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READY FOR TAKE OFF
I have spent the last two weeks preparing for the Hero Poker's mainstream marketing launch. I wanted to update this blog sooner, but the feedback from LP.net as well as from another community site and my two months in the rakeback market wilderness has truly 'enlightened' me. In the last couple of months since launching Hero Poker, I feel that my path to 'poker start-up' enlightenment has been earned from getting my butt kicked every which way and how. I'm not going to hide the fact that I've always worked for big industry monster companies which had dominate market share and basically could put the best face forward to the customer by manhandling their business partners. It was in this paradise of corporate power did I fancy myself this uber business strategist and I, like some noble knight in shining armour decided that I could face the dragon alone. Needless to say, I'm gotten the beat down and while my expectations were fairly realistic in that this would be sick business challenge, I thought I would have worked things out by now, but I'm only just starting to understand what needs to be done.
GO BIG OR GO HOME
Now this may not sound very confident from a CEO from a new site, but I'm being honest and realistic about the process in that my goal/challenge isn't really that realistic. Hero Poker is a fitting name for a site that really does want to break into the top ten in three years, and we have basically 2 groups of tag lines associate with Hero Poker. One is: Be Epic. For that means to me, go big or go home. And then we have three quotes that really embody the site's player image.
"Nothing is impossible to him who will try"
Alexander the Great
"A person who never made a mistake, never tried anything new"
Albert Einstein
"Glory is Fleeting, but obscurity is forever"
Napoleon Bonaparte
I envisioned for what it means in relation to our 'brand':
1. No matter the challenge, go for it,
2. no matter how difficult it is, you can figure it out, and
3. it's worth it, even if it hurts/pains like a sonuvabitch.
In many respects, that's exactly how I feel about this company as well. I mean, I could simply turn my budget into a rakeback sponsoring budget, clear a certain amount and make a happy company based on the cash flow. Now is this a sustainable situation? Probably not for those skins starting now (likely sustainable for those who have been around for a few years now) but for the immediate future it's as sure as you're going to get.
GOING MAINSTREAM
So, now, after these couple of months, I feel I'm actually ready to engage in the mainstream marketing of Hero Poker to a single market; so you may be asking, why then put yourself through the last couple of months if you were going to do mainstream marketing anyway? There is a couple of reasons for that, the first being that I wanted to understand everything there was to know about running a network site. No matter what assumptions I had about it, the reality proved to be far more complex and difficult to contend with. Also a part of that was giving myself time to adjust myself to running a 'start-up'. To just come in guns blazing and firing on all marketing cylinders and spending like crazy would have been counter productive, because the 'realities' of running a network site, which is limited by liquidity and to be frank, the product itself. So, lets say I did manage to get 10,000 people to check out and sign up on Hero Poker in one month, and that is definitely possible when you have the right marketing channels. How many are really going to stay?
MAKE A STAND
The second point was really being able to say that I know what Hero Poker really represents and whether or not people can at least understand where we stand in comparison to other sites. It's one thing to go out there and say, 'yes, we represent THIS to poker players' and its an entirely different thing for player to actually acknowledge or agree with that. If you read back through my blog, I take a stand that I want to be the best boutique service site out there, that yes, the player can speak with the CEO and the CEO is going to be as honest and out there as possible. Not cause I want to be Dana White and have the spotlight (although personally I think he does very deliberately act the way he does because he is trying to be real-and while not always agreeable- he has done an exceptional job), it's because I remember when I did run a live card room in Macau and while it was an absolutely beautiful and wonderful room, it was not in a high traffic area. And by force of will alone, we kept that room alive, until the point where I was able to move it where it is now as one of the grandest rooms in Macau and I'd say Asia. There were days where I just wouldn't leave and sometimes there was a great cash game going on and I just wanted to stay to make sure that these few players that we had were happy.
NEVER WORK FOR 2nd PLACE
But the time we moved location, I simply knew what we needed to do at our live poker room to make it simply the best-because even when we where the most down at the first place, I never thought my product wasn't good enough or that it was good enough just to survive. I felt as though, I'm here, and if I'm going to be here, then damn it, it's going to work some way or how. Ironically, we did leave when I had figured out all the things we needed to do to really be successful because of the experience of running the room when only the effective/efficient things would work. After all, we didn't have growth or huge foot traffic to gloss over whatever wasn't really contributing to our success and I wouldn't have had the guts to move the room to the new location if I didn't think I knew how to really run the room.
In the same way, I've been preparing this mainstream launch now for the last couple of weeks, but it wasn't until last week where each and every component started to make sense in how they all work together because all mainstream marketing does is bring lots of people to your site and in this regards I am a class A grade monster. I don't need any lessons in how to make an advertisement, the copy, where my SEO (search engine optimization) is lacking, or negotiating agreements with casinos or marketing channels. Hell, I was one of the primary people that legalized poker in Macau and started the poker boom in Asia and I never failed because I wouldn't let my projects fail. But for all the bravado and all the past accomplishments and glory, how applicable were my skills for a new network site which wasn't the biggest poker site in the world?
GETTING STARTED CORPORATE style
Now, I didn't decide one day I'm going to resign from my old job and start a network site, the opportunity came through the new industry that I was 'trying' to get involved with and I realized that I did enjoy the poker industry and while this wasn't the most highest profile challenge, it was the biggest challenge for me on so many levels. And so when I got the initial ok to do this project, I researched and I have to say, I love Merge Network. I thought they have every potential to make it and I think the management and staff are really top-notch and I thought, this is a network that I can grow with. Now of course, that is only from a business management point of view, in terms of where the business is at, well, it is what it is, for now. But, it was obvious that for me to simply do as I did at my previous industry role wasn't going to cut it and the thing is, there isn't any silver bullet that is going to turn a site like Hero Poker into a top 10 site in year or two.
GOOD TO GREAT FTW
There is this seminal industry business book called , 'Good to Great'; every single top CEO and management consultant has read this book and I've probably read it about 4 times cover to cover and have two copies in my home and I have bought this book for nearly every one of my junior executive staff (the ones that had potential lol). I won't get into the details, but it filled with seemingly simple concepts, but was extremely ground breaking when it came out. I'd venture to say, if you don't have a lot of business experience, you simply won't get the impact of it. But to get to the point, the author, Jim Collins, talks about these micro steps that eventually bring a company to a point where there is a critical turning point of growth or development. To the competing companies, it seems as though the choice made by the 'subject company' was extremely radical and game changing. But internally, the turning point/critical decision was simply an undeniable fact/action that needed to be taken, because they had taken these small but constant and deliberate steps to really fully understand their business and competitive position. In the end, no matter how difficult the decision seemed to be, it was clear it was the only obvious step to take because they had already exhausted every point of progress up to that point.
In the same way, I've been taking a lot of small steps, and I wouldn't say baby steps. I had made the decision to launch at the Aussie Millions this past year, not because we were ready for mainstream marketing or that I had figured things out, but that I needed to ensure people knew that we weren't going to just another skin on a rakeback network, that we has aspirations for more, but also that I needed our marketing to hit above our weight class. So getting my pros to Melbourne and getting a film crew down there and just participating in the Aussie Millions, well it was helluva expensive and it was expensive because it wasn't used as a PR marketing ploy to generate awareness of our site and sign ups, but rather to set the tone of company. For the short term, very negative EV, the money spent there, damn, I could have really had a freeroll on P5s that would have been legendary in it's proportions. But as an investment in where our company stands, a really essential business move. And some people in the industry expected me to follow that up with some other massive spends and suddenly have my pros fly into every major tournament and negotiate for my players to play on High Stakes poker as I was fielding calls from poker player agencies. But instead I joined two poker communities to blog. In many respects, wanted to get some 'street cred' and I knew if I could earn it from some regs, then I thought I'd be at least pointed in the right direction. What had bothered me after the Aussie Millions was that I didn't have a clear path in my head, and it wasn't because I hadn't tried to figure it out, it's just that I couldn't figure it out. I just didn't have the experience or the exposure to separate my assumptions from what really would work with Hero Poker.
STRATEGY ANYONE?
When you're a management consultant, you're expected to be an expert in any new industry in about 5 days, enough to have an intelligent conversation with the CEO. So you end up talking with some managers who have been in the industry for the last 20 years and they look at you as if you're some kind of joke, after all, 'how the hell is this kid gonna tell me how things work in this industry?' The first thing is that we still have no idea what is really going on until we do the site visit, when the experience of that career manager, links the associations between everything we've learned and flushes out the key drivers and core/essential factors and allows the consultant this clear picture of what is really going on. Then we turn around and (if we aren't hacks) and we focus our energies to then think of ways to manage the growth of the company or maximize gains or side step the competition. The reason why we can do this is because were aren't focused on the business operation on how things actually get done, rather, we're focused on the strategy of where the company is going and how to get there. We just need to know the industry well enough to know what are the key drivers that can be adjusted and in what order of process and effect. Strategy isn't something that is reset or dealt with every day, it actually has a very limited and specific role in any organization or activity, you generally don't make strategy on the fly or as a middle manager ever really deal with it at any significant level.
I don't need to actually make a rakeback affiliate network to really understand how my company can grow into being a mainstream network site. I don't need to put my site on every single rakeback affiliate out there, but I did need to really understand why and how it works and what that really signifies for a network based site. But thanks to LP.net and the other community site, I can see what needs to be done, when and in what order. Now I'm not going to share that on this blog entry, the knowledge and insight gained has been paid with a lot of sleepless nights. But as Rekrul, tends to say, I'm ready to Monster it.
Our first promotion on Liquid Poker is going to be called 'Zero to Hero: The Road to Greatness' and I'm just finishing it up and it's going to be my main promotional contribution to LP.net moving forward and if you are a new player ready take your bankroll to the next level, it will 'be epic'. Or else I'm really gonna have to go back to the drawing board here.
But, from the 'free roll thread' on LP, I've definitely learn quite a bit and hope to show that quite soon. At this point, it is clear that a freeroll isn't going to be attractive for many of you, but I'm going to make a new format and lets hope the twist on it will make it something special.
Thanks LP.net for being real, I'm just trying to walk the walk.
Cheers,
David
Hero Poker CEO
SUMMARY
-Going to Start Mainstream Marketing
-Why I didn't before is that I needed to establish the core values and services of the brand
-Also, even if I can monster the Mainstream Marketing, what would be the rate of retention
-Once I figured out where my company stood in terms of how the toughest consumers would see it as
-Then I am now ready to go into the mainstream market and start unloading my marketing dollars
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Zep United States. Apr 11 2011 22:34. Posts 2292 | | | |
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| NeillyJQ: I really wanted to prove to myself I could beat NL200, I did over a small sample, and believe Ill be crushing there in the future. | |
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Arirang Canada. Apr 12 2011 00:09. Posts 1673 | | |
Jesus..Good to Great.. I remember reading it for communications class or w/e. Something about how people are satisfied with being good, but don't make that push for being really great ._.
Cliffs please!! -_-;; |
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whamm! Albania. Apr 12 2011 01:25. Posts 11625 | | | |
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Arirang Canada. Apr 12 2011 01:37. Posts 1673 | | |
Do poker sites come into contact with any of advertising agencies (such as that of Ogilvy, StrawberryFrog, DBB)? |
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Silver_nz New Zealand. Apr 12 2011 04:41. Posts 5647 | | |
Whoops wrong button!
I did read it though, some good perspective on your marketing thoughts, would read again.
Maybe next tell us about how to find or build good underlings, and how to find the right lawyers/accountants/contractors!
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hoylemj United States. Apr 12 2011 04:57. Posts 840 | | |
here are a couple ideas for a new site
1) regarding rake: Most sites charge more rake than they need to. Some sites give back with rake-back, some with bonuses, some with Lamborghini tournaments, etc, etc, and of course, a combination of these. A platform that would attract more traffic would be to offer explicit rake-back for ALL players, even if you are charging a very standard amount of rake (though you could still keep it a bit lower). It is an instant reward and also seems more like a gift.
2) Also to attract players and to make up for having lower rake rates, you could have some type of lottery system built into the software - maybe different level/stakes or something, where ppl could just straight up gamble - with restrictions and limitations, etc. |
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iop Sweden. Apr 12 2011 07:16. Posts 4951 | | |
Out of curiosity, how many people work full time for Hero Poker? |
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| Milkman lol i didnt spend half a thousand on a phone so i could play it cool and be all stealth | |
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k4ir0s Canada. Apr 13 2011 05:22. Posts 3478 | | |
has the rekrul interview been posted yet? :O |
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| I dont know what a dt drop is. Is it a wrestling move? -Oly | |
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| | On April 12 2011 00:25 whamm! wrote:
cliffs = summary
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It is actually my error I put in after as an edit.
Cheers,
David |
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| | On April 12 2011 00:37 Arirang wrote:
Do poker sites come into contact with any of advertising agencies (such as that of Ogilvy, StrawberryFrog, DBB)? |
Generally not with firms of that level,
#1 costing and that the poker sites themselves have a more established network of poker only marketing channels
#2 making an advertisement copy for poker is either very simple or complex, but it always requires that the ad agency really understand the game of poker or else they completely miss the real driving point of the copy, so a niche ad agency that can really make you a top client is preferable- I believe FT uses an ad agency
#3 legality issues, other than regulated markets, a top PR firm would be more useful than a top Advert agency, simply because there are always a lot of restrictions when it comes to mainstream advertisement channels such as wording and of course the entire dot net and dot com issue (free play money and real money),
But in regulated markets, the poker site would likely use a top local marketing firm.
Cheers,
David |
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| | On April 12 2011 06:16 iop wrote:
Out of curiosity, how many people work full time for Hero Poker? |
Sorry for the late reply, not avoiding the question,
just came into Tokyo for the last few days and enjoyed a my first two welcome to Tokyo earthquakes.
This is actually a very sensitive competitive question,
so I am going to answer it as much as I can without screwing myself.
But a few points to qualify,
1. I only hired the best in the industry who were freelancers at the time,
so from my time at PS, I knew exactly who I wanted in the industry,
of course I did not get anyone from PS due non compete issues as well as it was/is not my intent to screw up things at my old company.
But each of the people I have on, are really the best in their respective/markets and fields.
2. My fulltime team further outsources to their own contacts/teams.
So basically these guys are on a salary, but who they contract out work to are not,
how it works is, they submit a budget for a project or task,
I review it, approve it,
they invoice me for that cost, at cost, plus their salaries.
So total full-time team:
Regional marketing team: 4
Designer and Creative: 1
Project Manager & Head progammer: 1
Social Marketing Media Coodinator: 1
Video Media Producer: 1
So including me 9 full time staff and we have 1 full time consultant and 3 part-time marketing consultants.
If you included our Team Pros that is an additional 6
plus 1 more regional pro and 1 celebrity pro that will be announced.
Most of the work they are doing is focused on our up coming mainstream push,
but again, my staff is pretty much the cream of the crop of the industry,
and they have joined on board because I give them a lot of freedom to really work they way they want to,
meaning that they are very passionate about their jobs, but previously had a lot of restrictions on what they could and could not do,
but as a starting up company, they are more involved in the actual direction of the company and brand,
and for them, this was a very appealing point.
In terms of affiliates, marketing and corporate strategy, investor relations and administration, I handle that all;
I actually had a dinner recently with a couple of close friends of mine and they said, that I should staff up more
to help with my own duties or get a PA. I agreed with them, while I did exactly know where to recruit my A Team for operations,
for the business strategy and marketing side, it is not possible to find someone at that level. So I would have to spend a lot of time training up right now,
and I simply do not have the time for it, and also I wanted to force myself to be as hands on as possible because I did not want to miss any points or details here.
That being said, its times when I need to fly to meeting or in general transit,
which really disrupt the flow of my work, such as responding to posts in the community.
But I am likely to staff up by the end of the year for 2012, I have already gotten some resumes towards that end,
all of them require a lot of training even though their background is strong, but for now,
the amount of staff I have is perfect as we launch the company, again, I do not really like to use the word "start-up"
but the reality is that to launch this business properly I would say having gotten the best specialists was better than simply centralizing everything and staffing up that way.
I may need to edit this later if I review it and it is a bit too much information,
but I will leave it out there for now.
But if anyone is interested in getting into the poker industry, then PM first and I:ll send you my email to send through a CV;
again, likely not going to staff up after the start of 2012, but if you are interested then let me know.
Cheers,
David
HeroPokerCEO
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| | On April 13 2011 04:22 k4ir0s wrote:
has the rekrul interview been posted yet? :O |
Sorry, had to visit Japan for a brief trip this week and then I am in Macau, so the interview will be postponed until sometime next week.
Cheers,
David |
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