Blue Square Use Game Play For Acquisition and Loyalty

3RD sense today announce the re-launch of Blue Square's games domain - The Blue Bar, found at www.bluesq.com. The games were planned, managed and developed by 3rd sense for the interactive betting company. The re-launch follows on from the success of the last competition, which resulted in around half a million game plays in three months. Blue Square, now owned by Rank Group Plc, is continuously developing revenue generation opportunities and has found free to play games as a perfect 'drive to site'.

Chris Griggs, Content Manager at Blue Square believes games and most importantly the interaction involved in 'play', is a very effective communication device: 'It can be used to deliver specific commercial objectives and is at the centre of Blue Square's online strategy. The Blue Bar is designed to attract non-account holders to get them to open Blue Square accounts whilst increasing the frequency of current account holder visits'.

Colin Cardwell, Director at 3rd sense comments: 'Although Blue Square started out by using games to attract traffic, they have now developed a games strategy that sees 'play' as an integral part of their business development. 'Play' adds value by being both engaging and accountable.'

Following the success of the last Blue Bar competition, which was only open to existing customers, 3rd sense created a free games area alongside the main bluesq.com site that would be open to all. This more comprehensive games site operates as a 'holding area' where the sticky game content and compelling editorial keeps both customers and prospective customers exposed to the Blue Square brand for long periods of time where they can be prompted to bet or open accounts.

The strategy is to target 18 to 35 year old ABC1s with a series of four weekly competitions, each featuring different games. The first games are all retro arcade classics brought up to date with a Blue Square twist. Each of the four games goes live in turn to create more hype and curiosity, and there are prizes to be won for each featured game on a daily and weekly basis. All players have to register to play the full version of the games, but to win prizes they have to open a Blue Square account.

Cardwell explains: 'The biggest prizes go to the overall highest scores taken from all the games. This gives us a device to prompt repeat visits via a 'receive games updates' opt-in, but more valuably, means that players keep coming back to play.'

The success of The Blue Bar will be evaluated on the number of registrations to the games service and new customer accounts.

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