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David Natroshvili, Founder and CEO at SPRIBE, on how brand ambassador partnerships drive branding and game engagement at an unprecedented scale
There was a time when brand ambassadors and celebrity endorsers were only working with online sportsbooks and casinos. But that’s no longer the case, with a small number of studios striking these deals to promote their games to players in markets across the world.
SPRIBE pioneered this through our multi-year, multi-million-dollar marketing partnership with the UFC, under which we created a brand ambassador fund. This allowed us to create campaigns with individual athletes alongside Aviator branding appearing inside and outside the octagon.
Since then, we’ve added plenty of athletes from other sports to our roster of ambassadors, including Indian cricket legends Suresh Raina and Yuzvendra Chahal. And we’ve also joined forces with other sports teams and franchises including the WWE and AC Milan.
But what is the main objective behind these deals? And are they actually effective?
How brand ambassadors can help studios
Brand ambassadors are a powerful channel through which to drive awareness of a studio and its games among the athlete/celebrity’s fan base.
Depending on the ambassador, their audience and reach, this could be driving awareness at a global level, or it could be market specific. Sometimes it can be both – our partnership with the likes of UFC superstar Johnny Walker has boosted awareness in Brazil and internationally.
Then there’s the transfer of trust between the ambassador and the studio or game they are promoting, which is especially important when it comes to online gambling games.
In emerging markets, players can be cautious around online/mobile gambling games, but with a high-profile celebrity backing it, these trust issues can be mitigated. Ambassadors also help to introduce games to those new to gambling – they try the game because the ambassador is recommending it.
Why brand ambassadors are so effective
What makes brand ambassadors so effective when it comes to game promotion? It’s that they have large, loyal audiences that will engage with pretty much any product they promote and endorse.
In addition, many have nationwide reach and some, in fact, most, are internationally renowned, as well. Even our local athletes like Suresh Raina are known internationally, so while this partnership’s primary focus is to gain more traction with Aviator in India, it’s generating interest globally as well.
Ambassadors are great for creating truly engaging marketing campaigns, too, adding tremendous weight behind the studio and its games in any given jurisdiction. This is from both a B2C and B2B perspective.
For example, we have had some of our brand ambassadors attend B2B trade shows, spending time on our stand and talking with delegates. They have proved to be a big draw, helping generate interest around SPRIBE, Aviator and our other games and solutions.
How to identify the right brand ambassadors
Of course, it’s important to identify the right celebrity endorsers to work with.
To do this, you first need to determine whether you are looking to promote the studio or a specific game. For us, all our ambassador deals have been about promoting Aviator, the number one crash game in the world, with 50 million active players per month placing more than 400,000 bets a minute.
It’s then about determining which market/markets you want to reach and then considering the athletes or celebrities that authentically align with your studio, game, brand, product, etc.
Aviator is a high-stakes, high-reward game that delivers fast-paced and thrilling action game round after game round. So, we knew we needed to identify athletes from sports that were just as explosive, with the UFC and its fighters being a great fit, for example.
The same can be said for our cricketer partnership. India is a market where we see huge potential for Aviator, and in Suresh and Yuzvendra, we have two players known for their explosive play.
Get it right, and acquisition and engagement skyrocket
In the time that we have been working with brand ambassadors, the number of monthly active players on Aviator has exploded from around 10 million to more than 50 million.
Of course, this is partly to do with adding the game to more online casinos – it’s now live at 5,000+ brands – and the other marketing activity we have carried out. But our brand ambassadors have been a major driver of acquisition for us.
This is an approach pioneered by SPRIBE and one that we continue to fine-tune and optimise. We’ve gotten really good at identifying the best partners to work with and then maximising the potential and value from the relationship.
It’s been so effective that our rival studios have started to enter similar deals – the way we see it, imitation is the greatest form of flattery.
But to succeed with brand ambassadors, signing the deal is just the start of when the hard work begins. The real key to success is in how these partnerships are activated, and that’s something that we excel at.
