Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Home Broadband Adoption 2009

CM Comment: Broadband Internet continues to penetrate deeper into core casino demographic groups.

June 17, 2009: summarized from Pew Internet & American Life Project -- Home broadband adoption stood at 63% of adult Americans as of April 2009, up from 55% in May 2008. The greatest growth in broadband adoption in the past year has taken place among population subgroups which have below average usage rates. Among them:

- Senior citizens: Broadband usage among adults ages 65 or older grew from 19% in May 2008 to 30% in April 2009.

- Low-income Americans: Two groups of low-income Americans saw strong broadband growth from 2008 to 2009: First, respondents living in households whose annual household income is $20,000 or less saw broadband adoption grow from 25% in 2008 to 35% in 2009. Second, respondents living in households whose annual incomes are between $20,000 and $30,000 annually experienced a growth in broadband penetration from 42% to 53%.Overall, respondents reporting that they live in homes with annual household incomes below $30,000 experienced a 34% growth in home broadband adoption from 2008 to 2009.

- High-school graduates: Among adults whose highest level of educational attainment is a high school degree, broadband adoption grew from 40% in 2008 to 52% in 2009.

- Older baby boomers: Among adults ages 50-64, broadband usage increased from 50% in 2008 to 61% in 2009.

- Rural Americans: Adults living in rural America had home high-speed usage grow from 38% in 2008 to 46% in 2009.

Read more at: http://tinyurl.com/llsprg

Pinnacle Entertainment Launches River City Casino Website

June 16, 2009: summarized from PRNewswire-FirstCall -- Pinnacle Entertainment, Inc. has launched the property website for River City Casino, the St. Louis region's newest entertainment destination expected to open in the first quarter of 2010.

The property website, located at www.therivercitycasino.com, currently features River City-related news, community relations information, a special section for potential vendors to register for future business opportunities, and a link to the live project webcam. Website visitors are also encouraged to sign up for the River City Casino email list to receive project updates and special offers as they become available. In addition, detailed fact sheets are available for download in the media center and artist renderings are available by request.

Read more at: http://tinyurl.com/lnl4mr

Changing Roles Within Direct Marketing

CM Comment: Clearly a trend worth monitoring.

June 23, 2009: summarized from EmailInsider -- There are currently two big shifts going on in the direct marketing world that affect email marketers: the decline of direct mail and the rise of social media.

The current recession has accelerated the shift to digital media and marketing. Recently, Borrell Associates predicted that advertising revenue from direct mail is expected to plunge 39% by 2013. Email was singled out as the key beneficiary of direct mail's decline.

While there are certainly macro forces at work behind direct mail's decline and is value in retaining workers with long-term experience with your brand, it's vital to recognize that direct mail experts lack many skills necessary to be successful at email marketing.

1. Designing an email involves knowing how inbox providers render CSS and HTML, dealing with situations where images aren't enabled, and designing for preview panes and mobile devices.

2. Running an email program involves much more segmentation. "Batch and blast" is a recipe for subscriber revolt and delivery disaster.

3. Email subscribers can more easily punish marketers that abuse their time with irrelevant messages by hitting the "report spam" button. Annoy enough subscribers and you will be blocked by ISPs and have difficulties delivering your messages to even those subscribers who want them.

4. The success of a direct mail campaign is determined by a very different set of metrics than that used to measure the success of an email campaign.

A direct mail approach to email marketing can ruin your program, so make sure that any transfers are properly educated and play a secondary role until they're fully up to speed. Conferences, webinars, vendor education programs, industry publications and blogs play a critical role in the continuing education of email marketers. Make sure that even your seasoned email experts are given the time and budget to keep up to date with the ever-changing email landscape.

Read more at: http://tinyurl.com/nvh3d3

Viejas Casino Launches New Website

June 18, 2009: summarized from Business Wire -- Viejas Casino (www.viejas.com) announced the launch of its new website. The site, launched this month, was designed with Viejas guests in mind. The new site offers an easily navigated gateway to all of the Viejas promotions and events, entertainment, shopping and restaurants. New features have been built into the previous award-winning site, to provide enhanced information and to acquaint our visitors with our great time, great value opportunities.

Read more at: http://tinyurl.com/mkw5ep