It feels as if special offers, promotions, and bonuses have existed for an eternity. Everywhere you look nowadays, there are deals to be taken advantage of, usually providing an opportunity to enjoy something for free before having to pay. It hasn’t always been like this, though. Business owners have been forced into offering more and more as competition has grown in almost every industry.
Bonuses have come a long way over the years, and they are only going to get bigger and better. The question is, how will they look in the future?
Where it All Began
A lot of modern promotions are designed to give people a taste of something in order to get them hooked, and hopefully persuade them to pay money to experience more. This harks back to the early days of films and games. The entertainment industry has always set an example when it comes to giving people an initial taster of what they will be getting.
The movie industry was a pioneer of promotions when it introduced film trailers as a way to spread the word about upcoming offerings. The first-ever trailer was shown in the Marcus Loew theater chain in the USA in 1913. It was a short promotional video for the musical The Pleasure Seekers, which was set to hit Broadway later that year. It wasn’t until the 1960s, though, that trailers began to resemble the ones we have today. At this time, filmmakers started to use more innovative techniques to up the engagement levels of the clips.
A film trailer provides viewers with a taste of the film. Lasting around two minutes long, you get to see some of the action, hear the characters speak, and feel a sense of excitement and anticipation for what’s to come. The gaming industry took this concept to another level by not only introducing trailers for games, but also demos that allowed players to experience the game first. In the 1990s, players could often find demos given away for free in gaming magazines. These gave them a chance to play a level of the title to see if they liked it, and it turned out to be a fantastic way of getting more people to purchase.
Modern Bonuses Provide Even More
In the modern age of online entertainment, film and game promoters have had to go a lot further than ever before when enticing viewers and players. This is because of the wealth of options available to choose from. If consumers don’t get a freebie from somewhere, they’ll stray to another option that offers one. This means that trailers and demos are no longer enough for entertainment companies to achieve success.
The subscription model in entertainment is one in which consumers can find incredible value. Online streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Spotify all offer a free month before you have to invest your own money. This means you can listen to or watch anything you want for free to decide if the product is worthy of investment. The platforms rely on the fact that the quality available will allure people to keep paying.
The same can be seen in the gaming industry. Mobile games can often be downloaded and played for free, with this being a popular model for MMOs like Vikings: War of Clans and Sparta: War of Empires. Players can then choose to pay if they want to enhance their experience further.
Further, online casinos not only give players free playing money in the form of deposit matches, but some have also started to provide no deposit bonuses that give people a chance to win without having to stake any funds of their own. Players can search through lists of no deposit codes, and these usually give them the chance to play certain slots for free. There is the opportunity to win on these games, but winnings are subject to wagering requirements before they can be withdrawn.
Can Promotions Get Any Better?
As things stand, consumers are able to get an incredible amount of value in the entertainment industry before they are asked to pay anything. It is hard to imagine how the bonuses and offers available today could get any better, but this may have been what people were thinking in the 1990s when they were first able to play game demos. As new ways to consume entertainment come about, you can guarantee that there will be innovative promotions that could be even better than the ones we have today.
Bonuses and promotions have come a long way over the years, and there is little chance that they will stop evolving now. However, it is hard to predict what they may look like in the future. This will all depend on the technology that comes to the fore and the most popular ways of consuming entertainment that come with it.
