5 steps to build a winning iGaming brand in 2023
Whether you’re a seasoned iGaming operator, or new to the game, choosing an expert partner to build and accelerate your brand is a must.
If you’re approaching your first venture, you need to get the details right to make you stand out.
And that can be more complex than you first envisioned.
If you're already active as a company, you might want to expand your brand portfolio?
Avoiding the overhead of a creator team can be a smart move.
Even if you’ve identified areas or geographies you'd like to grow into, having the full capability to make it happen isn't easy.
For many online casino operators, creating an additional casino brand is a great way to attract new players.
Get it right, and you'll engage your existing players on a broader scale. You'll create a fully localised experience in an unexplored location or customer segment.
A new brand that pushes fresh, exciting game content can be a catalyst to a fully engaged player base.
And that will ultimately drive increased profits and better brand engagement for the business.
Knowing where to start can be tricky
How do you go about setting the parameters of an entire brand?
How much free rein are you willing to give the creating company?
Do you involve your own R&D team, or leave them to focus on your current projects?
Should your new brand work seamlessly with your existing entity?
And how much creativity does your specific licensing needs afford you?
These questions are just the tip of the iceberg.
Luckily, you’re in good hands to have all of them answered as we delve head first into the heady task of building an online iGaming brand, with the help of our Creative team at WKND.
How we get started
There are two very different starting points for building a gaming brand at WKND.
Which route we take depends solely on you, the client.
And knowing which route we’re going to take will depend on how involved you’d like to be, or have been already in the research for your project.
Option 1:
You have a clear idea of what you want. You know your domain. You have a strong brand you want us to seamlessly link with the new project.
Your vision’s set in stone, and now you need help bringing it to life.
It’s likely on these occasions you’re already in the gaming sector. You have a robust player base and almost certainly an existing tone of voice. You might need guidance on some parts but what you really want is something that polishes your existing ground work and turns it into a reality.
Option 2:
You have a blank slate. A white piece of paper. An empty folder titled ‘new brand’.
You’re not really sure what your new brand will look like. You may have done some research, or next to none, but you'll know the right idea when you see it.
This is a far tougher challenge for us, but one we really love taking on.
Typically there’s a number of routes for us to take, and the first challenge is identifying your target player base.
Which one of these routes you take will depend on the depth of your research and your current grounding.
We love working with brands on ideas they already have. Sometimes the tighter the brief, the more creative our team can be.
At the same time, a blank slate naturally opens up many avenues you might not have considered.
We can really explore the detail of how your new brand might operate. How it might feel, how it might perform and what it could offer that is different from others.
All of these are specialities for WKND. Which direction you go initially will depend on you: How much time you’ve put into your idea, how much you’d like to and what your investment is to realise it.
What constitutes a brand anyway?
A lot of people presume creating a brand means coming up with a logo and colour scheme, and positioning the games. Once those things are set, voila, you’ve got your brand.
This couldn’t be further from the truth.
Yes, it’s a logo.
Yes, it’s a colour scheme.
And yes, there are games.
But a brand experience is far more than just these things.
It’s the embodiment of how a visit to the casino makes you feel. Its character. It’s the way you’d describe the brand if it were a person.
Is it big?
Bold?
Bolshy?
Bashful?
Bodacious?
How do we define that character?
The first step of our process is identifying the audience and the market. That’s our absolute number one focus.
Defining the value and mission behind the brand will leave us with an end product that plays well in the eyes of your player. And there’s no better consideration to guarantee your success than that.
It’s crucial to know what your competitors are doing. But a deep understanding of your player will give you a greater understanding of the entire space.
Down the line, as more and more design decisions are made, your brand values and what best represents the mission of the brand will be leaned on more and more. If those two things revolve around your player, it’s hard to fail.
And how do we know what the player wants?
Research. Research. Research.
Who plays your games? Why do they play? Why do they stick around and why do they come back? What do they like? What do they hate?
If data doesn’t underpin your new brand you’re going into it blind.
Often, if you’re building on a well founded company, you’ll have done this yourself from your years trading.
If you’re starting something new with a clean slate, we’ll be doing this on your behalf, or doing it together with you.
We’re proud to say that the combined team at WKND can provide such a vast insight to both market preferences and complex regulations, and we’re also lucky to have a large portion of our clients already incredibly knowledgeable about their players.
But even when that’s the case, you just don’t know what you don’t know.
If you’re moving into a new market for example, you must rely on the data. Localisation is a huge consideration. Some colours just don’t work in some parts of the world.
Some numbers are lucky in China, and unlucky in Germany.
Some characters will work in Scandinavia, and won’t in Brazil. Knowing this information is crucial.
Communication is key
The drawing board will typically be revisited quite a number of times when building a great gaming brand. Success is a combination of the best and the worst ideas in the process.
The key to doing a stellar job is the communication between us and yourself. People must believe in the brand for it to work, and having open lines of communication at every stage of the process is paramount.
Building a winning brand and gaming platform is an ongoing process.
You won’t finalise a brand and let it wander off into the commerce wilderness. It’s ongoing, with almost constant testing and iteration.
Does it work for the player? Do they come back? What do they like? What do they dislike?
There’s almost no product in the world that’s ever finished. And so continuous performance analysis and gradual improvement is the name of the game.
There’s always a way to improve your product and it’s not done on intuition.
We test as much as possible and from as many angles there are, and present that feedback to you which ultimately improves your standing with your players.
The WKND Brand Development & Design Process
In order to ensure the most robust and impactful development of any brand we create, we employ a structured, multi-phase process that analyses all the integral factors and emphasises the USPs of that brand.
Here is our process in brief.
Phase 1: Pre-Analysis
1. Competitive Analysis:
Conduct an in-depth review of three direct competitors. This gives us insights into their branding, marketing tactics, strengths, weaknesses, and unique selling points.
2. Customer Examination:
Analyse the existing players to help us better understand their preferences, motivations, and needs.
3. Market and Country Analysis:
Assess the broader market and geographical context to inform our brand strategy and ensure we meet market-specific requirements and preferences.
4. Brand Positioning:
Establish a clear brand position that resonates with your target audience and differentiates you from competitors.
Phase 2: Audience Definition & Brand Narrative
1. User Personas & Target Audience:
Create detailed user personas to gain a deeper understanding of your target audience demographics, psychographics, behaviour, and needs.
2. Brand Narrative & Personality:
Develop a compelling brand narrative and personality that communicates why you exist and what you stand for. This will serve as the backbone of your brand identity.
3. Brand Style Direction:
Based on your brand personality, we determine a style direction that visually communicates your brand ethos.
4. Brand Representation:
Decide whether to use brand characters or something else, and how they should be designed to effectively represent your brand.
Phase 3: Product & USP Identification
1. Specialised Casino Mechanics:
Identify and define the unique mechanics of our casino games.
2. USP Identification & Strategy:
These mechanics lead us to your USPs and the strategic framework we'll implement to leverage them effectively.
Phase 4: Brand Creation & Refinement
1. Mood Boards:
Create multiple mood boards to visualise and solidify your brand direction.
2. Brand Voice & Messaging:
Develop a consistent brand voice and messaging that will be used across all communication channels.
3. Brand Style Guide:
Establish a comprehensive brand style guide outlining the correct usage of all brand elements.
4. Online Presence:
Design and develop a website and other digital touch points that accurately reflect your brand's identity.
Phase 5: Consistency & Continual Refinement
1. Brand Touchpoint Consistency:
Ensure every interaction with your brand delivers a consistent, positive experience, reinforcing your brand identity and building trust with your players.
2. Ongoing Brand Development:
Acknowledge that brand building is a continuous process. We will continue to reassess your brand's performance, market changes and trends, and players needs to maintain relevance and effectiveness.
Through this approach, we can ensure that we are consistently delivering a brand that resonates with the audience, stands out in the market, and grows sustainably over time.
If you’re considering building a new iGaming brand and don’t know where to turn, get in touch with WKND, and we’ll steer you in the right direction.
Even if that direction isn’t with us.
We have decades of experience and know this space like the back of our hand.