The online casino that advertises losing:

Sky Vegas brings online casino to the real world

EXEC SUMMARY
The gaming category is full of over-hype, over-promises, and over-the-top excitement. Almost every ad you see is fronted by a middle-aged moustachioed man, shouting about BIG WINS. You're guilty, Keith Lemon.

We broke that mould for Sky Vegas to represent the true feelings of play.  "Play. It's why we're here" shows the down-to-earth games we all play, like dunking socks, pinching chips, or spoon balancing.

The new platform is performing extremely well against key commercial targets, building brand awareness, trust, and preference, by demonstrating Sky Vegas’ unique understanding and consideration of play. Since its launch in January 2024 the work has delivered significant increases in Awareness (up 3%). This has converted into increased acquisition, up 20% YoY, and increased engagement with social impressions up 12% YoY.

"Play. It's why we're here" has built a distinct, leadership position for Sky Vegas.

PLANNING

Sky Vegas, the Online Casino, had been doing well, but recognised the opportunity to build from that place of strength to drive greater growth and establish its leadership position in the category.

Trust is a critical obstacle in the category. Players are suspicious of the casinos they play with. They suspect games are set up against them, and controlled so they can’t win.

Competitor analysis reveals that the category’s communications all look alike. They are filled with hype and big promises about chances to win, populated by white male front men, and loaded with bright lights and loud effects.

No brand stands out, and by trying to make bigger promises and shout louder to be heard, the brands blur so it’s difficult to distinguish one from the other.

In consumer research players told us that that isn’t how they really play. They play in the little moments of the day, it makes things like waiting for the bus more fun. And if they do win, it’s small reactions not the great big fist pumps explosions the ads show.

They told us that they play for the entertainment not just the win. They enjoy the roller coaster of playing, jeopardy, anticipation, connection and consolation, losing as well as winning.

That disconnect with the category’s communications makes customers feel that the brands don’t understand them. And it builds the distrust they already feel towards the Casinos.

To customers, brands aren’t showing the real experience of playing, they’re trying to suck players in with the promise of a win to get them to spend more.

There was a clear opportunity to build brand awareness, drive share, and establish leadership in the category, by making Online Casinos better for players. By being more transparent, honest and trustworthy, reflecting the real world of play, and the real outcomes of it, instead of seducing players to play more with promises of a win.

In that real world, playing games with Sky Vegas brings entertainment to the small every day moments when people play. That entertainment feels big, absorbing, epic while you’re playing, but it’s small, unimportant and quickly forgotten when the game’s over.  We defined Sky Vegas role and platform as ‘big entertainment in the small moments’.

Key objectives were set to: Increase overall awareness of the brand among online casino players by 3% and increase acquisition YoY by 12%. We also determined to shift trust in the Sky Vegas brand absolutely and relative to competitors.

EXECUTION

To bring ‘big entertainment in the small moments’ to life, we developed a series of executions that dramatize that role in the real world. We compared playing online casino games to the other games people play in their everyday. The little games we all play that get us through the quiet moments, and add some fun to daily tasks.

The more we talked to people, in a round of quant research, as well as every day conversation, the more ammunition we found. From not walking on the cracks in pavement, to picking where to stand on a train platform. Everyone invents games for themselves to make life more fun. We all have our favourite games.

We set our communications in recognisably real, every day situations, breaking the category’s staged and hyper-real environments. We actively demonstrated to players that Sky Vegas’ role in life is a humble one, challenging the dominant, braggy norms of online casino communication in favour of creating real emotional connection as people recognise their own love of a game in the brand comms.

The important strategic shift brought to life in the work, is that our games promise entertainment, the joy of play, not winning. We believe this is the first time an online casino has promoted playing and losing in their advertising.

We applied these principles to 4 initial AV executions.

The 60” launch and cinema film designed to get people to recognise the ‘game player’ in themselves and connect them to Sky Vegas through that shared love of play.

A 30” brand credibility execution also builds that emotional affinity, whilst communicating Sky Vegas’ range message with the promise that ‘you have your favourite games, we have your favourite games’.

We have proved the platform’s breadth and flex with executions for both a hard working acquisition offer and a safer gambling message. Both help build the brand’s distinct new position as well as delivering their core message.

All the work was directed and produced by Who Wot Why’s in house team. This delivered both creative and commercial effectiveness. It ensured real consistency between initial concept and final execution, keeping the integrity of the idea from start to finish

RESULTS

Effectiveness for this initiative was defined by the paired goals of uplift in brand awareness and increased customer acquisition.

The activity was developed to make Sky Vegas stand out among its competitive set, driving awareness of the brand among online casino players. This is measured by shifts in brand awareness and in consideration.

We expected to see a decline in these ratings in the short term as such a substantial change to the brand platform will impact critical brand attribution in such a close and competitive category.

Despite that effect the work has exceeded expectations delivering a YoY increase in awareness of 3% and a 1% increase in brand consideration, achieving our targets.

We also targeted a shift in perceptions of the brand, a recognition of the transparency and openness of the new Sky Vegas approach measured by increased player trust. We predicted that the change to the known and understood brand character and platform would cause a short term, absolute decline in these measures. Instead, our critical Trust measures have remained stable during this period of change, and remain flat YoY and relative to our competitors and category.

The change has been even more successful against our key commercial measure – acquisition. Soft acquisition measures that demonstrate increased interest and intent have seen substantial growth, Visits, App Downloads and Sign Ups have all grown. But, the commercial imperative is the end of that acquisition process, where players have downloaded the app, signed up and deposited funds to play with Sky Vegas for the first time.

The campaign has driven a hefty 20% YoY increase in those First Time Deposits. Sky Vegas’ acquisition offer has not changed for 3 years. Both the core customer benefit and the media delivering it have remained consistent YoY. The only change is in the brand, and the way in which it is communicated. The increase is attributed to the new brand platform and advertising.