At The PR Insider, we’re excited to feature Robyn Munro, Digital PR Manager at Vega Comms. With years of experience in Digital PR, including her role at Dentsu, Robyn knows the complexities of ideating for iGaming clients. In this blog post, she shares her strategies for generating creative, relevant, and compliant PR campaigns that resonate with both clients and audiences.
What we’ll talk about in this blog post:
The iGaming industry continues to expand, but with growth comes a host of challenges. Navigating complex regulations, increasing competition, and overcoming the barriers in media publications can make it tough for brands to stand out. More importantly, there has been an ongoing debate in the PR community about iGaming brands creating campaigns that lack relevance to their expertise, audience, or industry. Too often, campaigns miss the mark, focusing on generic topics that don’t align with the brand’s core values or fail to engage the right audience.
To succeed, PR and SEO strategies need to go beyond surface-level trends and aim for content that is not only creative but also deeply connected to what the brand represents and what the audience cares about.
So, how do you create impactful campaigns that are relevant, innovative, and drive results in the iGaming space?
In this guide, I will explore how to generate meaningful and timely ideas for iGaming clients by combining research, audience insights, and trend awareness. From competitor analysis to tapping into sports, entertainment, and lifestyle trends, these actionable steps will help you deliver PR campaigns that resonate with your client’s audience and stay aligned with the evolving media landscape.
Step 1. Begin with a Thorough Competitor Analysis
Before jumping into a brainstorming session, it’s crucial to first think about the competitive landscape. Competitor analysis is about seeing what others are doing as well as understanding the strategies behind their success (or failure) and spotting gaps where your client can shine.
Here’s how to approach it:
Analyse their content: Look beyond the surface. What narratives are your competitors using? Are they making the most of cultural moments, seasonal trends, or industry data to make their campaigns relevant? Study their media coverage to see what resonates with journalists and their audiences.
Understand the ‘why’: Once you know what your competitors are doing, dig deeper - why are they doing it? Are they responding to a newsworthy event or capitalising on a trend? Understanding their approach helps you predict media needs and allows you to shape more strategic campaigns.
Measure effectiveness: In the iGaming space, success is not just about acquiring links - it’s about gaining valuable and relevant coverage. Tools like BuzzSumo and Ahrefs provide valuable insights into which stories are performing well, showing you how content is driving backlinks, social shares, and brand visibility. Ahrefs allows you to see which campaigns are most successful. Content Explorer, best links and how often authors write about a topic are all really good features.
TIP: Identify the keywords and topics your competitors aren’t exploiting. For example, if your competitors are focused heavily on sports betting, but ignoring lifestyle or entertainment, that’s a gap you can fill to give your campaigns a fresh angle.
Step 2. Understand Your Audience on a Deeper Level
When ideating for iGaming clients, knowing your audience is absolutely key. But successful campaigns go beyond basic demographics - you need to get under the skin of your target audience, understanding their motivations, behaviours, and habits.
Create detailed personas: Go further than just identifying age, gender, or location. Ask yourself, what motivates your audience to engage with an iGaming brand? What are their interests, pain points, and values? For example, a bingo audience may primarily consist of women over 25, but they could also be fans of reality TV, like Strictly Come Dancing and Eurovision.
Tailor campaigns to their interests: Once you know what drives your audience, align your campaigns accordingly. If they’re engaged with pop culture or TV shows, make sure your campaigns tie into these themes. A well-targeted iGaming PR campaign feels relevant and natural, not forced or disconnected.
Segment for precision: Different parts of your audience will have distinct interests. Sports bettors may be drawn to major events like the World Cup, while casino players might respond better to content around gaming strategy or trends. Segmenting your audience helps you create campaigns that speak directly to their passions and habits.
TIP: Use audience data not just to inform your content, but also your outreach. Journalists appreciate stories that resonate with their readers, so show them why your campaign fits perfectly with their audience.
Step 3. Divide Ideation into Key Areas for Better Focus
When it comes to ideating for iGaming clients, it’s easy to get stuck in the same repetitive themes. By breaking your brainstorming into focused areas - sports, entertainment, and lifestyle - you’ll generate a wider range of ideas, all while keeping them relevant to the iGaming world.
Sports: Sports betting offers endless possibilities for creativity. From big events like Wimbledon to niche sports, there’s always something happening. Look for untapped angles that haven’t been explored yet. Could you create a data-driven campaign around a lesser-known statistic? Or jump on a rising trend in a niche sporting community?
Entertainment: Entertainment betting is one of the most creative areas for ideation. You can use TV shows, music festivals, or film releases to engage audiences in a unique way. Consider creating a big data campaign around Eurovision, or have an expert commentator discuss the latest controversy in a reality TV series. These types of PR stories grab attention and perform well in both lifestyle and mainstream media.
Lifestyle: It’s easy to lose the relevancy mark on this topic by focusing on building links at all costs instead of remembering the brand. You can keep it relevant by tying it back to iGaming and the target audience, for example ‘Which UK game shows are you most likely to win on?’. This is a good one to use national awareness days for – yes, there’s a national day for pretty much everything, but it’s a great use of a hook for your story.
TIP: Don’t let regulatory constraints stifle your ideas. Even within strict guidelines, there’s plenty of room for creative campaigns that engage audiences and generate buzz.
Step 4. Build a Sports and Entertainment Calendar to Stay Ahead
To keep your iGaming client in the media spotlight, staying ahead of the news cycle is essential. A well-maintained sports and entertainment calendar will help you track key events and trends, ensuring your campaigns stay timely and relevant.
Track major sporting events: Whether it’s the Super Bowl, the Euros, or the Six Nations, big sporting events offer huge opportunities for PR campaigns. Start planning early to position your client at the heart of the conversation when the event arrives.
Jump on trending topics: Pop culture trends are constantly shifting, and being prepared allows you to capitalise on them. Whether it’s the launch of a new Netflix series or a reality TV moment, staying in tune with entertainment trends helps you keep your campaigns fresh and newsworthy.
Use awareness days for timely hooks: While awareness days can sometimes feel overused, they’re still a great opportunity for creating timely stories. Days like “National Gaming Day” or broader observances like “International Women’s Day” can help you make your iGaming brand feel relevant and engaging.
TIP: Use tools like Google Alerts or follow niche sports and entertainment blogs to stay on top of emerging trends and upcoming events. Plan ideation sessions around your calendar to ensure your campaigns are not only timely but also relevant.
Step 5. Incorporate Compliance Without Losing Creativity
In the heavily regulated iGaming industry, compliance is always a consideration, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of creativity. In fact, working within these restrictions can often lead to the most innovative ideas.
Involve compliance teams early: Don’t wait until your campaign is fully formed to bring in compliance. By collaborating with legal teams from the start, you can ensure your ideas meet regulatory requirements without having to make major last-minute changes.
Embrace creative constraints: Rather than seeing compliance as a barrier, treat it as a creative challenge. For example, instead of focusing directly on betting, think about using data-driven stories, industry insights, or expert commentary to promote your client’s brand in a compliant way.
TIP: Regularly refresh your understanding of the latest industry regulations. Staying informed means you can push creative boundaries while staying within the rules, ensuring your campaigns are both innovative and compliant.
By following these expert-driven strategies, you’ll be well-positioned to craft PR campaigns that not only get attention but also stay aligned with the brand’s goals. The key is to combine creativity with strategy, leveraging data, audience insights, and timely hooks to create campaigns that resonate with both journalists and consumers alike.
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