GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 9 - June 2009

39 LindaNiskanen is theMarketingManager for MariaBingo in Western Europe and has been working in online gaming since 2006with various products. Starting off in finance,specialising inoutsourcingandSAP usage and implementation, Linda moved into project management and marketing within the gaming industry in 2006. Her main focus and interest is female gaming and she is currentlyworkingonmarketing the Maria female gaming product range includingBingo,Casino,GamesandPoker. Gender Marketing | GPWA Times Whataffiliatescando toattractwomen Currently Bingo is the star product in attracting women to the online gam- bling sites. There are over 300 bingo sitesupand runningalready, all aiming to benefit from a product that possibly has the lowest threshold to star playing for agamingnovice. By carefully picking the sites they pro- mote, affiliates marketing gambling products directed towards females benefit greatly from the strong player loyalty to the site. The general bingo player is usually someone who wants to socialize; they set their bingobudget and stick to itmonth aftermonth, year after year. This high loyalty offers the affiliate the opportunity to earnmoney over a longer, sustainedperiodof time. Giving women a glimpse of the gam- ing community they could be part of is usually all it takes to entice women to check it out, safety and security of the site (offering reliablepaymentmethods etc) are also important for women in establishing if they want to play there ornot. Conclusion Currently the female gaming sector is still just a small part of the massive male oriented gaming sector, but while the male sector is starting to reach its plateau, female gaming is just starting tokickoff now. Gamingandespeciallygamblingas it is known today has almost lost the social stigma thatwas attached to them in the past. We are already well on our way towards gambling companies being seen as trustful providers of a service on parwith traditional and established multinational companies, while gam- ing is opening up to the female gaming segment and adjusting its product de- velopment andmarketing to this target group. In general there are already lots of womenwho are very active online and constantly looking for new channels where they can find entertainment but also the social channels that women tend to favour more than men. Com- bining the two in a way that bingo has managed todo, hasproven tobea reci- pe for success. There are three key items that should be stressedhere. Social community and playingwith friends, creating and shar- ing online, and successful product de- sign. Inorder tokeep thewomencomingback it’s all about the social community and the fun that can be had while playing with your friends. Great chat masters and the right welcoming atmosphere will alwaysbeat agoodpromotion. The possibility to create and share a profileonline iscurrentlyseenassome- thingpeoplealmost expect tobeable to do. They want to create photo albums, comment on things or post their blog and this will keep the people coming back formore. A successful designbothof the site and the product in itself are also impor- tant, but can in bingo related products actually be somewhat overlooked by the players, especially if they are re- ally happy with the chat masters and the community and atmosphere in the bingo rooms. The global gross gaming yield expected from online bingo during the follow- ing five years sees a constant growth year on year. We are at the beginning of making female gaming more main- stream, following thefirst steps already taken byNintendo and itsWii product range as well as PlayStation and its se- lection of games aimed at enhancing a social experience with friends rather thanplaying solitaire. Sowemight just aswell face it, women andmen are similar inmanyways, but when its comes to gaming it is good to take into account some small differ- ences resulting from the fact that Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus.