Klaire Muriithi: Understanding the player is the foundation of success in iGaming

Can you share what inspired you to pursue a career in brand management and marketing?  

In my teens, I thought I wanted to be a doctor. I scored really well in all science subjects. However it didn’t work out, Trust me I tried, I struggled with being overly empathetic and I’d weep in bio lab tests to dissect even just a small frog. I figure medicine was not for me. I started seeking out what else peaked my interest and discovered that I was fascinated by why we consumed different brands in our everyday lives.

From something as simple as milk, cooking oil, shower gel, body lotion, cars. Name it. I questioned why someone would buy or choose one brand over the other and how they’d arrive at that decision. I then signed up for Bachelor of Commerce and majored in marketing. Luckily, I was blessed to have landed a field marketing role at British American Tobacco Kenya. And since then have had the blessing to work with local and multinational brands such as Sportsman, Dunhill, Coca-Cola, Dasani, Minute Maid, Safaricom, Qwetu Student Residences and BetKing.

What have been the most significant challenges you faced while building the brand for Little App Kenya, and how did you overcome them?

I’d say it’s largely two things – Consistent budget availability and the need to invest in predictable brand health studies research. Times are tough in SSA and mostly for companies operating in Kenya. Consumers are faced with rising costs of living. Ride hailing is no exception. How to overcome this is largely scaling down on grand brand building efforts and dialing up on a few paid digital media channels and finding other routes to collect customer feedback to ensure brand relevance even during tough seasons.

How does your experience at KingMakers influence your current role at Little App Kenya?  

I had a grand time leading marketing initiatives at BetKing Kenya (Kingmakers). One of the key takeaways I learnt during my time there was using daily, weekly, monthly data to understand our users. Everything from new registrations, churn, about to churn,gross GGR, AWPU and more. Keeping a pulse on that to inform what tactics and levers to use for our content and growth marketing efforts. This has heavily influenced how I read data to inform business cases, customer value management campaigns and even our social media content at Little.

What strategies do you find most effective for enhancing brand visibility and user engagement in the African market?  

I’ll answer this skewed heavily to address your lovely gaming audience.

In sub Saharan Africa, truly the playbook to win here is simple but tough for most who may not have factored this in their capital.

For brand visibility…your sports betting/igaming brand has to be visible in your target customers environment – where they live, work and play. I highly encourage that you invest in branded merchandise such as reflector jackets for motor bike riders, t-shirts, jerseys, footballs, bar tables,grassroots and national sports events etc. This gives you top of mind awareness and some level of brand consideration and trust over time. And it’s not just about being seen…your brand also needs to be heard. Drive up brand consideration by investing in channels that’ll give you maximum reach and ROI…and here in our lands it has to be a full 360 marketing approach. Dependent on regulation, explore TV, radio, print, experiential and event activations even as you seek out players via digital paid media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Opera and Google ads.

For user engagement – I’d vouch for two big ticket items. First is to ensure you have the right product for your customers. Ask yourself if you offer what matters to the African customer – easy to use mobile money deposits and withdrawals, best accumulator bonuses, best odds, best virtual games, good RTPs for crash games, player bonuses and promotions. It sounds like a lot but it’s super easy. Research….speak to your gaming community…informal and formal research to get a pulse on whether your product delivers for the gamers. And if it’s something new…by all means…African gamers love innovation. Test…launch..review..have fun.

How do you stay updated with the latest trends and advancements in digital marketing?  

I am an avid learner and reader. I seek out digital marketing courses on platforms such as Google, Meta, Coursera and Udemy. And also read up on weekly newsletters – some of my favorites being Hubspot, Neil Patel and Marketing Max.

Can you elaborate on the importance of localizing marketing efforts to resonate with the diverse African audience?  

Failing to have a localization strategy for your African audience is planning to fail.

African consumers prefer to buy products that present themselves in their native language and cultural nuances. And this applies whether you are launching in American, European, Asian or LATAM markets.

It drives faster adoption for your product, fosters increased trust and a better CX (customer experience). And it’s not just in marketing…it’s also done at product build level. Having your product localized to the market need. And this is why most of the sports betting brands in my patch of the world such as Betika, Odibets and Sportpesa thrive in Kenya. They localize their product offering and marketing initiatives for the Kenyan gamer, leaving other brands (mostly foreign owned) playing catch up.

What are your thoughts on the future of digital marketing in Africa, and how is Little App Kenya preparing for it?

Digital marketing – performance marketing is good.. it’s given brand builders like me new and faster ways to reach our audiences. But it’s not great on its own.

However I fear that our industry (marketing and gaming alike) have over indexed and overly embraced performance driven strategies over the last decade or so. Paid digital media is increasingly delivering less on performance. We are seeing lesser clicks, lesser impressions and a slower pace to immediate conversions. For the same amount of budgets.

We’ve become obsessed with these short term wins and campaigns at the expense of building brands.

I forsee a situation where we recalibrate and prioritize brand building alongside performance marketing. To stop or slow down the heavy reliance on real time and instant results from performance marketing to building brand relationships with our customers. We will start to see a renewed focus on brand building that takes into account that customers also delve into some good level of research as they look to try new products or services and ensure our brand experiences prompt or trigger an action during the pre-purchase, purchase and after-purchase journeys, that can only be achieved by long term brand building efforts running alongside performance marketing.