Building a brand is a massive task on the way to establishing your gambling business. Do it right, and your product almost sells itself. Do it wrong, and you’re throwing money into a bottomless pit. At ICE London, Becky Liggero Fontana caught up with Nidal Ramini to discover the secrets of branding.
But who is this Nidal Ramini? Simply put, he’s a man with a lot of experience from a very well-known brand. “I am Head of Brand Advocacy for the whole Brown-Forman portfolio, owners of the Jack Daniels brand,” he told us. “Essentially what I do is, I work with influencers in the in the trade to ensure that when you or your friends, when you go into a bar, or into a restaurant, or into a casino, and you’re asked, you know, would you like something to drink, we want to make sure that the brands being recommended is one of ours.”
The tips Ramini gave on building a ubiquitous brand are fairly simple, but not always easy to follow. “You’ve got to be authentic,” he said. “Don’t necessarily be the same as everybody else. You talk about our advertising, our advertising isn’t that groundbreaking, you know, it’s the same, it’s black and white, it’s long copy, its postcard, it’s a story. That’s what it is, and has been ever since 1955 to 2020, we haven’t changed. It’s worked for us we really well, we found a formula that works. I’m sure this is a brand new business, you know, brand new industry, its super-fast moving. Things are a bit slower in Lynchburg than they are in your in your world. But I would say, to all operators, you will find something that you feel is true to you, and you know it’s the old adage, stick the knitting.”
Jack Daniels has been successful all over the world with the same basic messaging. Liggero Fontana asked how gambling firms can achieve the same success. “We always have what we call local nuance, right,” he began. “As I was going through in the presentations and talking to the delegates here at ICE London, we have our brand purpose and our brand values, and we stick to those. And if you’re talking to a person, to a personality, as opposed to an individual, it will feel individual, because it will resonate with people. And that doesn’t matter if you’re from Tottenham or Timbuktu, right, it will it will always work for you.”
Every industry has its detractors, but the alcohol and gambling industries may have more than most. Liggero Fontana ended the conversation asking what tips Ramini would give to addressing their concerns. “What we call responsible drinking, intelligent drinking, is a huge part what we do,” he said. “We self-regulate as an industry, and the regulations on that that we impose on ourselves are far, far harder than anybody else. You know, we encouraged people who enjoy Jack Daniels, but enjoy it moderately, and enjoy being the words. And of course, we’re always going to have, you know, people who don’t believe in what you do, but all I’d say is that we would do things the best way that we can. Every day we make it, we’ll make it the best we can, and that stands for everything that we do.”
