We just returned from the 2016 Casino Marketing and Technology conference. One of the hottest topics the last few years has been mobile apps. It seems as though everyone wants an app for their property. Here are just a few statistics to think about before investing up to $50,000.
All of this data was collected by Andrew Cardno & Dr. Ralph Thomas of VIZEXPLORER.
- 64 Percent of casino customers own a smartphone
- 58 Percent of casino smartphone owners use their device for email.
- Only 6 percent of your casino customers will download a property specific casino app.
- Only ONE (1) percent of your casino customers will use the app beyond the first time they download the app.
- Consider that for a second. ONE percent of your customers will use something that you have invested thousands of dollars on.
“The inevitable conclusion from this math–despite lots of time and money and the best of intentions, property created mobile apps will simply NOT be used by a significant subset of your players.”
The reality is that the app space is incredibly competitive. If you want to find out about a restaurant are you more likely to check yelp or open table vs downloading a casino app? If you want to know some information about a property do you check Google or download ANOTHER app?
It is not all doom and gloom though. There are far more cost effective ways to communicate with your players. “Interactive email and messaging can deliver everything that a mobile app can, and is a cost effective replacement for developing a branded app and the marketing spend required to get players to use it.