Written by Yam Regev
The gaming industry is undergoing a monumental shift from mass marketing to mass personalization, particularly in how VIP players are managed. Traditionally, marketing strategies have focused on broad audiences with a one-size-fits-all approach. However, as AI and data analytics evolve, there’s a growing need to tailor marketing efforts to individual players. This move from 1-to-many to 1-on-1 marketing is revolutionizing player retention and VIP management, offering unprecedented opportunities to engage and retain high-value players.
In the gaming world, VIP players are the elite users who significantly impact the bottom line. They often represent a small percentage of the user base but generate a large portion of the revenue. Therefore, effectively managing these VIP players through personalized marketing is not just beneficial—it’s essential. By leveraging AI tools, like those provided by companies like Dynamo, Sprinklr, and Chatfuel to create tailored experiences that enhance VIP player engagement and retention.
VIP Player Management: Insights from Marketing Industry Leaders
Joonas Virtanen – Head Of Marketing at Futureplay
“It definitely feels like we’re right on the verge of a massive shift in basically all aspects of marketing. Generative AI is already upending the way we create media, and very soon it will transform the way we consume media. In the early stages it will look like automatic translations and “deepfaked” (we need a better term for this when it’s consensual) celebrities. In later stages, it’s going to be very hard to even see the separation between marketing and product. The AI(s) will simply serve you what you like.
We’ve of course taken steps towards this merging of marketing and product for a long time already. In my field, the gaming industry, segmentation is at the very core of the free-to-play business model. Go down that road far enough, and in theory, there’s nothing stopping you from tailoring the entire gaming experience specifically to that single individual. As AI is pushing development costs down, this might soon become a reality. Likewise, with ads, nothing is really standing in the way of hyper-personalization today. It’s just cost-prohibitive. But not for long.
Obviously, we’re not quite there yet, but I do have a hunch that the transition from A to B will be far quicker than we realize and many of the best practices will be outdated by the time organizations roll them out. I mean in a few months we’ve gone from no AI-generated video to Open AI’s Sora, to Kling and now to Luma AI’s Dream Machine. Good luck keeping up with the legal implications of all this, let alone what it does to the whole video production ecosystem.
I think a good analogy to all this stuff is surfing. The AI waves will keep coming and there’s nothing you can do about it. Best just try to position yourself in the right spot and paddle as hard as you can when the time comes. With a bit of luck, you get to hop on that wave and ride it out. And if not, there’s always another wave right behind you.”
Harry Lang – CMO in the Gaming and Gambling Industries
“Personalized marketing messages, whether through digital media or CRM channels like SMS or email are significantly more effective. In both real money gaming (gambling) and the games (mobile and PC/ Console) industries, the ability to target comms on a hyper-granular level inevitably leads to a higher response rate, whether that’s acquisition, conversion, retention or reactivation.
All good marcoms personalization strategies start with a solid data architecture. Knowing who is playing what game, how long for, and what revenue they’re generating in what manner allows you to implement a multivariate segmentation model. Recency, frequency, and monetary are your parameters, and players should be automatically filtered into the correct cohort. You can then send semi-personalized offers, messages, or rewards to cohorts to bring them into the warmer, more valuable segments. At the most valuable VIP levels, one-on-one comms become cost-effective, especially when managing relationships with gambling whales, who may be worth millions in revenue to your business each year.”
Mihaela Secara – Senior VIP Lead at Wooga
“VIP programs should constantly evolve around tailored and personalized treatment based on user status/type/profile. Running a loyalty initiative for a demographic defined as VIP is more complex and includes different variations of a base approach with the option to scale up in real-time.
While regular loyalty initiatives focus on establishing a connection with your brand, user-tailored VIP loyalty focuses on three major pillars:
- Recognizing top talents among your users (criteria can vary)
- A leveling system where new users can be nurtured and established as future top talents
- One-on-one treatments based on user-specific criteria (progress, value, gaming patterns, psychological behavior)
However, the shift from a general loyalty program to a user-tailored VIP loyalty program can be very challenging. Internal collaboration between multiple disciplines is crucial as well as using tools that incorporate dynamic segmentation and real-time progress. Keeping your VIP users highly engaged and loyal to your game requires an agile roadmap with multiple iterations that can be switched on demand.”
Daniel Trau – Founder & CEO at Glue
“Today’s use of AI in Marketing for VIPs is primarily focused on content creation, such as generating assets and copy for social media. However, AI has the potential to be utilized much more effectively. By sharing the same AI tools with players that developers use, we can offer players more ways to communicate within the game’s community. For instance, players can generate pictures of the game as user-generated content (UGC) to share as mini-games with other players, creating a richer and more personalized experience. This approach not only enhances player engagement by making them feel more involved in the creation process but also opens up potential revenue streams through highly engaged players who will pay for such tools.”
Heather Gainer – Senior Marketing Manager at Kongregate
“As a performance marketer, I can already see that AI-driven personalization will be the next big thing in creatives and copy, however, as a consumer, I dread it. I already feel that the marketing I receive is too personalized and I’ve become increasingly interested in ways to protect my data from advertisers. Once personalization really takes off I wonder how long until consumers start questioning if their ‘free’ apps are worth the price.”
Ben Horesh – Chief Product & Monetization Officer at DGN games
“We don’t live in a one-size-fits-all world anymore, so while mass marketing may still have its place, mass personalization extends our runway of capabilities. This doesn’t relate to marketing exclusively, it extends to many other functions including the way we choose to operate product features, live services, and monetization systems, etc. Being able to personalize the gaming experience isn’t nice to have anymore, today it’s a basic necessity. How else do you cater to varying risk appetites, spending patterns, and player motivations?”
Pini Ashkenazi – Director of User Acquisition at Candivore
“The overall vision is to create an individualized experience for each player, making them feel like a valued part of our community and a noticeable member of our game. With the help of AI, we will be able to tailor content, offers, and incentives based on each player’s unique preferences and behavior, driving deeper engagement and retention, ending with organic growth, enhancing player satisfaction, and eventually extending their lifetime value.”
Wrapping Up the Revolution that the VIP Player Management is Experiencing
The transition from mass marketing to mass personalization, especially in the gaming industry, is more than a trend—it’s a necessity. The insights shared by these industry leaders highlight the challenges and solutions in managing VIP players through hyper-personalized marketing strategies. To effectively manage VIP players, companies must leverage AI tools to create tailored experiences that enhance player engagement and retention.
As we move forward, it’s crucial for CMOs and marketing leaders to focus on data-driven personalization, maintaining human connections through VIP hosts, and continuously innovating to meet the evolving needs of their players. By doing so, they can ensure long-term success and player loyalty in an increasingly competitive market.
