Analysis of the role of social media marketing and communication in the online gambling market

Abstract

With the emergence of new social media marketing communication channels, there has been an emergence of new ways how marketing communication can be facilitated. However, there is little relevant scholarly literature or guidance on this topic, in part because it is so new. The overarching goal of this dissertation is to fulfil the research objective of analysing the role of social media marketing and communication in the online gambling market. The research question was approached by splitting up the main research objective into four smaller fields of social media, online marketing communications, online gambling and social networks. The critical review of existing literature and recent work in the field shows that social media imposes new challenges to companies in the online gambling market, but also offers a variety of opportunities to facilitate the creation of value through customer engagement, loyalty through interaction, and the resulting competitive advantages. The from the literature review resulting conceptual framework formed the basis of primary research involving an exploratory and explanatory study of the practical application of social media in online gambling companies. To achieve a more comprehensive picture, semi -structured experience interviews were combined with structured customer surveys and secondary data from the social media field. In an extensive analysis the challenges of social media marketing and online communications, the associated opportunities of using social media marketing, the utility as a customer relationship management tool, the purpose of customer engagement, and the measurement of their ROI were identified and critically discussed. As this dissertation shows, scholars conceive social media as a more important channel than the interviewed practitioners and consumers do. Despite the fact that possible negative effects of social media and uncontrollable variables in the conversation with consumers present risks for the company images and objectivity of consumer information flow, new opportunities which are ranging from instantaneous information sharing, increased transparency, improved customer relationships, customer engagement, cooperative value creation and ultimately competitive advantage justify social media as an increasingly important marketing communication channel in the online gambling industry.