Quick Summary
Ladbrokes retail staff have been encouraging customers to sign-up online which according to the results has generated 35,000 new online actives.
Our View
We are big believers that there should be no silos between your different distribution channels. A customer sees no difference between your desktop website, mobile website, dial-a-bet and retail product, they expect a unified experience across all of them. However when you look at how operators are set-up you would think it was 4 different companies all competing against each for the same customer.
Longer term trend
When we look at Retail (non-gambling) the trend is that pure-play eCommerce sites are doomed and that you need to operate an omnichannel approach. The importance for retailers to offer buy online and collect in store as well as return items in store. The data also shows that omnichannel retailers can make more money than pure play eCommerce sites and even the mighty Amazon started experimenting with physical retail stores so you know the trend is serious.
Impact On Gambling Industry
While the gambling industry does not to worry about delivery or returns they do have to worry about payments. At a very simple level, operators with a retail footprint have a huge advantage over pure play online operators in being able to offer in-store deposit and cash-out.We also feel as the Ladbrokes example shows being able to physically interact with customers and deliver a positive brand experience can drive serious results as it’s not often you find 35,000 new customers.
Ladbrokes CMO
It’s been widely reported that Kristof Fahy has joined Ladbrokes as their new CMO. We are massive fans of Kristof and feel he never got enough credit for the turnaround of William Hill.
We have a number of favourite quotes from Kristof from his time at William Hill including:
“Once you start disappearing up your own arse as a brand, you have to come back to the fundamentals; who is our audience and what are they doing?”
and
“For the ROI big picture, we are the prime case study. What I do know is that it works, but one question is measuring,” he said, “Do it first and measure it later. You’ll never do the right thing otherwise. If you understand your brand and customers, content should be relatively easy.”
We agree!