Bingo Association

Eyes down for a new bingo industry magazine

The challenge

When we were asked to pitch for the Bingo Association’s membership magazine in 2019 its format at that time felt more like a journal than an engaging industry magazine.

Lack of visual impact: The magazine’s formulaic layouts and text-heavy pages weren’t capturing the excitement, community, and entertainment value intrinsic to modern bingo clubs.
Engagement drop-off: We learned that members and stakeholders were skimming rather than actively reading through the content. This meant that as well as the Association’s editorial content potentially not being absorbed and acted upon, partner companies also weren’t benefiting from a fully engaged audience.

Fixed budget: We have 25 years of helping our trade associations and membership organisation clients maximise the finite resources available to them, by ensuring that whatever the size of marketing budget, it is invested to achieve the set goals and gain the maximum level of member engagement possible.

Our approach

Improving the design

Our aim was to inject extra excitement and greater impact into the publication through the creation of new, adaptable templates, the introduction of a new colour palette and new page furniture. In short, we wanted it to represent what the land-based bingo industry was transforming into, rather than what it had been – without forgetting its heritage.

Revised design:Working closely with the new editor and the client we designed and executed a more spacious, magazine-style grid layout. This included larger, high-quality imagery (showcasing club refurbishments and events) dynamic pull quotes, and allowed for multiple layouts within the grid. This was enabled by increasing the physical size of the publication to a standard A4, maintaining the same pagination at no additional cost.
Refining the content mix:Following round table discussions we expanded the content. This greater breadth of content meant that we were able to retain the interest of readers, from serious industry topics, such as lobbying and regulatory updates, to vibrant member profiles, partner developments, community charity achievements, and engaging photo spreads.
Modern Typography:We created a new font library combining both serif and sans-serif, introducing new, bold fonts to create a punchy, contemporary feel to elevate the brand.

Meeting the budget

We agreed a fixed fee for the magazine’s production that was within budget for the design & artwork, print, fulfilment & mailing, with Rubicon also taking on the advertising sales function.

The results

With all key stakeholders having signed off on the changes, the launch issue of the newly named Bingo Connect magazine was all set to go, with the first issue due to be printed and mailed out to members in the spring of 2020. Just as all of the bingo halls – and most everything else closed due to the pandemic. Unable to print, the decision was made to publish a digital version of the magazine to email, which was soon supplemented by a dedicated website which enables more up to date news to be published in between the printed issues.

Elevated Brand Prestige: The client (The Bingo Association) commented that they felt they now had a magazine that matched their aspirations for the industry, with a premium publication that members are proud to display in their clubs and share online.
Increased Engagement: Research showed that members were in favour of the new magazine, with comments including: “Visually, it’s a much stronger design that I now read cover to cover”, and “That’s more like it!”
Reflecting the Membership: The magazine now better aligned with the rapidly changing, high-tech redesigns many land-based bingo operators were rolling out across their venues.

Meeting advertiser needs: The new magazine also met with the approval of those companies who sell in their products and services to the members, benefitting from the greater engagement and readership the new magazine had achieved, which saw an increase in both revenues and loyalty.