-
14 October 2015, 1:33 pm
#1
Affiliate Manager Interview Series | Christine, Condor Affiliates
Condor Affiliates is the affiliate program for Casino Sieger, Rembrandt Casino and the recently launched b-Bets. The first two brands were originally promoted by Rembrandt Affiliates. Is Condor Affiliates an entirely new program?
We started out with Sieger Affiliates and Rembrandt Affiliates programs, which were equally powerful, but business got to the point where we needed to make it easier for the affiliates.
With this in mind, we created Condor Affiliates: one brand, one login, three casinos to promote at once.
Condor Affiliates allows us to add new, improved features, accessible immediately for all marketing purposes for all brands. Instead of having individual brand affiliate programs, the entire structure of the company and its departments changed for the better.
How challenging was creating a new brand within Condor Gaming?
Condor has been growing by the minute in terms of affiliates, players and brands. It became clear that creating a single roof under which to host all the participating parties in this house, which is slowly but surely becoming a mansion, would be the best for all stakeholders.
That creates an advantageous environment for affiliates, who can enjoy one account with all the information and materials they need to become successful along with the brands they promote.
Establishing a new brand is quite challenging, mainly because of all the development needed and the demanding efforts to get affiliates up to speed.
Condor Affiliates is a fresh start for the sake of the productivity and convenience of all parties involved. Quality, ease of use, highly qualified management and transparency are all of great importance and clearly represent an immense opportunity, now that we have everything under one roof.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your professional background.
I am French, I grew up in France, and I’ve studied international business and applied languages for five years. I started in the gambling industry in 2000, when the online casino industry was just beginning. I was involved in customer support for the first few months — I had to really understand the industry and the players' needs. Then, my role evolved and led me to the affiliate marketing side of the business. I really love it. I joined different companies in the process, and each year I grow to understand more of this fascinating job.
Condor Affiliates became a GPWA sponsor immediately upon launching. Why do you believe it's important to be part of the GPWA community?
Forums are a great means of communication, and we consider communication to be very important to our affiliate program. Affiliates can not only ask questions, they can also exchange experiences, marketing efforts, results, tools — just about anything to help each other grow their business. The GPWA fits very well into our marketing efforts for all these reasons.
It surely can only be of great benefit to be part of the GPWA, considering that there are thousands of like-minded people out there who can meet and benefit from each other! The GPWA has very quickly shown that it cares. There is great involvement regarding the entire industry, discussions and activities, so the GPWA values, ideas and goals resonate very much with those of Condor Affiliates.
b-Bets is a new brand with live casino games, slots, a sportsbook and a unique auction feature. Tell us a bit more about how it works.
The auction section at b-Bets is what sets it apart from other casinos.
Loyal players love not only their favorite games but also the unexpected, surprising bonuses they receive, preferably on a daily basis. But we figure that a player might prefer one bonus over another. That’s why we’ve come up with a whole new concept: handing the power of choice to the player.
Players use BidBets — b-Bets internal credits that they automatically receive for playing — to place bids on the bonuses they really want to get.
There are different items up for grabs at our auctions: up to 50 percent deposit bonuses, different numbers of free spins and even very competitive no-deposit bonuses. And the list goes on, as we continuously innovate.
Describe a typical work day at Condor Affiliates.
My day won’t start without a fresh cup of coffee, but that’s about the only thing where the word “typical” applies. Workdays at Condor Affiliates are never the same.
As our brands grow, so do the excitement and workflow. There’s always something new: a new player or affiliate promotion, new affiliates signing up and new business opportunities.
My team and I listen to our affiliates carefully and closely, so I’m constantly in touch with people from all around the planet. I mostly communicate via Skype and e-mail. Actually, I don't think affiliates really like speaking over the phone — we are all a bit geeky, after all!
What does Condor Affiliates do to retain players who come through affiliates?
Getting a registered client is not enough. Our biggest efforts are spent on retention, so we create tailor-made promotions and incentives, analyze the players’ habits and adapt our promotions accordingly. We always work on offering better, unique rewards and promotions, and at the same time, we offer regular promotions such as Take Away Tuesday, Bonus-A-Thon and Crazy Friday, just to name a few, for those players who like to stick to a routine of giveaways.
Often, we just give away freebies, such as free spins and bonus money, and this has been rewarded with countless player responses and appreciation e-mails thanking us for all the “action” we provide compared to many other online casinos.
At b-Bets, we have a whole new approach to player engagement. “Player in charge” is our motto. It’s up to the players when they receive which bonus.
The concept is all about empowering the player. That’s why we have thrilling auctions. Players stick around to see when their preferred auction will start, and they keep exploring the casino and all it has to offer.
How would you describe your work environment and office culture? Which topics would we hear at the water cooler or if we were a fly on the wall?
Our team is all over the world, but we do have our virtual water cooler for short “in-between” conversations, whether it’s cracking jokes, navigating language and cultural differences, or sharing personal matters.
Our virtual water cooler has been established mainly through Skype and Asana. These are apps we use every minute, not only to discuss work-related topics, of course, which always have priority, but also more personal topics such as the recent birth of my baby. We have a family-like environment.
And truth be told, some flies on the wall have been victims of fly swatters, so as not to leave any witnesses behind.
Where do you think the industry will be in five years?
Online gambling still has a lot of room for improvement. There will be more and more game and payment providers throughout the years, Internet security will be enhanced and games will become more engaging. Some of the newest games are games within games, to keep the player excited and engaged.
With an ever-growing number of new online casinos, competition will be the biggest factor for improvement. Casinos will offer better and more advanced platforms, game providers, payment gateways, promotions and loyalty programs, you name it.
I believe this industry is not only about gambling anymore, but more about entertainment, fun and letting the player make decisions. That’s why we have come up with b-Bets.com.
The brands of Condor Gaming target the European market. With so many established brands competing in this market, how do you go about marketing a new entry in the iGaming world? And how do affiliates fit into Condor Affiliates’ marketing mix?
We are a team of multinational professionals; some of us have been around more than a decade in this industry. This gives us the ability and experience to penetrate the crowded European market with our own ideas. We cater to different crowds with different brands. Rembrandt Casino drives traffic from all over western Europe; Casino Sieger caters to German-speaking players. b-Bets, on the other hand, is not catering to a specific set of nationalities but to specific kinds of players, letting them pick their bonuses on their own.
Affiliates will love Condor Affiliates more than ever. More transparency, easy navigation and real-time stats are only a few examples of what we have in store for affiliates from around the world. Affiliates are a crucial factor in the gaming industry; needless to say, there’s no success without affiliates.
Our affiliates have access to a comprehensive, multilingual marketing center with custom promotions and marketing materials, as well as our VIP service, which delivers unique articles written in their preferred languages.
We are open to suggestions and new ideas and are always happy to create and deliver tailored marketing materials. We create custom promotions for affiliates, custom banners to support those promotions and custom articles for their SEO needs to ensure that they have everything they need to easily promote our brands.
Many of our current affiliates were actively promoting our brands before Condor Affiliates. That just speaks for itself.
Condor Affiliates has very affiliate friendly terms and conditions. When many affiliate programs are scaling back, why did you decide to stick to such a competitive offer?
Our program is based on 30-50 percent lifetime revenue share, with no negative carryover and no player quotas. This is because we believe in the power of people and partnership. The way we do business reflects how much we aim for sound, long-lasting relationships with our affiliates.
We don’t just intend to obtain new affiliates, but more importantly, we want to work with them in the long term. It’s one circle, and if we pay less attention to just one link within that circle, we might get away with it and save some money at first, but there would be consequences in the long run and we want to avoid that.
How many affiliates would remain active knowing that the company they work with gets the biggest piece of the cake from the players they referred in the first place?
What do you think the future holds for Condor Gaming and Condor Affiliates?
I’d say both Condor Affiliates and Condor Gaming have a great bright future ahead. After all, we strive for success, we don’t take steps back and we only reach for what’s best for our players and our affiliates.
If someone from out of town were to visit you, where is the one place you would have to take them?
I would take them to Gozo, a small island next to Malta. It is beautiful, peaceful and very clean.
What was the last book you read?
I last read The Afterlife of Billy Fingers. I read it on an e-reader. I used to need a physical copy of the book in my hands, but the need to be compact led me to forget about hardcover books.
What's your favorite movie?
Café De Flore.
If you could have dinner with three people, living or dead, who would they be?
The Dalai Lama, Jimmy Fallon, and Samuel Hahnemann.
If we picked up your iPod (or more likely, your iPhone) and pressed play, what song would be playing?
It would range from house music to soft rock, to some sort of meditation — all kinds of songs for all kinds of moods.
Name three things that people reading this interview don't know about you.
I am afraid of the noise the flush makes in planes and always cover my ears when flushing. I used to be a kickboxing and aerobics teacher in my free time. I am a crazy cat lady.
-
-
15 October 2015, 3:51 am
#2
Cat Lady and Kickboxer .. MMM lol now that's a Crazy Mix ..
-
-
15 October 2015, 3:41 pm
#3
Great interview. Jimmy Fallon would be a very interesting guy to meet.
-
Posting Permissions
- You may not post new threads
- You may not post replies
- You may not post attachments
- You may not edit your posts
-
Forum Rules