Endorphina x Marketing Decoded: viral campaigns and entertainment-first brand building

• Marketing Decoded debuts at ICE Barcelona 2025, featuring seven CMOs and marketing leaders from major B2B iGaming providers.
• In the second episode, Irina Veselkova, Head of Marketing at Endorphina, discusses viral campaign strategies and entertainment-first marketing.
• Series presented by Excellent Expo, produced by iGaming Real Talk and iGaming Republic, focusing on actionable marketing insights.

A new interview series spotlighting iGaming’s marketing leaders has launched from ICE Barcelona 2025. Marketing Decoded brings together seven Chief Marketing Officers and heads of marketing from leading B2B providers to share the strategies behind their brands’ success.

The second episode features Irina Veselkova, Head of Marketing at Endorphina, who reveals how creative campaigns and entertainment-first thinking drive viral engagement and brand awareness in the competitive iGaming landscape.

Endorphina is a slot games provider known for distinctive campaigns and bold creative execution. The company transforms every event into an entertainment experience, maintaining a reputation as one of the industry’s most innovative marketing teams.

Event marketing as month-long campaigns

Endorphina adopted a distinctive approach to event marketing that extends far beyond traditional three-day activations. Rather than focusing solely on the event itself, the company creates comprehensive campaigns spanning at least a month.

“I usually try not to only be present at the expo for two or three days. We always try to do the warm-up and after the expo we also continue with the theme,” Irina explained during the interview.

This philosophy ensures audiences remember and associate the brand with their creative concepts long after the event concludes.

“The whole campaign doesn’t stay only for three days but for a month at least, or for one month and a half, so people could remember it and associate us with the stand we had,” she added.

The approach transforms single moments into sustained marketing momentum.

The Roach Challenge: turning disgust into engagement

The Roach Challenge campaign exemplifies Endorphina’s ability to transform controversial themes into viral success. When the company announced cockroaches as their ICE Barcelona theme, initial reactions were negative.

“When we announced with banners that we are going with cockroaches, people were like ‘oh no, this is going to be awful, it’s just disgusting, the cockroaches and everything,” Irina recalled.

The team responded by creating a campaign that flipped perceptions entirely.

“So in order to flip their minds, we decided to come up with something that would be interesting from one point of view and from the other that doesn’t make cockroaches ugly,” she explained.

Through creative execution and community participation, they made cockroaches fun and entertaining rather than repulsive.

“Now people think that cockroaches are fun and entertaining so it’s not that ugly creature anymore. Maybe we even healed someone’s phobia about cockroaches,” Irina noted.

In just five days, the campaign generated over 130 unique posts, creating unprecedented virality for a B2B iGaming campaign.

“It was super cool and we were never expecting this virality but it was super viral. In five days so far we got 130 plus generations,” she said.

The Roach Challenge won Clarion’s Best Pre-Marketing Campaign award at ICE Barcelona 2025, validating the approach of creative risk-taking.

Satisfaction Campaign: movie-grade content with real employees

The Satisfaction Campaign for SiGMA Europe in Rome demonstrated Endorphina’s commitment to high-quality creative content. The video featured construction workers set to music, aligning perfectly with their construction-themed exhibition stand.

“The theme was construction, so our stand was like a construction scene and we had these tiny excavators and you could dig for a prize,” Irina explained about the stand activation.

At SiGMA, visitors used miniature excavators to dig for prizes like merchandise, coffee, alcohol, Apple products and a many other items. What made the campaign particularly authentic was casting real employees rather than professional actors.

“This is the best part. Those are not actors. These are our sales guys, account managers, marketing team,” she revealed.

The company-wide participation strengthened both the campaign and internal culture.

“This is the most amazing part because when you get the support from the whole company, not only your department, this means a lot,” Irina emphasized.

The campaign delivered measurable results. Endorphina received 50,000 unique visitors to their LinkedIn account, with approximately 5,000 becoming new followers.

“By the end of 2025 we reached 20,000 of followers on LinkedIn and we started the year with only 9K. So basically we doubled the amount of followers throughout the year and 5,000 of them came after the Satisfaction video,” Irina shared.

Brand awareness through entertainment

Entertainment sits at the core of Endorphina’s marketing strategy. The company recognises that because they operate in the entertainment industry, their marketing must reflect this identity.

“Because we are in the entertainment industry we need some games,” Irina explained when discussing their interactive stand elements.

The approach has established Endorphina as a trendsetter within the industry. Employees report that clients and prospects consistently reference their campaigns during business conversations.

“We’re kind of becoming the trendsetters of the industry. Everyone is talking about it, so brand awareness is at its top,” Irina said.

She shared an example of their impact:

“I’ve heard from our employees, the account manager who was coming from Serbia, that the whole plane was thinking if they’re going to bring real cockroaches or fake ones. So I mean, everyone is talking about the videos, the campaigns we do.”

Planning enables spontaneity

Despite the creative and spontaneous feel of Endorphina’s campaigns, meticulous planning underpins every initiative. When asked to choose between planning and winging it, Irina’s response was clear.

“Planning always. In order to wing it, you have to plan it,” she said.

This philosophy enables the team to execute bold ideas with confidence. The planning process includes brainstorming sessions, theme development, digital campaign architecture, and cross-departmental coordination.

Industry-wide marketing insights ahead

Marketing Decoded is presented by Excellent Expo and produced by iGaming Real Talk in collaboration with iGaming Republic. The series captures expert perspectives from industry innovators at ICE Barcelona 2025, one of iGaming’s most important annual gatherings.

Each episode delivers actionable insights, behind-the-scenes stories, and strategic frameworks from leaders shaping how major brands connect with their audiences. The format provides marketing professionals with practical takeaways they can apply to their own organisations.

The complete series features six additional episodes with marketing leaders from prominent iGaming providers: Elen Atanesyan (18Peaches), Märit von Stedingk (Alea), Yaroslava Romaniv (GR8 Tech), Valentina Bagniya (SOFTSWISS), Tereza Melicharkova (Elantil), and James Bennett (EveryMatrix).

Episode 2 is now live. For more insights from Irina, watch the episode now. Subsequent episodes will be released in the coming weeks.

Watch the previous episode from 18Peaches here.