Sun Bingo - the online bingo arm of The Sun newspaper has brought in the marketing agency Wunderman to handle it’s social media campaign. The project which will begin immediately starting with a Christmas campaign to drive engagement on the site during a quiet period for bingo businesses.

Christmas is often a quiet period for the industry as family and work events provide plenty of social occasions to distract regulars from the bingo and social networks on the site. With tablet computers such as the iPad and apps for bingo on mobile phones becoming more popular, customers are now more likely to play whilst sat watching TV which is something The Sun will hope to capitalise on.

Although it may seem strange that a newspaper like The Sun would be interested in the online bingo market, things start to make a lot more sense when you stop and look at the facts. Online bingo has high levels of engagement because of the communities that build up when the users use the multitude of chat and social functions on their sites. This like Facebook, keeps users going back to the site and visiting multiple pages which is great for newspapers like The Sun to advertise on. Sites such as The Daily Mail where a community forms (in the comments) become highly profitable to advertisers.

Not only that but online bingo is becoming increasingly profitable with fans of the game moving away from the bingo halls to a more relaxed, convenient way of playing. The market is now becomingly increasingly saturated with the original brands such as Mecca and Gala competing with bookmakers such as Sky Bet and Paddy Power as well as charities, supermarkets and now newspapers! This has led to offshoot sites such as Two Big Ladies who find the best deals on these sites for their users.

This has meant the need to diversify and appeal to the bingo audience is becoming increasingly important. Paddy Power themselves have shown the power of social media, as their quick witted social accounts have led to a huge amount of success in the last 3-4 years. Paddy Power have had fellow bookmakers scrambling as they’ve begun to realise the potential of social media much later than that of the Irish business.

Twitter and Facebook will be the main areas of focus for Wunderman with other niche social sites such as Instagram and Snapchat typically used by younger generations. Facebook particularly will offer rich rewards to any bingo site which can build a large reputation on the site with Paddy Power showing it can be done with 1.3 million likes as it stands.