iGaming affiliates, affiliate mangers and gaming professionals returned to the Messe Berlin this morning (or maybe afternoon) to attend the second day of BAC 2017. Despite late nights and perhaps a few too many alcoholic beverages the evening prior, the expo floor was busy but not as crazy as Day One.
In fact, today’s Facebook Advertising Strategies session was so busy there were delegates standing at the back because every single seat was taken. The presentation was delivered by Vince de Castro of Orbex and he succeeded in providing a number of practical tips for those who wish to advertise via video on Facebook on a small budget.
“There are tons of tools you can use. The best thing to do is to get started with something small and have your learning curve and move along as you go, there’s tools you can buy for 20 dollars”, de Castro told CalvinAyre.com.
“Start creating video- simple content- as long as you know what you’re talking about, its very easy to create a video that’s educational and then from there you can get better and better as you go”, he advised.
Over on the expo floor, we stopped by the newly branded “Alea Affiliates” booth to chat with Alex Tomic about his latest brand, Sugar Rush, that was just launched today.
“Its something very different, its just one slot from Pragmatic play and it’s mobile. That means you go on the website, you look for Sugar Rush, you click on VR and if you have an Android device, you download the application. Just put on the headset and you have it – the headset is 25 dollars”, he told CalvinAyre.com
When asked why he changed his focus from desktop VR to mobile VR for the moment, Tomic emphasized the prevalence of VR on mobile today and believes mass adoption of desktop VR is still a few years out.
“95% of the VR today is on mobile and you see the same trend for desktop vs. mobile, we are today something like 55% almost 60% mobile and VR, its 95% mobile”, he said.
Aside from lively booths and practical sessions, the BAC is an exciting place to be because it attracts iGaming professionals old and new, bringing legacy and fresh perspectives to the latest trends and changes in the industry today.
To learn more about what’s happening in the iGaming affiliate industry in terms of tighter compliance and regulations, we spoke with Sarafina Wolde Gabriel of Income Access who has been in the industry for close to fifteen years.
“Its very exciting times, we’ve been around for a very long time and seen a lot of transitions in the industry. The big buzz at the moment is obviously regulation, compliance and what do affiliates need to do”, Wolde Gabriel shared.
“We really see that as a beautiful thing because is actually making the industry grow up and its actually passing this whole social responsibility element of the industry to not just the operators but now the advertisers and the consumers as well”, she said.
When asked how the tighter advertising guidlines in the UK will impact the affiliate industry, Wolde Gabriel provided a perspective from the affiliate manager point of view.
“Probably the first thing, as an affiliate manager, you can’t afford to just relax and just ignore your affiliates, especially the ones that are not necessarily the highest performers. You have to pay attention to all your campaigns, make sure things are all current and that your partners are all representing your brand and also passing on the whole social responsibility element of it”, she advised.
“You’ll notice that the regulators will crack down on things that are targeting a younger audience instead of an older audience. So its just basic things that people are going to have to just stay on top of rather than just sit down and not worry about it”, she added.
After spending several days on the BAC expo floor and in the sessions, its clear the event has maintained its steam and delegates are receiving value from attending. Organizer Shona Odonnel was delighted with the turnout of BAC and eluded to a potential change of location for 2018.
“[BAC] really exceeded our expectations. We’ve seen really high numbers of both affiliates and operators here, lots of really good feedback, people saying that the quality of affiliates are really good – that’s very important to us- and potentially our last year in Berlin, so always good to go out on a high”, Odonnell shared.
