Remember... it's always good to 'take a break'
Leading Bauer Media Title 'Take A Break' lends support to RG Week
Take a Break is the most popular women's weekly magazine in the UK. Owned by Bauer Media, the magazine has a weekly readership of over 1 million and along with magazines like Bella, Closer, Grazia, Heat, That's Life and Yours, to name but a few sees Bauer Media as the biggest magazine publisher in the UK.
In 2007 Bauer Media made the creative decision to extend the Take a Break brand and founded Take a Break Bingo, an online bingo site offering the same style and brand personality as the magazine. Many brands have extended into the online bingo space in the last fifteen years, but not all as successfully as Take a Break Bingo, who have always remained close to their customers.
Wanting to help share important information with its customers, online players and readers alike, Take a Break chose to become involved in Safer Gambling Week in 2017 and have been looking for ways that they can help RG Week reach wider audiences, particularly those that may be consumers of gambling products provided away from licensed venues and the regulated online space.
Following RG Week 18 the team at Bauer started to explore how they could support the campaign further and encourage their customers to engage.
For RG Week 2019 Bauer decided to not only provide media space online at Take A Break Bingo, but also to provide advertising space in both Take a Break and That's Life magazines, helping to reach an audience that may be outside the current reach.
Catharine Hoplinson, Bingo Brand Manager at Bauer Media, shared with us details of Take A Break Bingo's involvement with Safer Gambling Week and objectives for 2019.
How is Take a Break involved with Safer Gambling Week?
We are proud to have worked with Safer Gambling Week for the last three years. Our work has included promoting all aspects of the campaign on our social media channels and website, as well as on the website of our parent brand Take a Break, the UK's most widely circulated women's magazine.
This year, we will be taking the campaign even further - by taking out full-page adverts in the print editions of both Take a Break and sister publication That's Life, as well as online banners across other brands in the Bauer Media platform including TV Choice: the print version of which has a circulation of over a million.
How do your players get involved, through the publication, in Safer Gambling Week?
I know from talking to players that the 'take a break' (no pun intended) option is used by many. Players will use this function so they can take time out so they don'd go over budget. We also encourage the deposit limit, so players are always in control of how much they are spending. Ultimately, we are encouraging players to be thoughtful and responsible in their approach to gambling.
What are you looking to achieve with this year's Safer Gambling Week?
This year we are really looking to empower all our players by ensuring they always feel fully in control. Specifically, we have two targets for 2019.
First, to encourage those who have a perfectly healthy relationship with gambling to keep thinking about their relationship and how they engage with gambling platforms in a responsible way. Even players who are confident they gamble safely should be aware of their behaviour and habits and it's always a good ideal for everyone review their pattern of play.
Secondly, to ensure that a responsible approach to gambling isn't limited to RG Week. For the gambling industry RG Week is like a shop front - it gives an indication to the work done all year round to help customers gamble more safely. Equally, we want to make our players take the tools and messages promoted during RG Week with them into the other 51 weeks of the year, that will lead to a responsible and more thoughtful approach to gambling.
I feel proud to be involved in RG Week - it is a hugely important initiative that educates and raises awareness and we at Bauer Media are delighted to be participating in the 2019 campaign.