The SiGMA marketing machine behind high-impact events | Lauranne Urban | iGaming Real Talk

One of the biggest mistakes that marketers make is to assume professionals are only on LinkedIn. It's hard to get everyone aligned. Unless you have a structure, you have a process and you have a system. It's all about intention and hard work. If you want to succeed, you will succeed. I would say like Coca-Cola, we managed to have our own secret recipe to coordinate marketing at SiGMA. I saw very often on socials people saying SiGMA is doing aggressive marketing.

I mean, we are doing marketing for events. Every marketer wants to do that. I haven't seen anyone in the industry capable of producing, editing and publishing as fast as we do.

Wow.

Yes. Yes. It's a marketing machine.

iGaming Real Talk is launching a new interview series from SiGMA South America. The event has matured into a perfect melting point for business in Brazil and also the Latin American market. In two days we have had conversations with leaders and experts from mature businesses in LatAm and Brazil, and we talked about the regulation as well as the state of the market in Brazil after regulation. This series is brought to you by Evo.

They offer custom crypto casino source code so that you can launch your crypto casino the way you want it and have full control over your margins and the product. This series is also brought to you by Blokotech, which is your go-to platform provider for the LatAm market. The Blokotech Parallel Tour, sponsored by SiGMA, also brings together the global iGaming community with sport, fun and competition across some of the events. Hello and welcome back to iGaming Real Talk.

We are here at SiGMA São Paulo in Brazil. This is day two and I have Lauranne with me, who is someone that I have known for a very long time. We also worked together, I think for a little bit.

Yes, you were actually my mentor when I started.

It's a long way back. You know, when was it? I don't even remember the year.

Five years and a half, something like that.

Yeah. I mean, this is what I also wanted to start off with. Like when I was there, Lauranne started as an intern and she has been the CMO of SiGMA Group, which has a lot of brands and a lot of events right now. I think seven events.

Almost eight, because next year we also have Malta on top.

Wow. So seven events this year, eight events next year. I'm just really inspired to have Lauranne here as well as cover her journey as well as the story and the marketing at SiGMA really. So, Lauranne, welcome.

Thank you very much for the invite. First of all, I wasn't exactly a marketing intern, but yes, I was in the...

Oh, yes. I remember you were also working in the sales.

I was. Yes, but I came in a linguistic internship program actually. But before SiGMA, I had my master's degree in marketing and I worked four years for an industry in automotive in France.

Totally different.

Totally different. But in B2B. So it means I was already in the B2B marketing industry. So before SiGMA, yes, I did that.

The other thing is I just love your accent. Maybe it's French.

It is. And it's actually how we connected with SiGMA, because at some point after four years in the French group, I quickly understood that I will not learn English if I stay in France in a French group. And it's how it all started with SiGMA. They needed a marketer, I needed to work on my English, and we met like that. Yes, they gave me the opportunity and I'm really grateful for that.

And as I was saying to you before, I think what makes SiGMA strong today is being led by a founder who really doesn't care about your age, your gender, your language barrier, and only ambition, hard work and skills matter. And this is how I got the opportunity. Now it's been five years and a half and I'm super grateful for that.

It's amazing to hear the story, because I have known others as well who've been part of the SiGMA group and who have started in a similar way including myself. I was going from country to country in Europe trying to find opportunity. It was very difficult for a non-EU citizen like me. But as soon as I landed in Malta, I mean SiGMA accepted me with open arms.

Yes.

And then obviously it defined my career and my life and where I am today. So it makes sense what you're saying because I kind of also relate and resonate to similar things that happened.

We always stick around. Like we started at SiGMA, we were dozens of people, now hundreds. You are still with us. We are still connecting together. Like we really create strong relationships even if you are a partner or an employee.

Yeah.

We are always in contact with our previous employees. We're still working with them.

How has the experience been so far? Like how has the group changed since 2019 to now, before COVID went through a lot of changes as well?

The experience working at SiGMA? Crazy. There is not a single day where I'm not learning something new, and that's why as well it's been five years and a half and I enjoy every single day because I grew with the company and we grow so much.

How big is your team now?

The marketing team? It's a marketing machine of 100 people.

100 people only in the marketing team?

In the what we call the creative department. Yes. We are actually a 360 integrated marketing company. Yes. Not only an event company. Because if you look at it, events are offline marketing. So our main product is to offer our clients an offline marketing experience. But on top of that, we also need to do our own marketing and grow our own brand awareness. And to do both, our products and also our own promotions, we need 100 creative brains.

Definitely. That's really good to hear, because when I was there, it was quite small.

Yeah. Even when I started, I think we were less than 10. But it's also how we improved our quality. I really think that now we have really high-caliber people. These 100 people, obviously they are split in their own expertise. We have a strong digital marketing team, a strong design department, a strong content department, video department and news department.

And thanks to that, I would say like Coca-Cola, we managed to have our own secret recipe to coordinate marketing at SiGMA.

Wow. I mean I'm just amazed, and what would that be? If we look into the secret sauce a little bit, because it's not an easy thing to manage marketing for seven global events. I think even from the time that I was there, I remember marketing was very specific in terms of how we communicate. Aman was on it at that time in terms of really leading the marketing as well.

He's giving the direction. He is giving the vision. Without having a clear vision, you can't run proper marketing, and it's what makes us stronger because we always have Aman also here to support us. He knows the industry better than anyone else. So he's the one that we always refer to. "What do you think about that?" And he's really helping and driving us a lot. He's inspiring us.

We try to take what there is in his brain and reflect it on our marketing, and until now I think it's worked beautifully. He is really close to the creative department.

That's amazing. That's amazing to have that support, to have that direction, because without direction speed is not possible.

And this is a very good pun that you are making, because I saw very often on socials people saying SiGMA is doing aggressive marketing, but the reality is I haven't seen anyone in the industry capable of producing, editing and publishing as fast as we do. This is our secret recipe and it's definitely a combination of in-house knowledge and powerful profiles that we have right now in our company, with people of high caliber who create our culture.

From our culture we have a strong brand, and thanks to this strong brand we can do strong marketing as well. So it's all about internal knowledge and people definitely.

But how is it to manage seven global events and the teams? Do you have teams for separate events in terms of marketing, or no?

We work differently. I would say that every section has its own way to function. So the event team, they do have a specific team for specific events, as well for marketing. Because it's not only seven SiGMAs, it's also more than 100 side events. We have the poker gatherings, the golf, launches with B2B, we have many, many side events going on. So it's important that everyone is aligned and that everyone knows what's going on.

So we really onboard everyone with everything that's happening inside SiGMA. So everyone works on all the projects together.

Is it tough to get everyone aligned? Because when you add more people into the equation, that's where the challenges begin, right? It's hard to get everyone aligned unless you have a structure, you have a process, and you have a system.

But again, if you have the vision that is strong, even if an event will always be a bit touchy, we know that. But if your vision is strong and clear for all your employees, they know what they have to do. They know, and they align along the vision. So we do have many processes. I'm not going to lie. Of course we do. How to coordinate 100 creative people for a campaign, of course we do.

But we also have really strong leaders in our teams with really powerful heads that drive their team like a charm.

Are they running themselves mostly in terms of getting things done, or do you have a lot of alignment sessions?

I don't give them the choice. They have to work together, and that's why I don't call it marketing team, I call it we are the creative team. So we really onboard the designers, the social media managers, the content team, the video team. Because how we are structured, they are split, but the thought that I try to implement is we are one unified team, and it's the only way we can make powerful promotions. So we do have sessions of alignment.

We also make sure that they connect, they can see each other at the event. We give the opportunity to our employees to come visit the other offices, to meet their colleagues that are on the other side of the globe, and this also creates synergy within the team. Definitely.

So I think it's amazing what you're saying, because what matters most is that alignment, and it's not always easy for the leader to create that alignment. It's possible to create a vision, it's possible to create that intention in them, but the rest is obviously up to the team members to come together and kind of execute certain big things, right?

But don't you think that a strong team is also the reflection of their leader? If their leader has good intentions and shows them the way to follow, they will just be the mirror of your leadership. So I truly believe that good intention and empowerment, communication, will also reflect on the team the way you are with them.

Of course. Fantastic. How do you attract talent to this amazing team? Because I think it's also very important who we let in.

Definitely. How we attract talents? We have talent.

The right talent.

So no, it's a good question. The right talent. This is the point. Because I'm building something with care.

With care.

Care is the right word here. But that's why sometimes it can be a bit challenging for us, because we do also have our standards. So we might sometimes take longer to find the right fit. But when we know that this person will match with our path, that it's a fast path, that will match with our culture, when we know it's the right one, okay, we go. And personally, this is my way to work.

I personally take the time to find the right person than onboarding someone that I know will... because events, it's a very fast pace.

Exactly. So how do we attract them?

The right talent, they want to learn. And we are a marketing school at SiGMA really. I mean, I'm speaking from my point of view as well. I learned everything at SiGMA. Everything. Even though I had the digital marketing degree, whatever, I learned at SiGMA. And the fact that we also are in a very interesting industry of emerging tech, iGaming, those are hot topics right now. And if you are a marketer, I mean, you come here and you will just enjoy so much to do marketing.

We could do boring marketing, we could work in... I mean, we are doing marketing for events.

Can you imagine? I mean, every marketer wants to do that.

Yeah. I remember when Malta Blockchain Summit, the previous AIBC brand, started, I had no idea of blockchain.

Yes.

But then since we had to market it, I had to learn everything, get up to speed, and that is what brought me into the whole blockchain and crypto industry, and I've been investing in Bitcoin because I was interested in the technology.

Exactly. See, I mean, if I didn't have the opportunity then I would have never known about it.

Yes. Even me, and you know, in France especially, it's a difficult market, kind of really controversial, so I had no idea about this industry before I moved to Malta. I had no idea. And I think what makes us even more powerful now is we have academy.

So even if you don't know about the industry, you come at SiGMA but you also have the opportunity to learn about the industry, because we have a full training program that allows new employees coming from diverse industries to come and learn about us.

Very good to hear as well. And for anyone who's looking to, or contemplating their next career move, what would you tell them about working at SiGMA? Maybe they're in the beginning of their career, maybe they are two years in or whatever.

If they want to come work with us, I think kindness is important. Having the right attitude, being transparent, being honest, and really wanting to join with honest intention. It's all about intention and hard work. If you want to succeed, you will succeed. But everything is on soft skills. Not everything, but a big part is on soft skills and personal standards. Don't expect the company to put the standard to you. You need to set up your personal standards.

You are doing that for you, your career, and this is also how I grow my team. Like, you are not only doing that for SiGMA but you are doing all that for your own knowledge, to become a better professional, to become a better marketer. I would say set up your own high standards. It has to come from you.

That's very interesting. And if we look at the events industry, events industry and events industry marketing especially, how do you think it has changed over the last seven years that you have been in the space?

When I started, I think the potential of online marketing was really underused. Like everyone was focused so much on the event itself that online promotion was almost an afterthought. And I think through the years our clients now understand that if you want a full return on investment on this event activation, you need to start online. And you will have a complete marketing journey.

So you start to announce your attendance, you introduce your product, you warm up your leads, you just have to convert. And you continue the networking and you continue to build this relationship after the event on socials and you debate. We can see that now it's more open online.

I think it's also due to the stigma around our industry maybe, like the brands were a bit shy to expose their products, and since now it became a bit more regulated, of course everyone starts to speak about it. We now see more debates online. Your WhatsApp channel is the best example. Look at it. There is the events and after the debates continue online. And I would say definitely the main change I saw is the extension of the events online.

So now it's online presence even more and more focused on online marketing than before.

Yeah. And I also say sometimes to my clients and whoever asks me for advice, having a booth at an event or having a presence at an event means you have 20 opportunities to communicate online.

Yes. Yes. Exactly.

Right. Like you can reach out. It's an opportunity for you to do more posts on LinkedIn.

Yes.

Or other channels, whichever channels you're focused on, but LinkedIn is the main one for B2B. I mean, you can actually schedule the whole campaign based around the event. So it's not going and expecting that leads will fall into your lap.

Yeah, of course. But exactly that, like you can see our clients are still a bit shy but it's improving. It's improving. But remember five years ago when we were doing marketing, we couldn't tag anyone on socials. Impossible.

It was very important to tag.

Yes. Important to tag. Always tag your partners. But we couldn't because they just simply didn't have a page. And I was like, "Wow, those people invest so much in their offline activation."

Great point.

And they don't promote it online. But now it starts to become even more common, I think.

Yeah. And also SiGMA channels, SiGMA's channels themselves are very... you have a great following, you know, in terms of LinkedIn, Instagram, other channels, Telegram channel as well. Because of the focus, it's a marketing-driven event company.

Yes. Rather than anything else, because we have other events. We see what they do as well and we see what SiGMA does, and it's clearly visible that marketing takes a great focus in terms of how you promote your partners basically.

Because we want also to offer the complete experience to our clients.

Digital.

Exactly. If you come here, you will also have presence online.

And we love to partner with our clients and we love to see them being a team player with us. "Hey, I will bring this person. Do you want that we do something together?" And we create super cool content together and we love that, and I think it's what makes our product even more powerful because we are offering them a complete marketing activation.

That's a great point. And the other thing that comes to mind is design, you know. Especially on Instagram, and I go to stories, I see these beautiful designs, animations, even the music. When we go to Africa, there is African background music in the stories. When we go to Brazil, there is Brazilian or whatever that works in the region. I'm like, this is next to perfect. This is not only attention to detail, but it's extreme commitment to excellence.

Exactly. Lately I was like, who could have bigger standards than us? So I started to check the president's social media page, governmental social media page, and I was like, how are they reaching excellence? Because they need to control every single content. And I went on their page and I found spelling mistakes, mistranslations, and I was like, oh my god, this would have never gone on our channel.

So I realized that sometimes we are even more picky than some of the biggest decision makers in the world. And that makes a difference. We again have high personal standards. Every employee has his own high personal standard and excellence as well.

This really resonates with me, because what I have been after SiGMA is I have taken those core values with me. Those attention to detail, the speed and the excellence. These are my three core values that helps me even today every single day, whatever I'm doing, because that was part of SiGMA's core values and the way we were doing things. And I'm happy that it is only improving year by year, event by event.

I mean I see things constantly improving, something new coming up, and every time it's all clean, you know.

Yeah, exactly. And it's even more challenging because trends are changing and you need to stay up to date of everything that's going on online. And if you stick to those three important pillars of being consistent, excellence and paying attention to details, it's how you will make amazing marketing.

Yeah, it's an amazing chat actually. It gives me very good memories of how things started off for me as well. And speaking of trends, what would be your suggestion, advice based on what you have seen in the industry? Let's imagine a B2B iGaming company, something new to the market, one year, just started exhibiting, right? What is your advice to them in terms of B2B iGaming marketing? Which should they focus on? What are the new things that they can do?

In B2B, one of the biggest mistakes that marketers make is to assume professionals are only on LinkedIn. You would be surprised how many decision makers are actually on TikTok, on Instagram. A good marketing follows you into your personal life. So if you see the brand one time, two, three, four, five times in five different platforms, believe me, the sixth time it will stick. So I would say don't focus on one activation and make sure to diversify your campaign. Yes.

And one thing to focus, it might sound a bit cheesy or easy, but data. It's a very popular word that everyone's saying, but I think we are only very few people and few companies who know how to actually collect, clean and use them, and this should be the focus.

Great. I mean, thank you for joining me as well as thank you for sharing your journey, sharing your values, sharing how you're leading marketing for SiGMA Group. It's a pleasure to have you here.

Thank you very much. And if you want to join the team, we always have open positions in the marketing department because we're still growing. We still have a lot to achieve for our 2030 vision. So, and thank you again for the opportunity today.

That's it, guys. Follow Lauranne and her work and her team as well. If you're looking for another opportunity or maybe starting off your career in marketing, I think there's no better school than SiGMA. I can say from my experience as well. Thank you for watching. Share your thoughts in the comments below wherever you're watching, and do subscribe to our channel. I'll see you on the next show.