Experimental overnight campaign manages to reach 'hidden' problem gamblers after all

Interview and writing: Jasper Mulder

Original article can be found here.

Published by: Adformatie on 2024-04-29

Translation in English: KesselsKramer

Pilot project approaches hard-to-reach target group of players in casinos and gambling halls at the time when they are open to it.

Public campaigns for behavior change are a minefield of unintended effects. Those who use the wrong tone or image can achieve exactly the opposite of what was intended.

People may become resistant: 'Should I eat less meat for the environment? It should be up to me!", and a few extra spare ribs go on the barbecue. The boomerang effect.

Or the "primed motorist" might just grab his cell phone after seeing the sign with the icons of Facebook, WhatsApp or X while driving, warning him not to use social media while driving.

The same principle applies for the 'so not litter' sign where a man puts his garbage bag next to the container, all with a big red cross through it. The effect is that more people do exactly what that little man does; put their trash next to the containers.

To ensure that this kind of unintended consequence would not creep into its campaign, the Kansspelautoriteit (Gambling Authority) decided to develop the communication with its agency KesselsKramer as the campaign was in development. Of course, the well-known behavioral influence principles were the starting point, but these were tested for effect during the campaign; if there was none, they were discarded after the pilot phase.

Repositioning

This approach has also been used to help gamblers go to Gokstop.nl (GambleStop) a site where problem gamblers can register voluntarily and anonymously since 2021.

Doing so will prevent them from accessing gambling websites and gambling establishments on- and offline. If they log on to the website or visit a casino, the website or gatekeeper is required to check if they are listed. If they are registered, they do not get in.

The Gokstop Registry went by the name Cruks until recently. The Kansspelautoriteit and KesselsKramer seized the opportunity of the redesign and repositioning to set up a pilot campaign, supported by expertise from the Trimbos-instituut . A combination of research, strategy and creativity was used to identify the target groups, the messages and the media to be used.

'A campaign like this is somewhat different from selling a supermarket offer,' says Matthijs de Jongh of KesselsKramer. 'Of course, there is already a lot of publicity about online gambling, about the enormous increase in gambling advertisements. We wanted to use this topicality to show a counter-movement as well.'

Because the matter is so complex, the parties decided to opt for a 'learning campaigning' approach. De Jongh: "So you start fairly broadly and then launch online campaigns with different hypotheses. You look at which choices work better than others. That might be through the use of words or the message itself.'

Heavily in denial

One of the main questions that came up in the process was how to reach players with gambling addiction. The big problem, according to De Jongh, is that many addicted gamblers prefer to keep their problems to themselves and leave their surroundings out of it.

'Often they are heavily in denial. Before you as a gambler actually admit to yourself 'yes, I really do have a problem' it takes a lot. You don't allow that insight while gambling. Besides, they often don't know where to start building a solution.'

Outreach can also be difficult. Gamblers can still generally be found online through interest and behavior, but picking out high-risk players is another story.

'The hardest group to reach are the traditional offline players in casinos and gambling halls,' says Matthijs de Jongh. 'You might think: we approach them with a mass media campaign, but the Kansspelautoriteit rightly said of this, supported by information from the Trimbos: the more visible you talk about gambling, the more you create the impression that gambling is something normal. The effects of such a mass-media approach can then be exactly the opposite of what you want to achieve.'

Scarce moment

The insight to still reach the target group was gained by de Jongh and his companions in conversations with a club of anonymous gamblers united in the AGOG (Anonymous Gambling Environment Gamblers). They explained that while the moments when players with a gambling addiction are open to change are scarce, they are not untraceable.

De Jongh: "They said that this moment occurs mainly just after gambling, when you leave the casino or arcade in the middle of the night after five hours of gambling and realize that you have lost a lot of money again. That turned out to be the common denominator among ex-players.'

From this insight came the idea to focus one of the pilot experiments on exactly this specific moment. Around closing time of casinos after 00:00 at night, gamblers would be approached via digital outdoor screens with the message "Tomorrow I'll really quit - it's tomorrow already" obviously with a reference to the place where they can get help, gokstop.nl .

Action perspective

With the help of operators JCDecaux and Sage+Archer \ Vistar Media , several hundred digital outdoor screens were selected that were located within 200 meters of legal gaming halls and casinos and visible at night between 00:00-01:00.

'And the nice thing is,' says Matthijs de Jongh, 'Advertising is much cheaper at that time of day because of the number of low passers-by, but at the same time very specifically targeted at the people we want to reach. Just at the moment that goes around in their own heads: 'Okay, tomorrow then I'm not going to gamble or I'm going to quit,' they see this expression and are confronted with the lie they keep telling themselves and others. And the expression immediately offers an action perspective: it's already tomorrow, stop gambling now on gokstop.nl.'

Initial results suggested an increase in registrations through Gokstop.nl during the active weekends of the campaign. Statistically not yet foolproof in this test phase, but the results show a promising direction, says Matthijs de Jongh.

'Interestingly, Facebook and Instagram ads delivered an increase in brand awareness, but hardly more direct registrations yet. This emphasizes the importance of a creative approach. In the coming period, we will continue to figure out how we can follow up on this campaign in order to further reduce the gambling problem. Because really, the financial problems and stories of people who have gotten into trouble are terrible. You have to use every tool that helps against that.'

Credits

Client: Kansspelautoriteit, Franklin N.

Agency: KesselsKramer

Expertise partner: Trimbos Instituut