Player will login and see a real presenter who chats back to them as though they were in a television audience. Players will chat to the presenter through the bingo chat box and the presenter will chat back to them in real time.

The revolutionary bingo product will be available on sites such as Crown Bingo, Deal or No Deal Bingo and Crazy Bingo.

Dan Smyth of Bingo Studio Live says: “We’ve created the ultimate fusion between online bingo and game show TV. Our players can chat and play bingo as normal but also interact with a live presenter. They can also play interactive games like Higher or Lower, Dodge and Safe Cracker where players pick a key and attempt to open the safe, just like the old club favourite. All of our shows are entertaining, professionally produced and tied into the bingo games, an attractive mix for both players and site owners.”

The live bingo programme will be broadcast into the Better Bingo Network’s live bingo room from 6pm to midnight seven days a week. There are five different presenters, Roy, Buz, Jess, Ian and Scott, all of whom are bingo specialists. Head presenter Roy Muncey Varty said: “We can’t wait to launch Bingo Studio Live, we have so many fantastic ideas to create an entertaining bingo show. We’re all really looking forward to meeting and getting to know the players on the Better Bingo Network.”

Bingo Studio Live can be played on Crown Bingo, Deal or no Deal Bingo, Simply Bingo, Crazy Bingo, Bingo Loopy, Scot Bingo, Jackpot Bingo, Love2bingo, Its Our Bingo, Bingo Lore, Bloke Bingo, Neighbourhood Bingo, Bingo Nation, Plenty More Bingo, Bingo Boogie and Lots of Bingo.

Calling all Bingo fans. Look out for the re-launched Ladbrokes Bingo TV advert, on screens now. The exciting advert gives you even more of a reason to get online and get involved in the nation’s favourite game.

The advert highlights an unrivalled offer for each and every new player, *£20 FREE when they deposit and spend £5. This great bonus is available to all new players, giving them even more chance to win big at Ladbrokes Bingo.

Rupert Thacker, Ladbrokes’ Head of Marketing, Bingo and Games said, “We are delighted to be offering new customers such a fantastic offer. Just like Ladbrokes Bingo, the advert is fun and entertaining!”

The media for the campaign was booked through Walker Media with creative by M&C Saatchi and is part of a heavyweight marketing campaign which is supported online and with promotions on site.

Foxy the fox, already a famous character in his own right, is joined by a singing partner in the new advert as they sing a revised version of the Grease classic “You’re the one that I want” in a supermarket.

A spokesperson for Foxy Bingo said, “The new ad was filmed in Malaga, Spain, and cost £800,000 to make. It is the most we have ever spent to get the rights to a piece of music.”

It is unlikely that this will be the last we see of Foxy the fox this year as Foxy Bingo have a projected media spend of £8million for the year.

Clearcast, who have to clear every TV advertisement screened in the UK prior to broadcast, told Sky’s gaming division that they could not broadcast an offer of a £200 sign up bonus to customers via TV.

After negotiations Sky was allowed to offer a £150 bonus but management from the Sky gambling team were baffled as to the reason for the restriction. In a message to affiliates they said: “There was no valid reason as to why this decision was made.”

One person close to the deal said: “It would be fine if there was some logic to the decision or there was a precedent but Clearcast now think £200 was too much. Other people advertise more than £200 sign up bonuses so it doesn’t make much sense.”

The Sky ad, which was for their Sky Vegas casino brand, has now been remade to reflect the lower bonus offer and affiliates have been issued with new creatives to coincide with the campaign.

Clearcast is owned and funded by eight leading commercial broadcasters – ITV, GMTV, Channel Four, Five, Sky, IDS, Virgin Media, Viacom and Turner. They work directly with Ofcom to make sure TV ads comply with the TV Advertising Standards Code before broadcast.

Online bingo companies will be watching carefully for a full explanation from Clearcast on the rules of what bonuses can be offered and hope that restrictions do not lower the limits still further.

The report says that at least four agencies have been shortlisted for the multi-million pound contract with parent company Gamesys.

The review, led by marketing director Lee Fenton, has been underway for at least two months and a decision is expected imminently.

Creative agency Publicis in partnership with ZenithOptimedia and Campbell Lace Beta in partnership with Goodstuff Communications are both known to have made the pitch shortlist as well as two others which are not known.

Gamesys has been one of the most successful online gambling businesses in recent years, focussing on the softer end of the gambling proposition and offering white label services to major media brands. They run Sun Bingo on behalf of News International and are estimated to make at least £30 million profit per year, making them one of the strongest privately held online gambling companies worldwide.

In a press release they said: “The latest report from Hitwise shows that tombola.co.uk is now officially the most visited bingo website in the UK.”

A bingo monitoring service, Bingo Port, recently claimed that Tombola had the largest number of cash players in the UK market, although other sites had larger numbers of players if you counted free bingo players as part of the numbers.

Tombola said that they will strengthen their position in the UK market with a huge £7 million advertising campaign starting in August. The ads will feature a Tombola tropical island and will run during ad breaks of major television shows such as Coronation Street and Emmerdale.

Tombola’s previous advertising campaign was pulled by the Advertising Standards Authority after they ruled it was likely to appeal to children, a decision most people in the bingo industry found extraordinary. The ad featured a rollercoaster but it made it pretty clear that it was aimed at adults and the ASA’s ruling was though to be very harsh, especially as the advertising had cost Tombola around £500,000 to make. According to Bingo News’ sources the new ad was made by a different advertising agency as Tombola management decided to change agencies following the ASA fiasco.

Tombola grew out of running Sun Bingo on behalf of newspaper publisher News International. When it came to renew the operating contract The Sun asked for confirmation that they owned the player database to be included in the contract. When this was not forthcoming Sun Bingo switched to Gamesys, who run Jackpot Joy, and Tombola Bingo was born to recruit all the old Sun Bingo players.

One of the oddities of Tombola Bingo is that it does not have any slot machines and pushes very few side games, meaning that on a per player basis it is thought to have one of the lowest lifetime value per player. However Bingo News understands that the management team feels more comfortable with operating a less aggressive business strategy than many rivals and the success of the site certainly suggests it is popular with players too.

The huge sponsorshop deal consists of themed bumpers for the beginning and end of shows, as well as during advertisement breaks for programmes between 9am and 7pm.

The ITV3 Daytime sponsorship bumpers star Roy and Steffen in a variety of situations reinforcing the message that Crown is “All About The Bingo”. The four week campaign can be seen with programmes such as Quincy ME and Inspector Morse on ITV3, Freeview channel 10, Sky channel 119 or Virgin Media channel 116.

The campaign, which Bingo News suggests will have cost in the region of £100,000, is a major marketing push for Crown Bingo.

A spokesman for Crown Bingo said: “Through this campaign, we wanted to convey our passion for online bingo and provide the best possible online bingo experience for our members.

“This led to the slogan for the current TV advert as well as our ITV3 Daytime bumpers, ‘Crown, where it’s all about the bingo!’. Sponsoring ITV3 Daytime will help us reach thousands of new people who we look forward to welcoming as new members.”

Crown Bingo was one of the first online bingo companies to venture into TV advertising. Their first campaign was launched in July 2007and it was replaced during Christmas 2008 with Crown Bingo’s second TV advert, starring local North East personalities Roy and Steffen and filmed on location in Newcastle upon-Tyne.

The ads, which were created by Spacebar Media, will run until the end of June in peak team slots, including during Coronation Street and Emmerdale. It is estimated they will be spending around £500,000 promoting the new site.

The theme of the ads is that you don’t have to be posh to play bingo, which is perhaps fairly obvious to anyone who has ever played bingo either offline or online.

Posh Bingo is owned by Daub Ltd, who also own Wink Bingo, Bingo Fabulous and ElCartonazo in Spain. The team behind Daub Ltd set up Globalcom, the bingo software company that was acquired by 888.

Maurice Karpes, Marketing Director of Posh Bingo,  said: “There’s a sense of humour about the whole way we’ve put the Posh bingo site together. So, similarly, we wanted the advertising to reflect this and show that, to coin a phrase, you don’t have to be posh to play Posh. We also gave a lot of thought to the actual look and feel of the site. We think the whole design of Posh bingo is much more elegant than the other sites out there,”

Posh Bingo recently revamped their website ahead of the TV advertising campaign.

The move marks an abrupt ending to the relationship between ITV and Party Bingo, who lanched Bingo NIght Live in a hail of publicity. The two companies aimed to bring bingo on late night television to a mass audience who would then convert to online bingo.

It will also raise speculation about ITV’s plans for bingo. The closure of ITV Bingo would suggest that Party Bingo’s management has decided that their investment in a partnership with ITV was heavily loss making and will not be renewed.

The ending of the deal also suggests that the large number of people trying to raise money for a television based bingo format will continue to struggle to obtain funds as it appears not to be a great way of attracting depositing customers; Bingo Night Live was a great success in getting people to play online bingo but the vast majority wanted to play for free and did not convert into paying customers.

At Bingo News we would expect to see ITV try and find a new bingo partner in the coming months.  We understand that ITV are looking for minimum revenue guarantees, which will make any potential partner extremely wary of the deal. Most likely to do the deal are Jackpot Joy, who currently run Sun Bingo and News of the World Bingo on behalf of News International and have shown themselves willing to do guaranteed revenue deals.

Online sign ups for all Ladbrokes products grew 21.5% with 373,00 new players signing up in 2008 and a total of 726,000 active customers during the year. These figures are for bingo, casino, sports betting and skill games.

Ladbrokes said the growth had been helped by television advertising for Ladbrokes Bingo and Ladbrokes Casino. The campaign for Ladbrokes Bingo, which was shot in Liverpool and featured huge bingo balls rolling through the streets, ran in September and October and has been appearing on television screens again this week.

The company’s eGaming saw net gaming revenue rise 20 per cent to £172.2 million.

The main areas of growth were in fixed odd betting terminals in betting shops while horseracing revenues had taken a hit due to the bad weather.

High rollers lost £80.1 million in 2008, down from £179 million in 2007. A handful of players contribute to these enormous revenues which Ladbrokes management acknowledge is highly volatile. It is rumoured that a member of a middle Eastern royal family contributes more than half the high roller loss each year and that Ladbrokes’ profit numbers are very dependent on his play.

Ladbrokes warned that “the competitive environment for Poker remains extremely challenging”. The company had been the market leader in Europe five years ago but somehow allowed their dominant market position to slip.

In early trading shares in Ladbrokes rose 5.6% to 192 pence. The shares hit a peak of 444 pence in June 2007 and have a 52 week high of 342 pence and a low of 133 pence.

The relaunch is being led by ETV Media Group, who took over the contract from Endemol UK.

ETV will produce eight hours of programming a day on Gala TV, which will be broadcast on Sky and FreeSat as well as online at galabingo.com.

ETV said: “etv’s creative team has worked with Gala to provide the channel with a fresh, aspirational look and feel, as well as developing new gaming formats, while enhancing old favourites to broaden the reach of the channel. etv also aims to increase the level of audience interaction on the channel and promote how easy the channel is to use. The new Gala TV set – part real and part virtual – will feature ambitious graphics and conceptual designs to ensure a highly engaging viewer experience.”

Mark Murphy, Managing Director of ETV Media Group, said: “In this highly competitive area it is essential that Gala TV maintains its position as the premier bingo brand offering a truly unique, entertainment experience. By combining the camaraderie of the bingo hall with the comfort of home and producing high impact programming, we will attract, engage and celebrate Gala TV players as well as capture that winning feeling at every available opportunity.”

The channel will be led by Paul Tremain, who has joined etv from IncrediBull Ideas where he was Head of Branded Television and a member of the operational board. Prior to IncrediBull, Paul held senior roles at Teletext Holidays and QVC.

Keith Hawkins, Managing Director of Gala Coral Group’s Remote Gambling Division, who is responsible for all of Gala’s online bingo offering, said: “By relaunching Gala TV in a more commercial way and working with etv we will be further enhancing the channel and offering a truly engaging broadcast proposition,” said Hawkins.

Cat Porter, Kate Pullinger and Anthony Heywood will be added as new presenters for the channel as part of the relaunch.

Ladbrokes spent more than £500,000 making the advertisement which first aired in September 2008.

The Ladbrokes Bingo TV features bingo balls bouncing around the streets of Liverpool and  is set to the tune of “Fun, Fun, Fun” by The Beach Boys.

William Hill Bingo has signed up to a new advertising agency as part of a revamp of the company’s image.

They have awarded their £10.2 million of business to 7Stars, who are best known for their work for recently collapsed music and DVD chain Zavvi.

7Stars will plan and buy all William Hill’s media, including bingo, sports betting and casino activity in the real word. ilevel will continue to handle their online spend.

7Stars will be taking over from Initative, who bid to retain the contract but were not awarded a new contract.

]]> http://www.bingonews.com/2004/william-hill-bingo-appoints-new-ad-agency/feed/ 0 http://www.bingonews.com/1761/foxy-bingo-to-spend-10-million-on-tv-advertising/ http://www.bingonews.com/1761/foxy-bingo-to-spend-10-million-on-tv-advertising/#comments Mon, 26 Jan 2009 14:27:21 +0000 Debbie Archer http://www.bingonews.com/?p=1761 Foxy Bingo will launch a new TV advertising campaign on Friday (30 January) with a £10 million budget to attract new players.

The campaign will promote Foxy Bingo’s £1 million a month giveaway. At the same time Foxy are launching its own satellite TV show, The Foxy Bingo Show.

Foxy Bingo’s parent company are splashing out millions of pounds on TV advertising and will back it up with radio, print and poster advertising campaigns.

A ten second teaser spot shows a spaceship hurtling towards Earth, telling viewers “He’s Back” and “He’s Giving Away £1 million”, in reference to brand mascot Foxy.

A separate 40-second commercial features hundreds of women flocking to a mysterious spaceship landing, which then opens to reveal Foxy and a disco scene.

The campaign has been created by the Biscuit agency.

The satellite TV show will be hosted by Rowland Rivron and features segments including celebrities appearing from “Behind The Sofa”, a studio competition called “Rowland’s Sock” and unannounced visits to Foxy Bingo players.

Tombola Bingo launched in August using a database of players they gained from running Sun Bingo for the daily tabloid. The customer database belonged to the parent company of Tombola and when The Sun switched to Jackpot Joy many players chose to stay with Tombola Bingo. A recent TV advertising campaign increased player numbers by 12%.

Marketing manager, Dawn Clayton told Gaming Alerts: “Sadly, there are few companies who can report positive performance recently, but in the last three months we have added 30 new members to the team and that pattern will be repeated by adding 30 more in the coming months.

“We are thrilled with the way online bingo players across the UK have responded to our fun approach to online entertainment and now we’re in a great position to share our success with job-seekers in this region.”

Tombola Bingo recently told Bingo News that they thought the Sun Bingo player figures on our Bingo Monitor were being distorted by a free promotion in The Sun; players at The Sun Bingo site were given free games which were boosting player pools by 500 players per game.

A single complaint had been made to the ASA that an advertisement for Littlewoods Bingo encouraged irresponsible gambling because it implied players could win large sums on multiple occassions.

The complaint was made against St Minver Ltd, who runs Littlewoods Bingo on behalf of Littlewoods.

The ASA ruling said: “A TV ad promoted Littlewoods online Bingo. The ad showed animated bingo balls moving against a green background intercut with shots of two women at computer screens chatting to each other via the Littlewoods bingo chat room. The voice-over stated “Littlewoods football pools has brought billions to millions, now we bring you bingo. Come and join the fun … Littlewoods Bingo is the name you can trust to pay out big style, with hundreds of winners and tens of thousands in prizes every single day. You can even chat and gossip in our big mates chat room … “. The shot cut to a woman in front of a computer screen. Text on the computer screen stated “Leanne: What did you just win??? Kate: £500 … again X”.”

In the ruling, the ASA dismissed the complaint, saying: “Clearcast said they did not consider the ad misleading because St Minver Ltd (St Minver) had supported the claims made for the number and amount of the payouts. They said the aim of the ad was to set out how much could be won each day, and they did not consider the brief inclusion of the text “Leanne: What did you just win??? Kate: £500 … again X” on the computer screen would mislead viewers about the frequency of winnings.”

Littlewoods Bingo can continue to run their TV advertising. But the fact that a single complaint against a TV ad can potentially have it taken off air shows how careful online bingo companies need to be about the content of their advertising.

The ad was made by Equinox Film and TV Production.

The CGTV cable channel will allow Canadian players to play free games, including bingo, blackjack, video poker, slot machines and skill games. They will be able to play at www.cgtvcanada.com.

Allan Weinrib, Senior Director for CGTV Canada, said: “With the addition of Parlay’s gaming suite to CGTV Canada’s website, our viewers now have the opportunity to interact with the CGTV brand online. Since we are the first and only television network in North America to celebrate the casino and gaming lifestyle, it seemed like a natural fit to partner with Parlay to offer free online gaming content.”

CGTV Canada said it plans to promote the online games through advertising on its television network and in print campaigns.

“Our free-play gaming solution allows web operators like CGTV Canada a hassle-free opportunity to reach new audiences with interactive online content,” said Perry Malone, CTO for Parlay Entertainment. “Operators benefit by exposing players to branded messages, offers and other advertising within the game, while at the same time building their marketing database through site registration.”

The series lasted 99 shows and 330 bingo games were played between 4 June and 15 November. It had been rumoured that the series, which was initially presented by former page 3 model Melinda Messenger, would have a second run but senior ITV sources have told Bingo News that it will not be recommissioned.

The show’s budget had been slashed after three months of broadcasting with only two presenters employed for the hour long show and the frequency cut from five nights a week to three nights a week.

On 10 October Bingo Night Live broke the world record for the largest ever online bingo when Michael from Margate won £60,500 for a full house.  Exactly a month later ITV announced the season would end five days later.

An ITV source told Bingo News: “It was an interesting experiment but the viewing figures were not high enough and while the participation levels were okay in terms of people playing online, the numbers who actually wanted to play for cash was miniscule. The numbers just didn’t add up in commercial terms.”

ITV’s bingo product is supplied by Party Gaming who are rumoured to have invested substantial resources in creating an online website that could work in parallel with a television show.

The amusing ad was filmed last week and from what we’ve seen at Bingo News it is going to be a smash hit. The Cupid mascot is not exactly what you would imagine Cupid to look like – he’s middle aged and wearing a nappy! But the ad is great fun and made us laugh a lot. It’s a bit of a change from the usual boring online bingo ads featruing an actress looking excited in her living room.

Love Bingo managing director Stephen Hare told us: “We’ve gone for something totally different from the average bingo ad and we hope it’s going to make people laugh. We really wanted to get the message across that we love bingo and that we’ve got a site for people who love bingo too. We’ve shown it to a few of our current players and they agree that it really does reflect what the site is all about.”

Love Bingo runs on software supplied by St Minver Ltd, a Gibraltar based company that also powers Littlewoods Bingo, Chit Chat Bingo, Virgin Bingo and Ann Summers Bingo.

Don’t tell the boss I’ve posted this but in the next week we will be launching Alison Hammond Celebrity Bingo Caller, exclusively to Crown Bingo!!!!

Keep your eyes on the blog over the next week or so to see exclusive behind the scenes footage of the photoshoot Kirsty and I attended in Birmingham and the videos of Alison winning over £100 on Crown during her photoshoot.

Oh I can’t wait for October it’s going to be one long party at Crown Bingo especially now we have Alison entertaining us all!

Here’s a sneek preview for all of you blog watchers of what will be happening next week!