Quote: wrencat1873 "
Btw, I apologise in advance for the above, which is not meant to cause offence, merely to demonstrate that there should be plenty of companies in these categories that may wish to advertise to RL fans.
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You're right, there are plenty of companies that would like to tap into that market. The problem is that they can generate a much better return on investment by advertising in areas other than TV or sports sponsorship.
The audience you describe there is attractive to certain companies, but that audience's spending power is naturally limited. Forgive the y marketing terms, but those companies look for a "lifetime value" in their new customers, and that sort of audience usually comes at the bottom end of the scale. That means that there is a much bigger drive to reduce advertising costs to that group and focus on more acquisition-focused media, such as digital. A payday lender or an online dating site can reach our demographic for less than £50 per thousand with the right creative in the right place.
One of the reasons RL (and sport in general) is so attractive to bookmakers and casino brands is because they are largely excluded from those cheaper forms of advertising. Bookmaking advertising, for example, is highly restricted on Google and is so heavily controlled on Facebook that it may as well be banned.
Again, at the risk of going too deeply into this, there's an iceberg up ahead called Sky AdSmart. It's rolling out en-mass next year and it will help Sky to much better understand how valuable certain audiences and pieces of content are to certain advertisers. I don't think it's going to be a good thing for RL.
