TBWA\London Wins PlayOJO Task and Introduces Dancing Alpaca

PlayOJO, the multiple award-winning fair online casino, has appointed TBWA\London to develop its 2018 creative strategy after a competitive pitch against Crispin Porter + Bogusky and Brothers and Sisters.

PlayOJO is the fair casino because it is the very first operator in the online gambling industry to stand for transparency and honesty and not to have any unfair wagering requirements or match deposit bonuses that come with punishing terms and conditions. A challenger in its sector, the appointment was made after TBWA\London demonstrated a deep understanding of PlayOJO’s audience and business, whilst using the agency’s disruption approach to create a cut-through creative platform.

The resulting campaign – which comprises TV, radio and digital display – disrupts online casino marketing norms by breaking the category conventions of using male-skewed, glamourised advertising to instead simply show how PlayOJO stands for fairness. The campaign builds on PlayOJO’s successful 2017 launch campaign, which established the brand as the fair online casino. Aimed at people who like to play online casinos for entertainment as well as the thrill of winning, the new campaign demonstrates how the business is continuing to develop the OJO brand and further increase market share with a substantial investment in media.

TBWA\London’s strategy is based around the emotional benefits of inherent fairness. The result is a sad, lonely, depressed alpaca who is fed-up with being treated unfairly by other online casinos. But once he finds OJO, he gets his (M)OJO back and we see the exhilarating feeling of fairness, as interpreted through the medium of alpaca song and dance. The TV ad’s humour is further aided by a voice-over from Ewen MacIntosh, aka Keith from The Office.

PlayOJO’s Head of Brand Marketing, Peter Bennett, comments: “The chemistry with TBWA\London was there right from the get go. But more than that, we knew the agency’s disruptive approach to creative and strategy would help us clearly position our brand as the fair casino, in a way which helps break our category’s traditional advertising conventions and enables us to stand out more in a crowded market place. As a challenger brand, TBWA\London are exactly what we need.” TBWA\London’s CEO, Sara Tate, said: “Disruptive, entrepreneurial and challenging the category’s status quo, PlayOJO are a perfect match for our pirate-like approach. We’re looking forward to helping them change perceptions of how online casinos should operate.”

TBWA\London’s CCO, Andy Jex, added: “Until now ‘fair’ and ‘casino’ were two very uncomfortable bedfellows. So what better way to help OJO scream their point of difference, than by using two others – ‘alpaca’ and ‘dancing’.”