SBC News Gordon MacSween - Captive Media - #Bofcon 2016

Gordon MacSween – Captive Media – #Bofcon 2016

Captive Media is an award winning advertising platform founded in 2007.  It also claims the title of being the only one able to near guarantee the undivided attention of men for a minute during major sports events. This is due to their focus on interactive washroom based advertising. 

The company has worked with a host of major brands including Guinness, Betsafe, Beats Dr. Dre, Captain Morgan and Universal Pictures.

Gordon MacSween, Captive Media
Gordon MacSween, Captive Media

Gordon MacSween is CEO and one of three directors at Captive and he spoke to SBC to discuss standing out, UK expansion and why they wanted to get involved as a sponsor of #bofcon.

SBC: What’s the most important thing for operators to get right ahead of Euro 2016, and what’s the most challenging aspect of major international competitions such as this?

Gordon: Stand-out. We are seeing more requests for Euro 2016 briefs than for the last World Cup. As such we can make the reasonable assumption that there is going to be a lot of noise from betting brands.  Hence the most important thing will be to find a way of being different, and to stand out from the rest.

SBC: How important is the sport of football to your business?

Gordon: We have run several campaigns with themed and branded football games, but we’ve done the same during major rugby, cricket, tennis and racing events as well as the UK election.

Football is the No.1 mainly because it’s the biggest sport in betting – so is a good fit for our network of screens in UK sports bars.

SBC: What effect will the major mergers of recent times have this year, if any?

Gordon: Those which have preserved the two brands involved – like Paddy Power and Betfair – have limited long-term impact, since the brands retain their own marketing strategies.  The only immediate effect we’ve seen has been the inevitable delay in decisions, which follows most corporate mergers like these.

SBC: What does 2016 have in-store for you?

Gordon: We are building on successful campaigns from 2015, like those for Anthony Nolan and Betfair, and focusing on three main areas – betting, entertainment and male grooming. We are currently raising funds on Seedrs and this is happening a lot faster than we expected. We plan to start expanding our UK network from its current 150 screens towards an end-game of 1,500.

SBC: Why did you choose to become a sponsor of this year’s #bofcon?

Gordon:  I attended the event last year and liked the one day format, the high proportion of operators in the audience and the format of short talks interspersed with networking.  

Since then we’ve developed our offering for betting operators, so I was keen to be more actively involved this year!

SBC: Euro 2016 – who’s going to win, who’s going to shine and who’s going to slump?

Gordon: All I can say to that is that, sadly, it won’t be Scotland!

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