announced the breaking news that Ireland’s Padraig Harrington had backed out of the event and would be replaced by this certain person. Also last year, Paddy Power launched EggyCam.com. The site had live-stream video available 24 hours a day of 10 eggs in an incubator. People could log on and bet which egg would hatch first. In addi- tion to the video, the site had a live blog, egg recipes, a “Getting Laid” section that explained the origin of the eggs and, of course, links to all of the other Paddy Power brands. The world’s press picked up the story and within one week it was featured across the globe from Ireland to Italy to India. “People were literally glued to their com- puters watching to see which egg was go- ing to hatch,” Lambert adds. “We actually made a good bit of money on it and it was something that was a lot of fun.” Lambert says that having fun is also an integral part of the affiliate side of the business. For instance, instead of the usu- al electronic newsletter that most affiliate brands send out each week to its affiliates, Paddy Power utilizes a video. “We know that our affiliates get loads of newsletters and they probably don’t have the time to read all of them,” Lambert ex- plains. “But I think they look forward to getting our video because it’s a change of pace and, of course, we try to make them laugh. It also allows us to a put a face to the marketing team, which is very important.” Lambert says that the “next great big thing” in the industry is the growth of mobile bet- ting, and she feels Paddy Power is “ahead of the game” with those mobile products, which isn’t exactly a surprise. Paddy Pow- er was also a bit ahead of the curve when it began offering punters the chance to use the telephone to place wagers rather than walking into a betting shop. Although as Mr. Power remembers that idea didn’t get off to the start he had hoped. The first night Paddy Power was set up for telephone wagering was in 1995 on the day of the Breeders’ Cup horse races in the U.S. After running a huge ad campaign for the new wager- ing option, Mr. Power was anticipat- ing a busy and profitable evening of answering the phones. But the phone rang just two times the entire night. “One was a wrong number and the other was the pizza delivery man looking for directions,” Mr. Power says with a laugh. “It was an inauspi- cious start, to say the least.” When asked if even a little part of him thought that night that maybe the new idea wasn’t so splendid, Mr. Power scoffed. “No way!” he answers. “The only thing go- ing through my mind was that I was mad at myself for not betting Cigar [the horse that won the Breeders’ Cup Classic race that day]. That’s all I was thinking about. “But seriously, I had every confidence in the world that the idea was going to work because it just made so much sense. Same goes for the whole concept of betting on the Internet. It’s the perfect vehicle for the punters. We knew it and we pounced on the idea. “That’s the whole philosophy of our com- pany. We’re not afraid to take chances and we thrive on the new ideas. We’ve been doing that ever since I can remem- ber. And as long as I’m here we’re never going to stop.”