Are you poker?

Posted on | February 8, 2012 | 4 Comments

In their new ad campaign Pokerstars raises the stakes by making the claim: “we are poker”.
Is that a legit claim? And if so, do the ads make the claim justice? These are the questions answered in this short review of the campaign based on the ads I have seen.

To reach the point where your brand is identifiable as the product or service it provides is one of the ultimate goals of a business. Have a coke. Google it! That sort of thing. A true testament to you market dominance reached by few. And Pokerstars is definitely on that path. Sortof.

On December 15, Alun @Poker_Hack Bowden, the Editor of Inside Poker Business tweeted “Pokerstars = Online Poker?” after having looked up google trend graphs for “Pokerstars and “poker”. And you don’t have to search further than to Pokerscout.com in order to realize what a massive market leader Pokerstars is in the real money online poker segment. They have clout. They have the reputation. They have the track record. They have, in my opinion, earned the right to make bold claims. But how bold exactly?

Alex Payne, Pokerstars’ Chief Marketing Officer, explained the campaign in a recent post on the Pokerstars Corporate blog:

“the ads introduce the phrase ‘We are Poker,’ which serves as an anthem for the millions of people around the world who enjoy poker in its many incarnations.”

Is Pokerstars grasping for more than they can carry? “In its many incarnations…” in its many incarnations Pokerstars is not poker. It’s barely online poker. It is not poker for the many people who play in jurisdictions where Pokerstars is not a factor. It is not poker for the many people who enjoy the game on a small scale in local casinos or even on a larger scale in casino. Just last night in an interview with @agentmarco on Quadjacks radio, the great WSOP Communications Director Seth @wsoprguy Palansky, talked about how few (10-20% was his guess if I can remember it correctly – please correct me) of the players at the WSOP he thought (have) had online poker accounts.
And Pokerstars it is certainly not poker for the millions and millions who prefer to play it for free and for nothing on social platforms.
All of Pokerstars’ tours are big and successful. But the WSOP is bigger. Pokerstars’ MAU numbers are so impressive. But can’t match those of Zynga Poker.
It’s a bit like Toyota claiming that they are cars. They are a ton of cars. But they are laps behind on the F1 tracks.

On the other hand, for those who are in Pokerstars real money target group, it is a legit claim. Just like many iPhone worshippers would argue that Apple is smartphones, Spotify users would claim Spotify is online music listening (or whatever – I’m not a user), for Pokerstars’s loyal and dedicated user base, Pokertars is poker. They’d almost rather quit than play elsewhere.

So I think perhaps my hang-up on the scope of the claim stems mostly from a general pet peeve with people blending, mixing and confusing “poker” with “online poker” as if the two are inseparable sides of the same game which I don’t think they are.

To sum up: can Pokerstars claim to be poker. Yeah, maybe. I might buy that claim. But I don’t buy the execution.

If you are poker, why have you turned it into this dressed-up, artificially enhanced, out of place, product disoriented, overly hyped  experience?

This is poker as viewed through a distortion filter bought at MGM studios. It is poker wrapped up in an Alice in Wonderland like fairy tale and presented by a fashion model. This is poker through the eyes of an ad agency whose total experience of poker amounts to watching Rounders and having been in Vegas once. The fact that Alex Payne claims that this is the work of Pokerstars own internal agency stuns me.

In this day and age where customers and brands are interacting more closely; communicating more directly and bonding on a more intimate level than before, keeping it real is vital.
Playing poker on the streets of Rio de Janeiro with 500 people watching isn’t keeping it real.
I obviously see what Pokerstars are going for here. They are trying to capture the myriad of strong emotions in play when the cards are in the air and the heat is on. But where Full Tilt were good at doing this right by never straying far from situations, moments and actions that happen at poker tables every day, Pokerstars gets it wrong. Pokerstars are trying to connect to all of us who have experienced the stress, the sense of loss, the joy, the glee and the despair of playing poker. But how can I feel that connection when the settings and the staging is so alien?

Oh, so that’s how Elky plays his games. Right.

Disconnection is a word that sums up this campaign quite well. It is disconnected from the playing reality of the masses it is addressing. As I said earlier, the message necessarily isn’t, but the execution is .Just because poker has a dirty and lonely legacy that online poker has so far failed to shed, doesn’t mean that it can’t. But an adman can’t change that. Not like this.

The reason why my favorite Pokerstars ad campaign is the cut-to-the-core “I want to be world champion” one for the WCOOP is because it doesn’t fabricate. A lot of people from different walks of life do play in the WCOOP. And all of them legitimately dream of winning it. Sitting in the dark. Hoping wishing, praying, folding. Here, Pokerstars seem to have caved to the fact that poker isn’t always beautiful. So they decided to stash away the dirty laundry.  
That’s not keeping it real.

Disconnection is also relevant because the ads almost entirely neglect the actual core product – online poker. While I definitely feel it is possible market online poker in a million different ways that doesn’t include displaying actual gameplay and such; when the claim is “we are poker” it is essential that ads are firmly grounded in familiar territory. Otherwise they can never reach out without losing their footing. And for those who would potentially be willing to perceive Pokerstars as poker, that familiar territory is online poker. I decided to watch one of the ads with audio off. When I did, it felt like an energy drink commercial.

I see nothing wrong in trying to celebrate, embrace and creatively interpret the more glorious side of the adrenaline pumped soul of the game of poker. But if you want to make such a bold claim as “we are poker” you have to own it all. You can’t cherry pick. You can leave out the dull grinding. The questionable behavior in pursuit of profit. The one cent tables.  The bots. The addiction. The first $5 Sit & Go win. The play money players. The cashout issues. The profanities. The long nights spent finishing 17^th.  The basement conference halls that house most EPT stops. The bad bankroll decisions.

I’ve played on Pokerstars since like 2002. I’ve been in the industry since 2004. Pokerstars does a fine job of representing the game. But these ads don’t. Even though I don’t play much at the moment, I always feel at home at Pokerstars. I long for the tingle to play, for the little devil on my shoulder to tell me I have somehow magically improved since the last time I played like a douche.
These ads don’t do it for me. And if you are poker and you are talking to me, they should.
For I am poker.

Score:

Lacking heart and definitely costly

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