Background and challenge
A startup building a next-generation mobile app for millennials to provide a more innovative, gamified, and entertaining sports betting experience. That was the brief from some previously very successful founders in the i-gaming industry. A staggering £1.5 billion is invested in marketing (18 Billion SEK) in this sector that has been around for 120 years in the UK. Kwiff entered and challenged it with a marketing budget of £20m. The task was clear; find traction, drive substantial user growth and quickly scale the company to ambitious size and profitability. Positioning, messaging, execution and conversion needed to get right very quickly. We also needed to build a high-performance team of creatives and digital marketing specialists, while also contributing to management, product development and innovation.
RESULTS
- Full CMO responsibility of brand strategy, creative production, media buying, app CX
- +900.000 app downloads, +60% aided awareness, 60% of users <30yo
- Turnover growth +800% in one year – up to £155 million in 2019 (1,8 Mdr SEK)
- New customer growth +143% first year (+200.000 paying customers in 24 months)
- Revenue Growth +76% 2nd year, Industry leading low CPA/CAC, Equity value of +£55m
Concept and Communications
A marketing strategy around “Supercharge your Betting” was developed focusing on breaking through the competitive clutter with a unique and differentiated brand tonality, targeting a new type of consumer, a younger casual player that would appreciate a more entertaining mobile-only product. An in-house department was created to produce assets able to stop thumbs, grab attention, and establish kwiff as a truly different brand in the industry. This meant standing out visually in TV commercials in premium UK broadcasting sports events as the Premier League and Champions League and also connecting that awareness with acquisition marketing driving mobile downloads through Social Media (Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram) and SEO, Content marketing, digital programmatic and referrals.
ALWAYS ON TO GENERATE A CONTINUOUS GROWTH
Current, relevant, and targeted content is king in a world of sports entertainment and crucial for conversion when scaling a customer base. But in order to grow like that, you need a capable and intelligent creative machine. Kwiff set up it’s own customer-centric data-driven creative hub that together with proactive biddable media buying kept delivering an industry-low CPA/CAC. This team created all assets all the way from TVC to Social Media and into in-app UX elements and product CX features.
CREATIVE CAMPAIGNS AND CONSTANT CONTENT MARKETING
Not only following the sports calendar of every day, but Kwiff also needed to create it´s own differentiated campaign themes with interesting and engaging content to be able to constantly recruit contacts for intense retargeting for acquisition, reactivation, and retention purposes. The creative hub also delivered cross-campaigns to existing customers and was responsible for all CRM campaign strategy, planning, and execution. This included supercharged campaigns with unforgettable epic live consumer experiences, it´s own summer games hosted by Patrice Evra, and celebrity activations from legendary sports influencers like Glenn Hoddle, Wayne Bridge, Harry Redknapp, Tubes, etc. It also included free product bundling partnerships with Sky Now TV Mobile sports streaming packages.
Driving Product Innovation and in-App Messaging
Kwiff made a strategic decision to be UK and native app only to focus on a superior mobile experience. Believing in its positioning and product also led to rejection of the industry´s infamous bonus offers or bland reselling through affiliates. Marketing had to learn, implement, and track martech working in an app-only world, and in order to increase attraction and lower barriers of trial in this space, we also had to get creative. This led to successful creative inventions of unique market features such as the “Surprise Bet”, an automated offer where kwiff would generate a random full value bet using its algorithm and player knowledge, a refer-a-friend system where any player inviting a friend to kwiff both get to share the same randomly generated surprise bet and the “mood bar”, a visualization of the players’ likeliness to get kwiffed, with communications and rewards embedded in a personalized and interactive in-app functionality.
WELCOME TO THE ROCKET FACTORY
When you are rapidly growing and scaling up a business while building a full-service marketing department, in a very competitive environment, pared with a strong sense of urgency – you really need to remember to clearly set your company culture and values. To consider what will drive people to work hard, stretch ambitions, innovate, collaborate, and have fun. We defined internally the culture, values, and keys for working that we believe is needed to deliver a promise of an outstanding product and consumer experience. This was not only printed and put on walls, it was lived by and checked as measures of performance and people. Judged and rewarded if we were as bold, smart, responsible, and fun as we all strived for.
Kwiff´s brand was created internally and by consultants that deeply integrated themselves in building the business. It´s success and brand communications recognize the amazing passion and outstanding quality of work put in by consultants from Total Media, Droga5, Blue Drop, Filmic Art, Ten Toes media, N365, etc. Kwiff was also through TM named UK Mobile Launch Campaign of the Year & UK Biddable Campaign of the year.