Kaizen Gaming is a rapidly growing force in the GameTech industry, expanding into new markets every year. It’s known globally for its exceptional online gaming experience and strong focus on technology and customer satisfaction.
Operating under the Stoiximan and Betano brands, Kaizen Gaming is dedicated to providing a seamless user journey. Using cutting-edge technology and data, they redefine online gaming entertainment. Bannerflow, with its creative optimisation and seamless integrations, plays a vital part in it.
We sat down with Manos Stefanopolous, Senior Marketing Operations Manager at Kaizen to find out the challenges presented by the nature of the industry and how a Creative Management Platform contributes to incredible productivity, agility, and growth.
How do you use Bannerflow today?
We use Bannerflow across a diverse range of platforms, including Display, Programmatic, Google Ads, and even Connected TV. It serves as the backbone for displaying odds and for LED displays in stadiums. We've also adopted Bannerflow for hosting our landing pages, server usage, social media, and most recently, for dynamic product ads (DPA).
Having so many markets makes it extra challenging to be consistent. How do you go about this?
Bannerflow plays a pivotal role in ensuring consistency across our operations in 14 markets. When we develop a use case in one country, it's effortless to duplicate and adapt it to another by simply adjusting the language. Moreover, we can effortlessly create multiple formats for the same creative without additional effort, a crucial capability in our industry where we frequently work with widgets and dynamic formats.
In terms of your overall campaigns, what are the key metrics that you look at in your day-to-day work?
Our primary metric is conversion, closely followed by Click-Through Rate (CTR). These two metrics are at the forefront of our performance evaluation, guided by Bannerflow's in-platform performance metrics. Impressions have significantly increased thanks to your platform, as has our presence in both rich media and digital media. While we occasionally observe spikes in registrations, it's retention that has seen the most significant boost.
Please walk us through how Bannerflow helps streamline production and workflows.
On any given day, we manage over a thousand events. It's nearly impossible to brief designers for each event, obtain the necessary designs in various formats, and publish them within the tight time frame of a match. Bannerflow has transformed this process; the system reads the match data and automatically generates creatives based on links, IDs, odds types, and more. This automation significantly reduces the time spent from briefing to execution.
And how do you use targeting and personalisation?
Bannerflow is seamlessly integrated with Income Access, a crucial tool for our affiliates. For each affiliate or partner, we craft thematic campaigns tailored to their specific audience, displaying banners that match their interests. For instance, if an affiliate specialises in NBA content, we exclusively showcase basketball-oriented odds in their campaign. Our approach extends to countries where we sponsor multiple teams, such as Brazil. Here, we tailor banners, and messages, integrate creatives into our on-site product journey, and display bonus schemes dynamically.
Having so many markets it's important to stay locally relevant. How do you find the balance between that and keeping the high quality of ads across all of your markets?
In most cases, we encourage markets to adopt successful marketing campaigns used elsewhere as best practices. There's no need to convince anyone or transfer files from market to market because all assets are readily accessible on the platform. Regional teams have access to creative material and data, simplifying the process of copying and localising campaigns. Transparency best describes our cross-country collaboration.
If we look into social dynamic ads specifically, do you use them in all of your markets?
Social dynamic ads are employed in the majority, approximately 10 out of 14 markets. In regions like Greece, where displaying odds in paid social is prohibited, we utilise Social Dynamic Ads (SDA) to promote live streaming events where users can view matches. We continuously find innovative ways to leverage Bannerflow. Just last week, we introduced a new feature in Portugal, displaying Combo Odds. We prepared DPA creatives for each occasion, three different creatives for the teams we sponsor in Portugal, and one for generic competitions which are then dynamically displayed to users to promote the feature based on what is most relevant to them.
Which social media platforms exactly are you using?
We cover virtually every platform, except LinkedIn. This includes Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Google, and Meta platforms. Facebook and Instagram are particularly prominent, running an average of 100 campaigns in total, approximately 10 per market.
Before you started using Bannerflow, how did you manage this amount of campaigns and variations?
Running social campaigns was infrequent because we couldn't update them as quickly as required due to constantly changing odds. The gap between preparing creatives one day and the odds changing the next was a significant challenge. Today, Bannerflow enables us to rapidly integrate odds into our marketing mix.
So you have reduced the production time with Bannerflow?
Absolutely. We now maintain a catalogue of 100 creatives within a campaign, covering all matches from various leagues and competitions. Previously, we would create creatives solely for popular national matches without such specificity. This approach makes us more relevant to our audience and drives higher registration rates.
And what does it mean for your end consumers? What benefits do they get from this?
Our users can trust us more because we provide them with up-to-date information. We get a lot of positive feedback, as users appreciate our timeliness and relevance to top events. They can also better understand our product and offerings. Presenting hundreds of matches with different creatives per competition is far more engaging than offering only a few matches.
How has incorporating the Social Dynamic Ads enhanced your campaign performance?
What we have seen is that the odds are great for the users because they remind them of the event. Based on our setup, the user will see content related to their interests and location, so if a user located in Greece is scrolling through Facebook they may see that today it's the Netherlands against Greece and can then take action based on this information. Let’s say a user notices an odd that’s easy to bet and win, so they log easily into the project. The acquisition is not that common with Social Dynamic Ads, but for the existing users and retention, it works perfectly.
Let’s get back to the World Cup campaign that you ran. Are there any key differences in preparing a campaign for an event as big as a World Cup, where you can predict what's going to happen versus your always-on approach? And how does working with Social Dynamic Ads help that?
The World Cup campaign was relatively straightforward because we had a fixed game schedule and fewer matches. The world's attention was focused on this event, allowing us to prepare creatives daily. However, in today's landscape, which includes the Premier League, La Liga, MLS, Euroleague basketball, and many more, automation is essential for efficiency. Big events simplify things because other activities slow down, and Bannerflow adds immense value in such scenarios, as well as during regular times.
How do you envision the integration of AI in the creative process and real-time engagement during the matches?
We aspire to incorporate AI that reads match data, country-specific information, and other variables to generate creatives without the need for templates. Simultaneously, we must engage with viewers during matches, whether they are on mobile devices, TVs, or computers. We are actively exploring interactive solutions to enhance engagement.
Going back to digital marketing as a whole, what do you see as your main challenges?
Our foremost challenge is seamlessly connecting the product with promotions in real time, making it effortlessly accessible to users. Our ultimate goal is enabling users to register and bet with minimal steps, without even visiting our platform. However, challenges arise in a cookieless world, affecting our ability to identify and target users. We remain prepared, implementing innovative solutions to navigate any scenario
Can you highlight any specific design tools on the Bannerflow platform that facilitate smoother design processes? For instance, automation, scaling, creative studio, network integrations, collaboration, or widgets. Are there any particular features you find crucial in this context?
Scaling is crucial for us, enabling us to maintain consistency across various formats. It simplifies collaboration within our teams. Additionally, we find widgets and video functions, especially import capabilities, to be highly valuable.
Any specific challenges in your industry that our platform helps to overcome?
Regulatory changes often require significant adjustments, both with partners and on our platform. Previously, this process involved manual checks and coordination. Today, with Bannerflow, these updates happen with incredible speed. A few clicks are all it takes to implement the necessary changes.
Can you please explain how Bannerflow contributes to your experience of team collaboration?
Collaborating on creatives has become very efficient. We simply share a URL rather than sending through file transfers. This saves substantial time and enhances communication. When someone requests an example, I can quickly provide a URL for the creative or create a specific live campaign for external partners. It's challenging to quantify the exact time and cost savings, but without Bannerflow, our team would require significantly more resources for manual tasks, including updates, design, and partner interactions.
Anything else you want to mention about our partnership?
Our partnership with Bannerflow is strengthened by your Customer Success team, consistently delivering timely and effective support. The relationship we've built and the level of support we receive often make other teams at Kaizen envious.
Thank you so much for the great talk.
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