According to the recent news stories, BGO Entertainment has signed Dan Bilzerian to be part of their new 15 million pound marketing campaign. The company also re-signed movie star Verne Troyer – best known for his roles in popular Austin Powers movies – based on the last year’s campaign’s success.
The new campaign is said to be hitting TV and the online world soon. What this means in practice, we’ll have to wait and see for ourselves.
Nonetheless, the signing of Bilzerian is something that’s surely worth noting down as a possible indication that online gaming brands are getting ready to enter new channels of promotion.
Apart from being a star poker player, Bilzerian is also known for his Instagram profile that has managed to attract 200,000 followers per week, and as of now, has close to 5 million followers in total.
When it comes to the account itself, Bilzerian shares his unique lifestyle consisting mostly of girls, money, cars and guns, which seems to be resonating well with audiences. This and the fact that he’s made his career as a poker player makes him the perfect candidate for BGO.
Richard Skelhorn – the co-founder of BGO Entertainment – had this to say about the signing:
“This year’s addition of Dan Bilzerian is very exciting and provides us a real opportunity to do something very different in the space, to continue to grow the brand internationally and appeal to a wider audience.”
Skelhorn is clearly ready to keep introducing new and unique methods of promotion. This we could already see in the last year’s role of Verne Troyer, which Skelhorn also commented on:
“Last year’s campaign was a hit. Bringing Verne to the BGO brand made a real step change in our business.”
What Does This Mean for the Rest of Us?
Instagram is the fastest growing social media platform ever. It’s not only used for personal “meal sharing,” but also to build brands and audiences cantered around specific idea or lifestyle, like we can see with Bilzerian.
Although Bilzerian was already well known before his Instagram career, it’s safe to say that BGO would have never offered the deal to him if it hadn’t been for his Instagram fame.
Online gaming brands are constantly on the lookout for ways to bring new users to the table and somehow expand their brand above the standard circle of audiences that they can usually attract. Bilzerian introduces this opportunity since it’s very likely that only a small part of his Instagram followers are active players or online gaming enthusiasts.
BGO and other brands are very likely to keep looking for opportunities like that in the modern day social media.
Also, if it wasn’t apparent enough already, Instagram indeed is a viable marketing tool that’s centered around lifestyle, as opposed to focusing on specific problems or solutions. As an affiliate, you can use Instagram to present the lifestyle that your prospective audience is interested in, and through this you can attract them to the products that you’re promoting.
It’s not a direct marketing method, but it’s a completely new take on online promotion that can become even more powerful. For example, in the traditional model you’d say, “Hey, you want to do some online gaming? Here are the ways to do it.” In the new model you’d say, “Hey, are you interested in this lifestyle? Here’s how to get there through online gaming.”