The second day of the 2013 Mobile and Tablet Gaming Summit in London kicked off with a presentation by Dara Nasr of Twitter, discussing the ways in which brands embrace the social network and the relationship between brand visibility and Twitter.
Nasr’s presentation was a bright start to the day but there are undoubtedly lessons to be learned for the i-gaming community.
As Nasr explained that, on the last day of European football transfer window, there were 8.4 million tweets mentioning Real Madrid-bound Spurs player Gareth Bale, there were just four tweets using the event hashtag #mtgs2013 – and two of those came from chair Aideen Shortt.
Nasr did highlight some great examples of betting brands using Twitter well, most notably Paddy Power and Betfair, but there remains a sense that Twitter is something that others are good at.
The industry can learn from the successes of a few, it seems. Betfair recently tweeted about the first punter to have backed David Moyes to be the next manager of Manchester United – a bet placed in December 2002, at 22-1. It was an extraordinarily popular tweet. Betfair also uses retweets to publicise their in-play cash-out system – effectively advertising wins and increasing engagement.
The large sports-betting brands have also pursued vigorous television advertising campaigns and, for Nasr, the link between television and Twitter is very clear. He reported that 60 per cent of Twitter users watch television while tweeting and “more than 90 per cent” of online discussion about television is on Twitter. Nasr said that combining television advertising with Twitter engagement can increase brand exposure by 95 per cent, citing research conducted in the US.
Online gaming is unlikely to ever enjoy the leverage of Premier League football or the X Factor, but Nasr’s presentation offered many lessons for the i-gaming industry – and the indirect warning that, in terms of Twitter at least, i-gaming needs to get with the program.
