When trying to stand out from the crowd in the saturated UK online casino market, using a monster isn’t really the obvious approach. Rob Fletcher, Founder & Executive Creative Director of Isobel, spoke to SBC Leaders about why that was the direction his team took for PlayOJO’s latest ad campaign.
When Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus in 1818, she couldn’t possibly have imagined the cultural impact it would have. From films, plays and comics, to songs, toys, video games and even breakfast cereals, Shelley’s creation has since appeared almost everywhere.
That the list now extends to an advert for an igaming operator is down to creative agency Isobel. Tasked with designing a television ad for an integrated campaign to promote PlayOJO’s live casino and game show offering, they produced a fun 20-second clip in which Frankenstein’s Monster is brought to life by the games.
Isobel’s Founder & Executive Creative Director explained: “The brief from PlayOJO was to promote the new live casino and games. Games that are real time versions where you play with a live host.
“Creatively this leads you down the path to the actual word ‘live’ and then it’s just a question of what things in popular culture are ‘live’. The scenes from countless horror films where Frankenstein reanimates a monster and shouts ‘It’s Alive!’ was one of those cultural moments.
“From there, it’s ok so could Frankenstein’s Monster come ‘alive’ when he encounters the PlayOJO casino and games.”
Another key consideration in the creative process was staying true to PlayOJO’s brand voice, as since its launch in 2017, the casino has worked hard to establish an identity as a fun, sociable destination.
“The reanimated monster was a good fit for the PlayOJO brand, his reanimation took him from being a plain black and white unanimated monster to a full colour upbeat, dancing, fun monster. This sits very well with the fun that PlayOJO stands for,” Fletcher said.
“The dancing monster is a bit daft, and daft is always fun!”
Is the fun element designed to appeal to players of other brands’ live casino games or to players yet to try such products? Fletcher hopes it will engage both groups.
“I think live games are exciting and a new development that technology has allowed to happen,” he said. “Playing live is available with other brands, but I think PlayOJO recognises you don’t get a balloon if you’re not at the party!”
Education + Entertainment
While playful and fun is great for grabbing the attention of would-be players, an advert has to inform as well as entertain to be truly effective. With only 20 seconds to achieve both goals, getting the balance right is a tricky task that requires a particular mindset.
“All good advertising starts at a strategic level. The product or service should be integral to your idea. The product or service is the catalyst to the narrative or the answer to the narrative,” Fletcher said.
“With the monster, it’s PlayOJO that creates the narrative of the monster coming to life. Therefore, the product isn’t bolted on at the end but intrinsic to the action. It’s not a question of balance but far more a question of a genuine reason the product is integral to the entertainment.”
And Isobel’s creative mastermind believes that audiences can expect to see online brands using this approach on television for some time to come, despite the medium seeing a decline in the proportion of ad spend that it attracts.
“TV is still the best medium for communicating emotion. And emotional response is still the biggest driver with consumers,” he said. “Awareness can be built across channels, but the question isn’t, ‘do I know you?’, it’s ‘do I like you?’ as well.”
Embracing regulation
Another thing that will not be going away is the strict regulations governing gambling advertising.
It would be easy to assume that for an agency with a client base that encompasses FMCG, furniture and hotel brands, those regulations would prove taxing. Fletcher, however, sees things differently.
He said: “The regulations in the gaming category are quite rightly fairly strict. If brands are to continue marketing their services then we should conform and applaud the regulations.
“They are to protect the consumer from normalising a product that carries potential risks. The trick is to not try to work around the regulations, but enforce them ourselves.”
That method of working does not preclude genuine creativity though, even if Fletcher believes it is often missing from gambling advertising.
“I believe the gambling sector is caught in a loop. There seems to be a collective gambling ad tone of voice and behaviour type,” he suggested.
“There is little originality, everything looks and talks like everything else. Anything that stands out from this is good in my view.”
