Hey Alex
we have worked sucesfully (as you know) specifically and exclusively in the offline gaming space for over 7 years now.
Bad News First
you are going to encounter a number of problems using the methodologies you detail below :
1) Publicans will not allow you to access their player base (for that it what it is) for free.. So you will need to come up with some form of licencing/incentive model
2) The larger chains (Punch for example) will possibly already be tied up with another operator in some way or other (Pub Poker League springs to mind)
Good News :
Software tracking is SOO easy. Just tag up each different CD (for example) and that will give you individual tracking on that campaign. Same applies to bonus codes. What you need to rememeber is that you will need a VERY strong call to action.
Main risk is people taking the collateral (cd, scratchcard, leaflet) with no intention of playing. therefore i would reccomend a scratchcard where the user has a “i won something” mentality. Athough this call to action still requires them to ACTIVELY go to a website and enter details (ie bonus code/aff code etc).
Things to watch are ensuring that you have some “non winning” cards or “minimal winning ” cards./ Otherwise peopel think its like a dodgy timeshare outfit giving scratch cards out in marbella where everyone wins a “free” holiday (read timeshare presentation)
Other option is a CD with free play or similar. This is more liekly to get registrations, as people will try anything if there is no risk involved. But costs are higher, driving ROI down if a “scattergun” approach is used.
There have been many of these type of things done before (we persoanlyl have done football matches with tens of thousands, shopping malls with a few K, down to local specialist events running a few hundred), but without KNOWING your demographic, the segmentation and what THEIR triggers are, its not really possible to put a one size fits all solution together (Would you use same pitch at a sunday leage pub team as at Henley regatta ???)
See you in Budapest if not before
CYA
Dukesy