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Destination

Through a launch strategy, Pokerstars.com were to establish the brand among men 18-34 y.o. with an "I like to win" attitude and successfully drive traffic to the site despite an intensely cluttered market with fierce competition and above all a restrictive legislation that would not allow any regular gambling advertising.

Platform

This groundbreaking campaign challenged market rules that only allowed opinion-building ads apart from billboard sponsoring of satellite channels, which were already sold out. Finding a way to still use TV, the main media of our target group, and with a limited budget, was crucial. Our outstanding solution was flying in the Pokerstars.com-sponsored world champion Greg Raymer for a Swedish poker event, producing a documentary of the event, and getting Channel5 to broadcast it prime time. Advertising and invaluable PR communicating the event and Raymer instead of the site were then suddenly possible legal channels to reach the potential players.

Design and delivery

The successful "poker game of the century" between Raymer and a Swedish star was advertised in evening press sports sections, sports sites, multimails and through a spectacular outdoor installation. The first-class event was open to the public and invitations were sent out to VIP's and poker players. Invaluable PR was achieved both before and after the event, featuring Raymer giving tips to poker fans and VIP's. The TV documentary was aired one month following the event.

The fact that Pokerstars.com got exposed in a one-hour long prime time TV documentary with excellent viewing in the target audience, an advertising space cannot normally be bought, was a "first ever" in Sweden. The programme rating in the target group was 29% higher than the channel average. Despite the restrictive laws, and through the communicated message around the event and the TV programme, Pokerstars.com managed to reach its target in several truly effective ways.

Evaluation

The campaign had excellent TV viewing figures, an internet CTR of more than 6% and superb PR coverage. In both an innovative and cost-effective way that was completely new to the Swedish market, this campaign managed to circumvent legal restrictions, catch the target audience's attention, and generate players to Pokerstars.com.