How to visualize your opportunities by using maps and data
I’m a very visual person. And being a visual person and a data nerd is a great combination; it gives me the ability to answer difficult data questions by using immersive and engaging graphical tools, like maps. With mapping technology, I can unearth insights that I might not have seen if I were just looking at raw data. And as a casino marketer, so can you.
Understanding where your players are located is critical for player promotions and campaigns. It can also help casino marketers visually analyze large quantities of casino data quickly and efficiently. Location analytics is an effective way to apply visual analysis to casino marketing problems.
Location analytics identifies the geographic location of features and boundaries on maps, and allows a marketer to attribute the map with additional meta data. This meta data can include player gaming data, demographic data, or external psychographic data. Location analytics can also be used to assess the effectiveness of marketing programs relative to the geo-location of the investment, competitors, and/or players.
The benefits of this type of capability for casino marketers can be enormous. Imagine being able to plot on a map all players who redeemed a promotion. Casino marketers could then be able to quickly identify, visualize, and analyze where their most loyal customers live.
Casino marketers could go further with location analytics. For example, by reviewing offer redemptions by location, marketers can visually observe the impact of their investment. If redemptions in one location are low, but high in another, it could lead marketers to question why the promotion did or did not work. A marketer could overlay new player data on the map, like ADT or player visits. With additional information, a marketer may find that promotions offered to players in locations that are 50 miles or further from the property have a lower probability of success if the player visits the property fewer than two times within a month. This refined information could allow a marketer to build a more targeted player promotion list.
As you think about using location analytics within your own property, it’s important to align your investment in this technology with your own marketing objective. One strategy is to evaluate the technology’s use under two different goals: player retention and new player acquisition.
When using mapping technology for player retention, you will invest a lot of time in leveraging your existing data. And since you have a lot of data on players – from what they’ve played, to their spending habits on-property, to the number of times they return – you already have a lot of what you need to build really interesting insights and make some impactful decisions.
Some additional examples of what you can do with location analytics for player retention include the following:
- Plot your players and their ADT on a map relative to the location of your key competitors – add additional map filtering like gender, age, number of visits, and observe how it affects the player’s ADT; in competitive markets, this additional information may give you an opportunity to finely target an offering that expands your share of wallet.
- Evaluate where your high ADT players are traveling from and create incentive offers for those players traveling longer distances.
- Plot players who redeemed a promotion on a map and compare against other promotions; you might notice that there is a location trend in promotion redemption.
Using mapping technology for new player acquisition requires a different strategy. One approach to consider – instead of sending a blanket promotion to all zip codes in your casino’s area, consider a more thoughtful, data-centric approach. Invest in third party demographic and psychographic data that can be applied on top of your maps. Demographic and psychographic data can then be used as filtering criteria to pinpoint the exact player audience you want to target. Data providers like Axiom and Esri can give you a wealth of information that can be integrated into your maps.
Some additional examples of what you can do with location analytics for new player acquisition include the following:
- Use free data, from sources such as Data.gov, to overlay relevant demographic data, such as average household income, education level, or unemployment rate.
- Plot your current players on a map and use it to optimize placement of billboard advertising for net new players.
There is incredible power in using location analytics to zoom in and place a lens on top of your data. You are empowered to see things in terms of the “who,” the “what,” the “when.” And this can help you understand the “why,” using the “where” as a framework for all of those other questions you want to ask. Seeing player data mapped with additional layers of information suddenly allows even the least analytical marketer to quickly see trends and find opportunities.
Think of it as insight at the speed of sight.
