Writing for SBC News, John Cook – SBC Media Commercial Director – takes a look at why marketing campaigns may fail to miss the mark with operators.

The global iGaming industry is one of the most competitive B2B technology sectors in the world. Core to the growth of B2B suppliers is the attraction of new clients in a landscape that is inundated with noise from content that offers little to no differentiation to each and every other piece of content.

Operators are inundated daily with marketing messages from suppliers claiming to offer the next essential platform feature, the most engaging game mechanic, or the fastest payments solution. Yet despite the volume of marketing activity, the majority of supplier messaging struggles to meet its primary goal: earning meaningful attention from operators.

For marketers working at iGaming suppliers irrespective of the solutions their company offers, the challenge is not simply creating more visibility, it is standing out in a marketplace where every company is saying roughly the same thing. This is the first in a fortnightly series of articles that are designed to add value to the industry and to help partners stand out in what is becoming an increasingly competitive space.

Understanding the filter

Understanding why your content is not making it through the noise is the first step toward building campaigns that actually hits its goals. Typically, a senior executive at an operator has priorities of their own operations, over and above marketing communications. But when they have a specific need they are likely to recall those companies that campaigns add value rather than purely brand colors and “sales-y” messaging.

A typical operator executive may receive dozens of sales outreach emails, multiple press releases, invitations to webinars and product launches, LinkedIn promotional content or product announcements and partnership news among other announcements. This communication comes from hundreds of suppliers across multiple categories. From the operator’s perspective, the challenge isn’t finding suppliers. The challenge is filtering out the noise.

Research from organisations such as The Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS) and Edelman consistently shows that B2B buyers engage with campaigns that help them conduct their jobs, offers useful insight and helps to reduce uncertainty or complexity.

Challenging the status quo

Challenging the status quo in marketing is the first element of the sales process. When pitching, the number one objection is almost always: “We have someone who already does this.” 

To overcome this, you have to prove that what you have to offer actually adds value. This is how we approach the sales process- we do it in a different way because we lead with that value.

If you maintain the status quo, you’ll find it difficult to move the needle and actually succeed commercially. The existing supplier might be poor, or isn’t meeting the operator’s end goals, but they’re doing just about enough to keep a relationship going. This leads to a sense of apathy when it comes to decision-making; people don’t find a reason to change because everything in the market looks similar. To break through, you have to be able to justify your thought process and rationale on why you do what you do. You must understand where your value is and what the specific commercial benefits are.

Standing out in a sea of sameness

iGaming happens to be one of the most ‘announcement heavy’ industries within the B2B space. Not a day goes by that someone, somewhere is announcing a new product, licence, partnership, or tool. One of the most significant structural problems that marketers within the iGaming industry face is the perception of commoditisation.

Across the industry, suppliers describe themselves in near-identical terms – we’ve all seen the press releases describing a company as ‘next-gen’, ‘industry leading’, ‘best-in-class’ or the most common one, ‘innovative’. But realistically speaking, how much weight do these terms actually carry? Very little, given that it’s the go-to phrasing for any and all marketing material.

If you’re to put yourself in the shoes of an operator, this can create a huge amount of confusion. How do you pick a supplier from a sea of monotonous product offerings? When your marketing and wider company messaging lacks clear differentiation, buyers begin to assume that the products you offer are also similar, even when they’re not. As a result, the decision-making process for selecting a supplier often comes down to three things: price, existing relationships and ease of integration.

In this context, generic marketing isn’t just underperforming, it’s actively eroding your company’s perceived value. Platforms such as SBC Media and our peers are inundated with a constant stream of these updates with little to no differentiation. The number one thing that differentiates SBC is that while we have a huge audience, we don’t treat them as a monolith. We segment by region and topic, so marketing material is more targeted and relevant.

More content =/= better value

This is where many supplier marketing strategies tend to fall at the first hurdle. One of the things I experienced in the Financial Services industry over 20 years is that marketers often make snap decisions. When they look at a campaign and realise there are no immediate returns, they move straight to the next thing – usually more content. But in doing so, their brand doesn’t come through. There’s no association between the brand and the content.

If you add value to a marketing campaign, it’ll stick in people’s minds. Increasing the volume of content – be it through more press releases, more social posts or more blast emails – does not solve the problem of a lack of engagement. It has the opposite effect. The real challenge isn’t visibility alone. It is gaining visibility in front of the right audience, in the right context.

LinkedIn has become the default platform for businesses looking to expand their brand visibility, but it has recently become somewhat of a ‘new’ Instagram for business-savvy executives—where posting about your trip to an event or dinner with partners has become the new norm. But we must remember that LinkedIn is, first and foremost, a recruitment database. Posting such content fails to answer that all-important question: ‘why should I care?’

The power of evidenced success

In the iGaming industry, B2B suppliers need to look at their strategy for creating and distributing content. This is where reputable, value-based publishers such as SBC Media come in. Gambling operators are far more receptive to marketing material when it appears within trusted industry environments that they already use to stay informed, benchmark competitors, and plan strategic initiatives.

When engaging with a client through a B2B marketing campaign should require 8-12 engagements, iGaming marketers are often finding that the number of interactions far exceeds the 20 mark. It is therefore absolutely vital that your interactions add value. It is also important to ensure that the medium of communication varies from Events, Advertising, Media, and Multimedia. The same message is going to become repetitive and, ultimately, glanced over.

Measurement of this approach should not be an expectation of immediate reaction, but a preparedness for consistent engagement which offers long-term benefits. Clients become “stickier”, become more educated in the benefit of the solutions a company offers and more willing to maintain long-term partnership.

Turning insight into authority

Differentiation in iGaming marketing is not achieved by simply rewriting product descriptions. It requires clear positioning, evidence of impact, and consistent exposure. Suppliers sit on valuable data – across markets, player behaviour and operational performance. When this data is transformed into research reports or market insights and distributed through trusted platforms, it shifts the supplier from vendor to authority.

The suppliers who successfully break through are not necessarily those with the biggest marketing budgets. They are the ones who understand how best to use that budget to effectively add value.

For supplier marketers looking to improve performance, the implications are clear:

Move beyond standalone campaigns: Build integrated campaigns across media platforms rather than isolated press releases.

Invest in thought leadership: Prioritise insight-led content. Use data and expertise to create value.

Leverage trusted distribution: Place key messaging within platforms operators already trust.

Personify your brand: Utilise the experts within your business as thought leaders who add value rather than regurgitate sales pitches. Ultimately, people buy from people they like, not just a company.

Most iGaming supplier marketing gets ignored because it competes in the wrong way – adding to noise rather than cutting through it. The solution is not more content. It is better-positioned, well thought out content, delivered in the right environment. In an industry defined by saturation, where you say something is just as important as what you say and why you say it.

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