The largest and one of the most popular bingo chains in the UK has been officially rebranded as Buzz Bingo in one of the biggest strategic overhauls of the £40 million company to date. The move is part of a wider push by the new non-executive chairman John Kelly to adapt the brand to the needs of younger bingo players, who make up an increasingly large share of bingo fans nationwide, a share that is set to continue to grow exponentially according to reports by The Guardian.
Younger bingo players have been credited with the 8% increase in profits across the sector over the past year, as the game, which is traditionally popular with older players, has developed an increasingly hipster cachet as a trendy way to socialise with friends in an affordable and casual setting.
This unexpected trend has followed in the path of similar developments in the UK, with old school leisure activities being revitalised by a new cohort of trendy millennials. Other companies have been swift to adapt to this emerging and highly profitable trend, with the Scottish hipster inspired pub chain BrewDog fitting out all their venues with bingo, chess and 64-bit video games being a prominent example. As younger players have flooded the bingo market and the game has become increasingly associated with millennial tastes, Gala Leisure has taken dramatic steps to keep up with the market, announcing the rebrand in June this year as part of a £40 million revamp, according to The Telegraph.
The organisation owns and currently operates 124 sites across the UK, including in many areas now synonymous with youth culture such as East London and Northern Manchester. The newly-named Buzz Bingo, which has locations in cities across Scotland, has invested heavily in a branding overhaul which goes significantly beyond a name change. With the bingo halls being given a fresher, more youthful look and feel alongside a significant ramping-up of marketing towards young people via social media, in a similar vein to how recently-revitalized companies such as Nandos and Converse made big business comebacks by catering more to the millennial marketplace.
A number of clubs have already been completely rebranded, with a major part of their appeal among younger people being the availability of affordable drinks, which drew many of them there in the first place, combined with menu changes which now include hipster food staples such as burritos and fully-loaded tower burgers. Although this ambitious overhaul is planned for the vast majority of current sites across the UK, so far five sites have received a full re-branding. These are: Clacton-on-Sea, Enfield, Peterborough, Castlefield and nearby Falkirk. The first club to be re-launched, Clacton on Sea, held an official launch party of 30th June, and similar events are planned for the 122 other sites across the country that are currently being targeted for redevelopment.
The re-launch is indicative of wider, more definitive trends in the consumer economy, and younger generations with increased amounts of disposable income continue to influence how UK businesses shape their branding, and many more similar developments should be expected in the future.