01 March 2010
Mecca binglo clicks with young players
In yesterday's Sunday Times, Matthew Goodman writes about how the redesign of Mecca's Full House clubs have had such a positive impact on their financial results.
Having been key to the strategy and redesign of the clubs, here at 20|20 we're always proud to see our clients getting such positive press as a result of our work.
The full article can be found here on the The Sunday Times Online or you can read it below:
Mecca binglo clicks with young playersBingo in the dark helps to draw crowds back to halls
It’s simple, explains Jay, the host for the evening at the Mecca bingo hall. “If you get a full house, you must come up and give me a hug.”
A few minutes later and Anne does exactly that. But her smile fades when Jay tells her she has broken the other cardinal rule of the game.
She has forgotten that to claim her prize she must daub her face and arms with ink from the pen bingo players use to mark their game cards.
The formalities out of the way, the “Binglets” — two young bingo callers dressed in luminous yellow and pink and with glowsticks in their hair — resume pulling coloured balls from the cage. “Stairway to heaven: 47,” intones Vanessa, one half of the duo, before reaching for another ball. “Your place or mine: 29.”
Welcome to binglo — the after-dark version of the game being introduced by Mecca, part of Rank, the gaming group. Designed to attract a younger crowd, it is one of several innovations introduced by Rank to reverse the decline in the bingo sector.
The smoking ban and tougher regulations on amusement machines have accelerated the deterioration of a pastime that has found life difficult since the introduction of the lottery in 1994. Bingo bosses have lobbied for tax changes to ease the burden, and while they scored a small concession from the Treasury, this was not enough to offset rises in bingo duty.
Change is essential if the industry is to have a future, and at Catford, southeast London, the players seem to like binglo. “It’s fun. It’s really different,” said Melissa, a 24-year old player, as her friend Nazine, 22, nods in agreement. Now she wants to bring along her mother from Southend.
Rank has been working on modernising the game for three years. That culminated in ventures such as binglo when Rank opened a new bingo hall in Beeston, near Nottingham, last May.
With greater attention paid to the food and drink, a more modern look and new games, bosses hoped the site would provide a template for the future. The venue proved a hit. Admission levels are two-thirds higher than at the average Mecca and the spend per head is 10% to 20% higher.
Last Thursday, at its annual results, Rank sounded an upbeat note about the trial, and said the new format was attracting new customers. The shares rose 6% on the day, although Matthew Gerard, analyst at Investec, wrote in a circular to clients the stock price “materially undervalues” the “turnround in bingo related to the [new format]”.
The big test will come as Rank inserts Beeston features elsewhere. In the past few weeks, two sites have been relaunched, at Oldbury, Birmingham, and at Catford.
The Full House sites, as they are dubbed by Rank, are divided in two by soundproof glass. One side is reserved for traditionalists, the other is where the more raucous version of the game is played, including a bar, amusement machines and, soon, wall-mounted televisions.
Admissions at Oldbury and Catford have surged since the changes — Rank declines to divulge specific figures — and the group sees scope to convert about half of its 103 sites.
Mark Jones, who joined Mecca as managing director last June, said there would be one more conversion to the new format, at Aberdeen. After that, the group will pause to assess the performance.
Rebuilding Catford cost £1m, although Jones hopes the cost of future conversions will be lower. “A small increase in admissions will pay for [the changes],” he said. “Once you turn the corner, you get into a virtuous circle.”
This is because the cash prizes at bingo grow in line with the number of players. And the bigger the prizes, the more people are likely to visit. Analyst reaction has been cautiously optimistic. Simon French of Panmure Gordon said: “We are encouraged by the initial improvement in the bingo product.”
Having achieved much by cost-cutting, Rank knows it needs to find ways to grow. It is making progress with its modern G Casino brand and hopes changes at Mecca will work. A sign of its new-found confidence was the decision last week to begin paying a dividend again after two years.
While the emphasis will be on converting 50 or so Mecca sites to the new format, the other half of the estate will not be forgotten. Jones said that while the remaining clubs do not lend themselves to large-scale remodelling, they will see more cosmetic changes. Refurbishing clubs that are not being converted to the new format will probably cost between £150,000 and £250,000 apiece, said Jones.
Further innovations are on the way. As well as binglo, Mecca is looking at everything from virtual snail racing to a Mecca’s Got Talent event. The company admits that it is early days, and that while the signs are encouraging, it is still a long way from a bingo renaissance. Jones and his colleagues just hope that their changes will start to clickety-click with customers.
