Case study: when is it Bad Betty?
This year The Senet Group, the independent body which promotes responsible gambling, gained recognition for its ‘Bad Betty’ campaign created by The Corner. The campaign won CIM’s prestigious Marketing Excellence Award for Integrated Marketing Communications in Customer Education by an SME. Designed to encourage responsible gambling, the campaign which began in 2015 was refreshed prior to major betting events like the 2016 UEFA Euro football tournament.
When the fun stops, stop.
The campaign featured the slogan ‘When the fun stops, stop’. Ram Jam’s 1970s hit track ‘Black Betty’ was reworded ‘Bad Betty’ to remind people that a bet made in anger was a bad bet.
Gambling and football message: “If you’re betting on the football when you’re angry or frustrated it’s a bad betty, so pause for a moment and think again. WHEN THE FUN STOPS, STOP.”
Watch: Bad Betty Football
Gambling at the betting shop message: “If you’re betting more than you can afford it’s a bad betty, so pause for a moment and think again. WHEN THE FUN STOPS, STOP.”
See: Bad Betty Betting Shop
Covering all the bases
The £2 million campaign ran across TV, print, digital and social media. Members of the
Senet Group displayed ads in their shop windows. The ads featured the website www.Gambleaware.co.uk as a source of help for gamblers.
The campaign was supported with a mini-website: www.whenthefunstops.co.uk
It used the hashtag #badbetty to promote conversations on twitter.
Trade get behind the campaign
New trade members SkyBet, Gala Bingo and ScotBet, joined The Senet Group’s founding members of Coral, Ladbrokes, William Hill and Paddy Power Betfair during the year. This enabled the group to reach out to more consumers to promote its educational campaign.
Senet members all undertake to carry out a voluntary TV advertising ban on free bets and free money for new member sign-ups before 9pm. They don’t advertise gaming machines in betting shop windows and set aside one fifth shop window space for advertising responsible gambling messages.
Consumers take the message on board
Independent research panel data from the Bilendi Tracking Survey in March 2016 showed:
- The campaign helped over a third of regular gamblers control their gambling
- Over two million people have directly quoted ‘when the fun stops, stop’¹.
