RLX Gaming: Adapting marketing campaigns to the US

RLX Gaming: It has been eight months since Relax Gaming officially made its debut in the United States after receiving the green light from the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement. Working alongside betting and gaming powerhouse BetMGM, we immediately took to our brand-new name, RLX Gaming, delighting a highly captive audience of more than 90,000 players thanks to a portfolio of games that included Great Western 3, Temple Tumble and The Great Pigsby.

Of course, the stark reality of being a newcomer in the fast-moving US landscape, coupled with the additional challenge of building a new iGaming brand from scratch, cannot be understated. If there’s anyone at RLX Gaming who understands the trials and tribulations associated with effectively promoting a brand in a new market, it’s our Director of Marketing, Marija Hammon, who along with her talented team were instrumental in building brand awareness as the company found its feet in North America.   

Marketing with a purpose – Building campaigns that resonate

Having helped orchestrate successful product launches in key European markets, including a trio of Money Train titles, the Dream Drop Jackpot and most recently Ancient Tumble, Hammon was well positioned to lead her team in translating the studio’s success stateside. To understand how we approached its US entry from a marketing perspective, Hammon revealed her tried-and-tested recipe: “We have been fortunate enough to enjoy a string of successful launches over the last few years and aside from being fantastic products, they have all shared one thing in common, that they were underpinned by well-orchestrated, in-depth marketing campaigns.

“Our most successful campaigns are always built upon three key pillars: brand awareness, education and promotion. It’s a step-by-step process that mostly follows a similar blueprint, but is always unique to each individual launch, regardless of the product.” In this instance, Hammon and her team were faced with another set of additional challenges due to IP considerations in North America. With the Relax Gaming name and visuals off the table, the team were also tasked with developing the company’s new name, logo and branding. Thankfully, upon its launch, we feel RLX Gaming hit all the right notes. However, it was undoubtedly helped by Relax Gaming’s reputation and content marketing that has played its part in leading to more than 36 million game rounds in New Jersey across a handful of its most popular titles. 

The importance of understanding your audience

“As soon as the DGE crossed the t’s and dotted the i’s, we began setting the wheels in motion to ensure that our announcement to the media was accompanied by a wave of informative content in the US,” said Hammon. “We felt it was very much our duty as marketers to break down the RLX brand and inform operators and players exactly who we are and what we are about. The US landscape is an entirely different beast to what we are used to in Europe, and it was important that we took the opportunity to properly introduce ourselves and educate stakeholders.

 “This industry moves at an incredible pace, and it would have been remiss of us not to showcase our personalized approach within the region. While slots are what we’re best known for, we leant heavily on our portfolio of table games by launching with Blackjack Neo and Roulette Nouveau, catering from America’s strong land-based heritage.“We approached our US entry with a full understanding of the business’ objectives, USPs, and knowledge of exactly who our core audience was and what they wanted. Without this, we would have undoubtedly failed in our endeavors to reach our target audience and make a lasting impact.” 

A personalized approach

Adopting a tailored approach to proceedings isn’t just an operational mindset for us at RLX Gaming. When promoting new content for the company, Hammon champions the mindset of entering every campaign with player preferences in mind: “Tailoring our marketing to a localized audience is imperative to our long-term success in the States and anywhere else for that matter. When promoting new games, we look at areas of growth in the region we’re working in and focus a good portion of our efforts there. A great example of this would be our Money Train (Great Western) franchise, when marketing later iterations of the game in Europe we invested heavily in multimedia content.

“Working with leading streamers played a huge part in ensuring that our games are seen, talked about and most importantly played upon their release. The pool of active streamers promoting iGaming content in the US is still quite small at the moment, but we’re looking forward to sharing our unique RLX messaging with American players as time goes on and the scene grows. In lieu of certain channels we usually rely upon to amplify our messaging, we’ll instead utilize channels that we know work within each jurisdiction, which in the US is a combination of the trade media and our own social media following.” 

The past, present and future of marketing 

In summarising her thoughts, Hammon once again reaffirmed the importance of sticking to the core fundamentals to succeed. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel to ensure that a brand or product gets the attention it rightly deserves, Hammon explained. “What you do need to do though is be consistent, consistency is key.”Hammon also shared the three questions all suppliers must ask themselves before embarking on any successful campaign. Firstly, what defines your offering, and the values you operate under? Secondly, who is your audience, and what gaps require addressing? And finally, what is it your brands bring to the table and how does it stand out amongst others? If you’re able to answer all three of these questions and confidently convey your messaging whilst being clear, concise then the route to success is clear.

David Thompson

Editor

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