BETTING BIG
Uncovering winning ads for sports betting
THE CHALLENGE
With the legalization of single-event sports betting and the emergence of the online market in Ontario, the sports betting industry has witnessed a surge in competition. Sports fans in British Columbia are bombarded with ads, promotions, and in-game odds content from various online platforms. Despite PlayNow Sports being the sole legal online gambling option in the BC, it faces competition from grey market platforms in paid media channels and league-level partnerships.
Our client, British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) was looking to develop an ad campaign to increase awareness of the PlayNow Sports betting platform and had three different creative directions to test.
THE PLAN
We designed an online quantitative survey using a respondent panel.
We recruited a sample of sports fans who are interested in sports betting and active sports bettors to evaluate three creative concepts. Each respondent was randomly assigned to one concept, which included a script with some rough finish imagery to describe the ad. The respondents completed a deep dive on key performance metrics for one ad concept and were then asked to rank all three concepts.
We included a text highlighter exercise to help optimize the scripts based on likes and dislikes.
THE OUTCOME
BCLC proceeded with producing all three concepts tested as they each performed well in different aspects. For example, one of the ads was about taking a break, which was timely during the NHL Playoffs when there was a lot of sports betting ads flooding the media. And another was a fresh and funny approach most likely to be memorable. While this latter ad was more polarizing, it performed equally as well on motivation diagnostics and was well aligned with BCLC’s vision to help reduce intimidation and help sports fans who choose to bet to do so in a safe and secure environment.
The campaign was featured in Strategy Online and you can read more about it here: https://strategyonline.ca/2023/09/27/athletes-show-some-skin-in-bclcs-latest-campaign/