The Business of Social Games and Casino

The Business of Social Games and Casino

By Lloyd MelnickBusiness
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The Business of Social Games and Casino episodes

  • Building a strategy around doing the opposite

    Key takeaways

    • A powerful way to find a competitive advantage is to do the opposite of what other companies in the industry are doing. Mature industries tend to converge, creating an opportunity to appeal to customers who do not like the homogenous offerings.
    • To uncover the opportunity, first list the primary characteristics and elements currently in the category and then ask yourself what would an offering look like if we did the exact opposite.
    • This strategy represents a particularly appealing opportunity in the social casino and real money gaming spaces, where the offering has largely converged.

      • This episode is also available as a blog post: http://lloydmelnick.com/2020/11/04/building-a-strategy-around-doing-the-opposite/

      4 min
    • Word-of-machine effect with recommendation engines

      Key takeaways

      • AI driven recommendation engines, popularized on Amazon and Netflix, have gone from being a competitive advantage in online and mobile apps to part of the cost of doing business.
      • While AI recommendations are often closer to what customers want, people trust human recommendations more when it is based on hedonic or experiential factors, and trust machines more when it is based on utilitarian factors; this is referred to as word-of-machine effect.
      • When presenting recommendations, you must be cognizant of word-of-machine effect; for recommendations around hedonistic properties try to bring in a human element (augmented intelligence) or explain that these are better recommendations.

        • This episode is also available as a blog post: http://lloydmelnick.com/2020/12/02/word-of-machine-effect-with-recommendation-engines/

        7 min
      • Turn Your Company Around

        Key takeaways

        1. Less than 50 percent of people are satisfied with that job, and Covid has made the situation more dire.
        2. The key to improving employee satisfaction, and growing productivity, is evolving from a leader-follower approach (where you tell people what to do) to a leader-leader approach (where people control their decision-making.
        3. To move to a leader-leader organization, you need to empower your team (including asking them how to empower them better) and encourage deliberate action where they vocalize what they are doing rather than ask what to do.

          4. This episode is also available as a blog post: http://lloydmelnick.com/2020/12/09/turn-your-company-around/

          6 min
        4. How bad profits can kill your company
          Key takeaways
          1. Bad profits are revenues earned at the expense of customer relationships.
          2. Examples include exorbitant airline change fees, unreasonable bank fees, and contracts that lock users into a bad experience.
          3. Bad profits, while boosting short-term numbers, reduce the lifetime value of customers and make them more likely to churn.

            4. This episode is also available as a blog post: http://lloydmelnick.com/2015/02/26/how-bad-profits-can-kills-your-company/

            3 min
          4. NPS is not just for customers
            Key takeaways
            1. Net Promoter Score (NPS), a great tool to measure customer satisfaction and create a user experience that generates higher growth, and it can also be applied to internal interactions between business units to enhance efficiency.
            2. Most companies simply measure internal efficiency by budget, with a lower budget implying higher efficiency even if it is not the optimal way of driving the business.
            3. NPS allows fast feedback and allows business units to uncover the root cause of issues.

              4. This episode is also available as a blog post: http://lloydmelnick.com/2016/11/09/nps-is-not-just-for-customers/

              3 min
            4. Maybe your competitors are not that smart after all
              Key takeaways
              • While it is important not to underestimate your competitors, you also should not consider them perfect.
              • Industry leaders often maintain their position due to certain core factors and their other initiatives can be flawed, do not assume everything they do is right.
              • Simply because a competitor decided to pass on an apparent opportunity does not mean they made the correct decision, they may have misjudged the opportunity and left an opening for you.

                • This episode is also available as a blog post: http://lloydmelnick.com/2016/12/07/maybe-your-competitors-are-not-that-smart-after-all/

                4 min
              • Try to be the dumbest person in the room
                Key takeaways
                • Rather than trying to sound the smartest at a meeting, you should aim to be the dumbest.
                • It is more important to surround yourself with great people who will bring performance to a level higher than any individual can achieve.
                • You not only need to get input from everyone but actually use the input to come up with better solutions than you are initially proposing.

                  • This episode is also available as a blog post: http://lloydmelnick.com/2016/05/25/try-to-be-the-dumbest-person-in-the-room/

                  5 min
                • Why Blue Ocean is actually the safe route
                  Key takeaways
                  1. While most agree that a Blue Ocean strategy has the highest long-term returns, many fear it is too risky to pursue from a personal career perspective.
                  2. The reality is that it is actually the less risky approach, as the underlying odds favor success via a Blue Ocean approach.
                  3. Given the challenges of trying to win in a competitive industry, finding an uncontested market and growing it is a less risky approach.

                    4. This episode is also available as a blog post: http://lloydmelnick.com/2016/03/30/why-blue-ocean-is-actually-the-safe-route/

                    5 min
                  4. Regaining churned players
                    Key takeaways
                    1. Given the increasing costs of acquiring new users and players, more emphasis should be placed on reactivating users who have lapsed.
                    2. Lapsed users are attractive targets as they already have shown an interest in your product, they are familiar with it and you can use their historical data to craft the best win-back proposition.
                    3. To run a successful reactivation campaign, you need to segment lapsed players by how likely they are to return, their value once they return, what offer is most likely to re-engage them and what win-back strategy will be most profitable.

                      4. This episode is also available as a blog post: http://lloydmelnick.com/2016/04/06/regaining-churned-players/

                      8 min
                    4. Branding is dead, long live Crowdculture
                      Key takeaways
                      • Most social media marketing is failing because of the outdated notion of creating branded content. Huge social advertisers, like Red Bull and Coke, fail to get a fraction of the mindshare of social media celebrities like PewDiePie.
                      • Crowdculture brings together enthusiasts and advocates of certain beliefs and interests through social media, disintermediating traditional entertainment.
                      • To brand effectively with social media, companies should target crowdcultures.
                      • Most brands chase after trends but hundreds of companies are doing exactly the same. By targeting novel ideologies flowing out of Crowdcultures, brands can assert a point of view that stands out in the overstuffed environment.

                        • This episode is also available as a blog post: http://lloydmelnick.com/2016/04/20/branding-is-dead-long-live-crowdculture/

                        10 min

                      About The Business of Social Games and Casino

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                      How to succeed in the mobile game space by Lloyd Melnick. Lloyd is a serial builder of businesses (senior leadership on three exits worth over $700 million), successful in big (Disney, Stars Group,…