PlayOJO has been awarded Best Use of Instagram and Best Use of Social Media at the Social Media Awards 2021.
Originally nominated for its Compulsion campaign which features celebrity Gemma Collins, the advert was made to drive awareness around the issue of problem gambling.
The campaign focused on the launch of a faux fragrance, Compulsion, to highlight problem gambling as the “addiction with no smell”. As part of the campaign, Gemma spoke to charity Breakeven to better understand problem gambling and how it can affect young people in particular.
Together they created an acronym – SMELL (Sleep, Money, Extreme, Losing, Lying) – to help concerned players or their loved ones determine if they potentially have a gambling problem. The campaign also featured a series of videos that were shared across social media.
Samit Dutta, head of digital at PlayOJO, said: “It’s an honour to have taken home not one by two awards from the prestigious Social Media Awards 2021. We were up against some stiff competition, so we are thrilled that our Compulsion campaign came out on top.
“Compulsion is one of our most important and impactful campaigns to date, tackling the issue of problem gambling and providing players and their families with the support and guidance they need to stay in control of their play or receive help if they need it.
“Social media is a powerful platform for ensuring campaigns hit the right audience and at scale, and with Compulsion we were able to leverage this to drive awareness and education around the issue.
“I’d just like to thank the judges for recognising what we set out to achieve with Compulsion and pass on my congratulations to all that worked on the campaign.”
The online casino brand was nominated alongside some of the UK’s largest household names including Hilton, Sky and Superdrug showing the strength of the competition it was up against in each category.
This is the third major industry recognition for PlayOJO after it was included in the 2021 SoundOut Index for having one of the most recognised sonic logos in the UK, coming ahead of other gambling brands and the likes of Heart and Asda as well as winning the EGR Bingo Marketing Campaign of the year award.