How to Win More Casino Visits with Billboards, Radio, and a Bit of CTV

Where to Double Down: Casino OOH and Radio Advertising

Your best markets are often drive-time markets. That means roads and radios remain part of the media reality, no matter how much the big national charts talk about CTV and social.

Why Casino Billboards Still Work

The eMarketer report notes that OOH commands just over $9 billion in ad spending and is growing at nearly 3% this year, driven primarily by digital and programmatic OOH.

But here’s the line that jumped out at me:

“The meat and potatoes of this industry is still old-school billboards… It doesn’t always make sense to have digital signage everywhere.”

For regional casinos, that could have been written specifically about your primary feeder routes.

Static billboards are still workhorses because they:

• Build mental availability on the exact roads your guests use to visit you
• Reach high-frequency, high-worth guests several times per week, quietly reinforcing that you’re their place
• Put you in front of retail un-carded guests who haven’t given you an email address (yet), but recognize your logo, property image, or “That’s the place with the Friday seafood buffet.”

How to double down intelligently on OOH in 2026

Rather than asking, “Should we keep billboards?” try:

Concentrate, don’t sprinkle. Better to own a few high-impact boards on your key corridors than to be “a little bit everywhere” on cheap inventory.

Simplify your message. One idea per board: brand, event, or offer. Not all three. If someone can’t read it in 7 seconds at 65 mph, it’s a waste.

Tie boards to geography in your database. Pick one corridor, identify the ZIPs that feed it, and monitor those areas for:

• New member signups
• Visitation
• ADT trends

This approach is not perfect attribution, but it’s far better than treating OOH as “just awareness.”

Radio: Still Owning the Car

Video might have killed the radio star, but radio is not dead, far from it.

eMarketer forecasts that radio maintains a $10.31 billion ad business in the US, accounting for almost half (48.1%) of time spent with audio, primarily due to in-vehicle listening.

For a regional casino, that means:

Your players are still hearing local radio on the way to work, running errands, or driving out of town for the weekend. That “old” media line on your budget is actually live, captive time with people in cars—often the same people who drive past your billboards.

Making Radio Work for Casino VIPs, Locals, and Retail Guests

Think through your core groups:

Hosted players. These are your VIPs who respond to exclusivity and recognition. Radio gives you a way to make them feel seen even when they’re not on the property.

• Game-day sports radio
• Live reads before VIP watch parties or events
• “Brought to you by the VIP Lounge at…” integrations

High-frequency, high-worth guests. Your bread-and-butter players don’t need convincing—they need reminding. Radio keeps you top of mind during their daily routines.

• Consistent presence on the one or two stations that dominate your locals’ commute (or office time)
• Simple, benefit-driven lines: easy parking, fast play, favorite games, familiar faces

Retail un-carded guests. You’re trying to build trust and familiarity before they’ve ever given you their information. Radio helps you become part of the community’s fabric.

• Sponsorships of local sporting events, traffic reports, weather—anywhere “community” lives
• Brand-first messages that make you a familiar part of their daily listening

Try This in Q1: Coordinated OOH + Radio Test

Pick one primary station that over-indexes in your 35–64 demo. Run a clear, simple offer tied to a daypart (e.g., weekday afternoons or drive times). Align that with a billboard on the same commute so your message is seen and heard in the same mental window.

💡 If you’re thinking, “Okay, but how do I actually build this into a plan my GM will approve?”—that’s exactly what we do in the Casino Advertising Masterclass. We take your real numbers and turn them into a defensible 90-day media plan with talking points you can use in your next budget meeting.

Where to Evolve: TV = Linear + CTV, Not Either/Or

Here’s a stat that should change how you think about television:

Despite streaming overtaking linear in viewership, connected TV (CTV) advertising represents only 40.2% of total TV ad spending in 2025.

In other words, nearly 60% of TV advertising dollars are still going to linear television in 2025.

Why the gap?

• Advertisers still worry about brand safety and content suitability on some digital video platforms.
• Linear TV still offers control. You generally know the environment in which your ad will appear.
• Sports and political advertising continue to pour money into traditional TV, helping keep those budgets significant.

For your casino, the takeaway isn’t “ditch linear” or “go all-in on CTV.” It’s treating TV as an ecosystem and deciding what each piece does for you.

What linear TV still does well for casinos

• Delivers broad reach in your local DMA
• Connects powerfully with older, higher-worth guests who still watch news, game shows, and live sports on traditional channels
• Builds brand presence, especially if your competitors have backed out of TV and you have not

What CTV can add

• Tighter geographic targeting around your realistic drive-time radius
• The ability to exclude some areas (for instance, where you can’t legally advertise)
• More accountable delivery, with impressions you can align to site traffic, app traffic, or offer redemptions

A sample 2026 starting point

For a regional casino with, say, a $100,000 quarterly video budget, you might test:

60% Linear TV

• Local news
• Early fringe
• Select live sports, if affordable in your market

40% CTV

• Geotargeted households within your core ZIPs
• Heavier weight against ages 35–64
• Creative that matches (or cleverly extends) your linear brand work

This isn’t a perfect (or exact) formula—it’s a starting point you can test and adjust based on what you see in visitation, app downloads, or offer redemptions.

Where to Slow-Play: External Print (and How to Modernize House Print)

Print is the area where the macro trends and your casino reality are most likely to clash.

On one hand, eMarketer estimates print advertising is currently a $5.44 billion business in the US. However, that same forecast expects print ad spending to decline by 38% by 2029

On the other hand, you probably consistently have strong performance from “house print”:

• Direct mail
• Player magazines
• On-property collateral

The eMarketer piece also points out that the infrastructure that once made print viable has eroded—fewer newsstands, shrinking rack space in grocery stores, and higher postal rates.

So how do you reconcile this?

Separate external print from house print

External print

• Local newspapers
• Lifestyle magazines
• Insert programs through third-party publications

House print

• Direct mail to your database
• Players club magazines or newsletters
• Fun books, discovery passports, event calendars, and rack brochures

If you follow the industry trend blindly, you might cut all print when what you really need to do is be highly selective with external print buys and protect and modernize the house print that still drives trips and revenue.

Practical ways to modernize house print in 2026

• Add QR codes that lead to event calendars, menus, or exclusive digital content
• Use vanity URLs tied to specific campaigns so you can see which offers or themes are pulling interest online, not just at the POS
• Test variable imagery for different segments—higher-end visual tone for hosted players, more playful offers for mid-worth and retail guests

Print may be shrinking overall, but targeted, smart house print can still be one of your most accountable traditional tools.

Turning the Numbers Into a 90-Day Adjustment Plan

Data is helpful, but your GM doesn’t want a 40-slide deck. They want to know what you’re going to change next quarter.

Here’s a simple framework for turning these traditional media insights into a 90-day plan you can execute with minimal resources.

1. Rebalance, don’t rebuild

Instead of tearing up your plan, look for 5–10% shifts:

• Move a small portion of underperforming digital into:
  • A new CTV test, or
  • A stronger OOH presence on a key corridor
• Nudge a little money from scattered print into:
  • Your best-performing direct mail segments, or
  • An additional radio frequency in your best station/daypart

2. Run one focused OOH + radio corridor test

Pick one drive corridor that matters to your property. Then:

• Own one or two strong boards on that route
• Pair them with consistent radio on the station most likely to reach that audience
• Tie it to a simple, trackable concept, such as:
  • A recurring promotion
  • A dining event
  • A locals’ night

Track:

• New member signups from ZIP codes along that corridor
• Trip frequency for existing carded players from the same area
• Any noticeable lift in slot or table ADT on your focus nights

You won’t get perfect attribution, but you’ll have a story and some numbers, not just “we think it helps brand.”

3. Audit your print and protect what’s working

Over 90 days:

• List every external print placement and rank by:
  • Cost
  • Clear response (if any)
  • Strategic value (e.g., reaching an underserved segment)
• Flag candidates to cut in Q2 or Q3, not just to save money, but to reallocate that budget into:
  • House print you can track
  • CTV or OOH tests that could produce better visitation or stronger guests

Bring this to your GM as a trade, not just a cut:

“We’re going to reduce low-accountability print by $X and move that into targeted OOH/CTV where we can at least connect impressions to trips and offers.”

Traditional Media Isn’t Dead. It’s Just Changed Its Job.

The eMarketer report doesn’t say, “Traditional is back.” It says:

• Traditional still holds nearly 20% of US ad spending
• OOH and radio remain stubbornly resilient because of where and how people live
• TV is in transition, not finished
• Print is shrinking fast, but there are pockets where it still works

For regional casinos, that translates into:

• Billboards and radio are still worth fighting for—if you use them intentionally
• TV should be planned as a combined linear + CTV ecosystem
• Print outside your own mail should be questioned, but not unthinkingly abandoned

You’re not outdated for believing in traditional media. You’re realistic about how your guests actually spend their days—and how they make decisions about where to play.

The opportunity now is to match that realism with better planning, testing, and storytelling inside your property.