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Digital Chain CSO Oleg Profatylo: The many layers of brand awareness

As brands compete with each other to stay on top, brand awareness becomes a key selection factor for gambling brands. The audience tends to choose something they know. But more importantly, they choose something they trust. Across many research papers made in past five years, the general reputation of the brand is among the 3-5 most important factors by which the audience chooses in favor of a particular gambling company. And the tendency became even more noticeable and significant during 2020: with the COVID-19 pandemic and accompanying global uncertainty, everyone feels the need to hang on to trustworthy things in different areas of their life – including gambling. 

DigitalChainOleg

So here’s an important part: brand awareness is crucial – and should be seen way deeper than the name suggests. Let’s delve into the components of this interesting and highly demanded thing.

BRAND IMAGE 

The basics of brand awareness – one has to stand out to be noticed. A desire to be seen amid all of the competition, which is very dense in the gambling market nowadays, made many companies opt for rebranding or at least a refreshing touch. 

It’s important to remember that an effective brand image is based upon understanding your audience and communicating your shared values into the world via means of creativity. There’s a vast amount of preparation work in that, gathering data and accumulating the authentic brand character. And it’s worth doing because, without a distinctive image, there is nothing to notice and learn – consequently, nothing upon which to build brand awareness. 

BRAND DEEDS 

People don’t take words on trust today. They want to see proof, action – something tangible and hence really convincing. How can a brand convey action? There are two parts to the answer: customer service and partnerships. 

The first tendency was highlighted during the pandemic. When people were forced to transfer all their entertainment online, it became apparent how important the stability and flexibility of the product was. Delivering the most exceptional experience possible became a steadfast competitive advantage, while even the slightest failure to do so resulted in angry comments from frustrated customers. Customer service also means diversifying the brand’s vertical portfolio as well as presenting a variety of entertainment options. It requires a lot of tech prowess and skill, commonly associated with more mainstream categories. But the truth is, gambling brands have to be technological innovators – in the fast-paced world we live in today, it is one of the most important factors in building solid brand awareness. 

Partnerships with external organisations or individuals, in turn, bring the ‘deeds’ aspect to a greater level. So it's no surprise that pretty much any successful gambling or betting brand is somebody’s sponsor or partner. It broadens its target audience and, at the same time, allows it to support its higher goal with the down-to-earth practical implication of resources. And it brings depth to brand awareness by giving the brand not only something to be known for but also something to be respected for – a whole new added value. 

BRAND COMMUNICATIONS 

Last but not least, brand awareness is impossible without quality communication. And yet again, there’s a shift in what it means. People consume information from many sources, but they trust quite a few. Influencers are hitting the stage. But working with them for growing brand awareness has many nuances. The most crucial among them all is the correspondence of values: the brand should be in tune with its influencers and ambassadors. Fakeness is easily seen and can undermine all the brand’s work in mere moments. 

To sum up, brand awareness holds ever-growing meaning for the success of the brand in gambling and related categories. Yet it is essential to take into consideration that brand awareness is not a one-dimensional concept, and it only becomes more profound and complex as time passes and people become pickier in their decision-making. To build firm brand awareness, brands need to set a clear and measurable goal and work towards it in all dimensions, regularly checking and attuning their progress to the ever-changing external influences. 

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