Best of the Bunch- The 2007 Romero Awards
by Andy Holtmann
Solutions
Best of the Bunch — The 2007 Romero Awards
Barona maintains winning streak; strong showing from Creek Nation and Feather Falls casinos in annual casino marketing awards competition
For the third year in a row, the Barona Valley Ranch Resort & Casino has proven to be the property that “gets it� when it comes to casino-resort marketing. In the third annual Romero Awards competition, which honored the very best of casino marketing campaigns from May 1, 2006 to April 30, 2007, the San Diego-area property took home nine of the 28 trophies awarded. The awards ceremony was held on the final day of the Casino Marketing Conference held July 17-19 at the Paris Las Vegas resort-casino. The event is co-produced by Raving Consulting and Ascend Media Gaming Group.
The Romero Awards were created by Raving as a way to honor both casino marketing legend John Romero and to recognize and reward gaming properties for their unique, thoughtful and successful marketing efforts. John Romero chairs the award’s committee, which is comprised of judges well-experienced in casino marketing efforts.
This judges for this year’s contest have over 100 years of combined experience with successful casino marketing operations. They were: Toby O’Brien, vice president of marketing and client services for Raving Consulting; Jackie Brett, director of advertising and PR for the Imperial Palace Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas; Don Kennedy, former director of marketing at the Chinook Winds Casino & Resort in Lincoln City, Ore.; and Jim Seagrave, vice president of advertising for Coast Casinos in Las Vegas.
Judges tirelessly sorted through 93 valid entries for this year’s event. Each entry was measured by a number of factors, including promotion concept, strategic rationale, execution, details, casino revenue and other financial results, the competitive advantage marketing efforts gave the properties and how the efforts were ultimately received by patrons and whether those efforts helped to build player and patron loyalty.
Entries were divided into two chief categories—gaming properties with more than 1,000 gaming positions and less than 1,000 gaming positions, and judged in six marketing-based categories: e-mail marketing; Web site marketing; PR campaign; casino floor promotions; VIP promotions and direct mail campaigns. Diamond Awards went to the very best in each category, while Gold and Silver Awards went to other strong performing efforts. A number of honorable mentions were also given, though there are too many to list here.
And now, the winners of the 2007 Romero Awards:
E-MAIL MARKETING
Large casinos (1,000 or more gaming positions)
Diamond Award:
Club Barona Hotel Offer E-mail Reminder Campaign
—Barona Valley Ranch Resort & Casino
Barona’s E-Mail Reminder Campaign is an ongoing retention and loyalty effort designed to reward its most valuable players with premium hotel offers. The campaign works in conjunction with the property’s other direct mail hotel offer campaigns. Prior to the beginning of the valid period for each direct-mail hotel offer, opted-in recipients with valid e-mail addresses will receive the hotel offers via personalized e-mails. Those e-mails include a “Click to Talk� feature that lets the recipients speak immediately to a reservation agent. The campaign generates about 4,000 incremental occupied room nights each year—rooms occupied by real players. The result has been the generation of more than $2.4 million of incremental theoretical win from those players. The campaign has also fostered even better relationships with Barona’s best players.
Gold Award:
2006 Tulsa State Fair—Swipe in to Win E-mail Extravaganza
—Creek Nation Casino
The Tulsa State Fair attracts hundreds of thousands of people annually and the Creek Nation Casino has had a major presence there for several years. Typically, the property comes away from the fair with thousands of handwritten entries for $1,000 in casino cash from potential guests, which all had to be manually entered into the Creek Nation’s database. In 2006, the casino wanted to make things easier for itself and fairgoers by setting up kiosks where all that information could be entered electronically. The kiosks were moved to the casino after the fair to continue efforts to collect customer information. The result: 4,146 fairgoers filled out the survey and 2,386 (57.5 percent) of those were not Creek Nation Players Club members. Some 1,974 new e-mail addresses were collected, and 1,282 (30.9 percent) actually came into the casino for the October, 2006 drawing. From the kiosks in the casino, another 1,399 e-mail addresses were collected. In October, the property’s coin-in on gaming devices was up a significant 21 percent over that of the previous year’s October.
Silver Award:
Jackpot Money Machine Casino Floor Promotion Support E-mail Campaign
—Barona Valley Ranch Resort & Casino
This campaign was an retention and loyalty effort designed to let players know about its Jackpot Money Machine casino floor promotion via direct mail and follow-ups with extensive e-mail correspondence. These efforts led to $293,871 of incremental theoretical win. E-mailed players responded higher than non-e-mailed guests and had higher ADT ($249 versus $211) and more gaming days (2.5 versus 1.8).
Small to mid-sized casinos (Less than 1,000 gaming positions)
There were no Silver, Gold or Diamond awards presented in this category.
WEB SITE MARKETING
Large casinos (1,000 or more gaming positions)
Diamond Award:
Jackpot Money Machine Online Bonus Entry Game
—Barona Valley Ranch Resort & Casino
Barona’s Jackpot Money Machine Online Bonus Entry Game allowed patrons who had a valid Club Barona membership to play online daily between Oct. 26 and Dec. 6 for a chance to win free bonus entries into the live casino promotional drawing. This effort also stimulated new member sign-ups, included a viral tell-a-friend piece and drove additional foot traffic to the casino for redemption. The online component generated 574 bonus entry vouchers, garnering over $2,430 additional casino trips. The campaign generated $415,000 in theoretical revenue and over $450,000 in actual revenue—all for an initial investment of less than $10,000.
Gold Award:
Star@Home
—Santa Ana Star Casino
The strategy behind this campaign was to offer an online campaign to Santa Ana’s players to not only win at the casino, but also on their home computers, and drive additional trips to the property and generate additional customer information, such as the 4,700 new e-mail addresses the property collected through this effort. Through the campaign, the property generated $3,082,454 in average daily coin-in. Carded coin-in was 58 percent ($1,796,865) of the total coin-in, and a 63 percent increase over the last comparable tracked period—Dec. 1-13, 2005. Incremental profit from the campaign was $75,650.
Silver Award:
MySpace @ Midnight
—Creek Nation Casino
Taking advantage of the popular online networking community, Creek Nation Casino decided to target a younger demographic—and the nearly 200 million Myspace users—by launching its own Myspace page (www.myspace.com/cnctulsa) and creating a new way for customers to interact with the property. The late-night promotion allowed all customers to earn one free entry to the Myspace @ Midnight promotion every Thursday during the months of October through November from 11:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. The first 500 people received coupons redeemable at the Full Moon Café and chances to win monthly drawings of $5,000 at 12:00 a.m., 1:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m. On Thursdays, during the promotion, coin-in was up nearly 15.7 percent, while during the three days of the monthly giveaways, coin-in increased 28.1 percent.
Small to mid-sized casinos (Less than 1,000 gaming positions)
Diamond Award:
Shoot for the Stars
—Mohican North Star Casino
Mohican North Star Casino’s Shoot for the Stars online game attracted player club members and new members alike, and provided a new avenue of direct marketing to both groups. While the property said it proved difficult to develop an online game that had enough protection from people who would try to take advantage, the casino’s staff worked out the right redemption procedures, bar-coded prize tickets and achieved security features that made the game beneficial to player development rather than detrimental. On same-day theoretical win, the property averaged 92 percent, or over 1,000 percent return on investment. The campaign is still running within budget—about $18,000 per month. It is proving popular in attracting next-generation players and has helped significantly with collecting e-mail addresses—the majority of players actually wanting to be contacted. As the game grows in popularity, so to have the hits to Mohican’s Web site.
There were no Silver or Gold Awards presented in this category.
PR CAMPAIGN
Large casinos (1,000 or more gaming positions)
Diamond Award:
Women’s Poker Classic
—British Columbia Lottery Corporation
In February of this year, the British Columbia Lottery Corporation in partnership with Cascades Casino hosted a multi-day, multi-event women’s only poker tournament in support of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation (CBCF), BC/Yukon Chapter. The Women’s Poker Classic was an opportunity for women to learn and participate in the increasingly popular, yet male-dominated game of poker. And for every registered participant, the Women’s Poker Classic donated $50 to the CBCF. Between that and a silent auction, $32,420 was raised for breast cancer awareness. Over 600 women gathered for the event (Feb. 22-25). When compared to expected sales (based on the three weeks pre-average), the four day period generated incremental revenues of up to $1,533,139, an overall increase of 13 percent. The tournament also created new player development opportunities for the casino in addition to generating positive public perception and community involvement.
Gold Award:
‘I Am’ Black Oak Casino (human resources PR campaign)
—Black Oak Casino
This was a campaign designed to develop a team philosophy and pride in the property’s diversity to help meet its recruitment needs for staffing the property. Black Oak branded its recruitment efforts with an “I Am� campaign that included standalone identity for employee recruitment on the Web; (www.Iamblackoakcasino.com, which links to Silkroad Technology for application and job description, as well as data tracking); brochures; radio spots; themed newspaper ads; and themed posters in the recruitment areas featuring individual team members. As a result, the property was able to fill virtually all of its openings and brought retention figures from 25 percent down to 15 percent. By having team members tell personal stories, it has appealed to better applicants, as well as put a community-based face on the casino’s operations.
Silver Award:
First Annual Native Fall Music Fest
—Creek Nation Casino
In celebration of Native American Month and in commemoration of the casino’s 22nd anniversary, Creek Nation teamed up with the Tulsa Indian Club to present the first Native Fall Music Fest in November of 2006. The two-day outdoor festival (held in the property’s parking lot) was held in conjunction with the casino’s own Bedlam Blowout celebration, and each was well-attended. On the first day, autograph sessions from three of college football’s past Heisman Trophy winners were held. Coin-in in the casino that day was up 34.9 percent over the same day in the previous year, while coin-in on the other two days was up 16.9 percent. The event also showed community involvement and Native American awareness with cultural foods, celebrations and music.
Small to mid-sized casinos (Less than 1,000 gaming positions)
Diamond Award:
Busted Bridge Bonus Bucks
—Silver Reef Hotel Casino Spa
When an oversized truck load took out the direct access bridge to the small Washington State casino property, Silver Reef saw its casino revenues drop off 50 percent in the days after. Acting fast, the property’s marketing staff launched a campaign to reeducate customers as to how to get to the casino via another route, offering players a $5 coupon with a new map on how to get to the property. The efforts not only recaptured the players that had avoided the area, but actually served to increase revenues as well. As a result, the property was able to maintain hotel occupancy and restaurant covers, and Silver Reef’s market share was not impacted during the time it took to repair the bridge.
Gold Award:
Tenth Anniversary Gala & PR Campaign
—Casino Regina
Casino Regina saw its 10th anniversary in January of 2006 as the ideal opportunity to reflect on—and tout—its developments and community involvement over the past decade. The property held a celebration and supporting public relations campaign to reach the public and select target audiences including: influential community, business and political leaders; 10-year staff and executive team; local media and high-value players. More than 400 guests attended the public event, where a video presentation showcased how the property has positively influenced the communities it touched, including aiding tourism, contributing to the provincial general fund and philan-thropy. Employees, meanwhile, were treated to celebrations of their own and gifts were bestowed to show gratification. Surveys were conducted during the event and feedback from guests and officials proved highly positive.
There were no Silver Awards presented in the category.
CASINO FLOOR PROMOTION
Large casinos (1,000 or more gaming positions)
Diamond Award:
$125,000 Ultimate Blackjack Tour Blackjack Hall of Fame Invitational
—Barona Valley Ranch Resort & Casino
This two-day elimination blackjack tournament was designed to promote the Barona Blackjack product by leveraging sponsorship with CBS’s Ultimate Blackjack Tour. The tournament winner took home $10,000 and earned a spot to compete for a $100,000 prize before a national television audience. The tournament was the largest of any of the worldwide qualifiers. Three-day results (surrounding the tournament) included over $4.3 million in slot handle, $2.4 million in table game drop and a total actual revenue of $706,500—a 145 percent favorable variance from projections. Actual profit from the event was $467,000 or 460 percent more than was projected. The tournament also significantly raised Barona’s brand awareness, as well as awareness in blackjack tournaments.
Gold Award:
3-Day New Year’s Party
—Feather Falls Casino
One day was not enough for Feather Falls’ New Year’s celebration. The property’s marketing officials wanted to top what was already the property’s all-time high drop day. So Feather Falls staff promoted its three-day event with in-house signage, print publications, billboards, direct mail pieces and radio and television spots. With a $20,000 cash giveaway, free shows and smaller amounts of free slot play, the property was able to attract huge crowds for the three-day period. The efforts far exceeded what competing casinos were offering, and the result was the top drop day in the casino’s 10-year history.
Silver Award:
Fit In/The Cars and Cash Giveaway
—Feather Falls Casino
The marketing team at Feather Falls had noticed recent television commercials for the Honda Fit were dominating its local market. With that preexisting market demand and the cost of gas on players’ minds, the property decided to give away five Honda Fits with its “Fit In� promotion. In addition, winners also received $7,000 in cash and got to pick the color of their cars. The giveaway increased the casino’s drop 43 percent over a similar car promotion it ran a year prior.
Small to mid-sized casinos (Less than 1,000 gaming positions)
Diamond Award:
The Win’dicator Has Landed at the Fort
—Fort McDowell Casino
This was a joint promotion with Coca-Cola to attract new and current players to the casino. During the promotion, customers would swipe their Winner’s Circle player club cards daily to qualify for three different grand prizes: a 2006 Pontiac Solstice convertible; a Seadoo watercraft with trailer; or an eight-day Carnival Cruise for two people. But each time customers swiped their cards, they were also given the opportunity to participate in a touchscreen spin for a chance to win a Coca-Cola Win’dicator. If the Win’dicator was won, customers would receive a receipt indicating they’d won. That receipt would be redeemed at the property’s Winner’s Circle, where a staff member would pull the tab on the Win’dicator. If it lit up and began blinking, the player knew he won a prize such as a free concert, food, events or cash. During the event, Fort McDowell experienced 98 percent customer satisfaction and the casino’s revenue jumped 38 percent over the same period a year before. The event also generated national exposure and media coverage.
Gold Award:
Christmas Bonus Promotion
—Casino Regina
Casino Regina’s Christmas Bonus promotional strategy was to increase traffic by attracting incremental visits from carded members and holiday shoppers in and around the property’s downtown Regina location. The promotion featured daily cash giveaways of $1,500 at Casino Regina and $500 at its sister property in Moose Jaw between Dec. 1 and Dec. 23 of last year. At both properties entry tickets were earned with every 250 points on patrons’ player cards, and in Moose Jaw, shoppers could also earn an entry with every $100 spent at participating retailers. The promotion was heavily promoted in players club newsletters, newspaper ads, radio spots and in-property signage, as well as by the participating retailers. Because of the efforts, gross revenue increased by 18.4 percent over the previous year’s holiday season.
Silver Award:
Winner’s Party
—The Mill Casino Hotel
The Mill Casino’s Winner’s Party program invites all players club members who have won a hand-paid jackpot during the most recent two-month period to return on the last Monday of the month for a catered party. Prize drawings are held with a possible top prize worth $50,000 in cash, a Mercedes Benz or a Sea Swirl Boat. The parties drive business on a traditionally slow night, capture a diverse mix of players for additional play and build greater awareness of jackpots being won at the casino. Play from the parties is carefully measured against normal play and attendee trends are measured over time. Over the course of the program, the parties have averaged a 300 percent return on investment and attendees generally play an average of 13 percent more on party evenings than on normal visits to the property.
VIP PROMOTION
Large casinos (1,000 or more gaming positions)
Diamond Award:
Barona’s The ‘Reel’ Thing VIP Slot Tournament
—Barona Valley Ranch Resort & Casino
The strategy in offering the “Reel� Thing Slot Tournament to Barona’s VIP players was to create a profitable event that was both entertaining and rewarding for players. This was accomplished by leveraging Barona’s relationship with Coca-Cola to provide vintage décor and giveaways to tie in the familiar nostalgia of the Coca-Cola brand, as well as utilizing the room setup from a slot tournament the previous day. Response was overwhelming as 316 VIP players participated in the one-day event, enjoying free food and beverages, while each vied for a $5,000 top prize. While the event’s costs were 22 percent under budget ($42,000), it boasted $239,000 in total actual revenue, yielding a 65 percent profit percentage. In addition, participants were eligible for a $1,000 early bird drawing. That drawing was successful in extending the visit if players and resulted in more than $3.4 million in slot handle and more than $240,000 in table drop.
Gold Award:
Barona’s $125,000 Slot Tournament
—Barona Valley Ranch Resort & Casino
Barona sought to attract extremely high-worth players from both inner and outer market areas by offering a highly-exclusive slot tournament featuring the property’s largest-ever first place prize of $100,000. This elegant two-day tournament was limited to 100 of Southern California’s best players and featured generous payouts, coveted gifts, an appealing menu and an engaging tournament format. Four total groups each played in three 10-minute rounds, where the top scorer advanced to the final round. To extend the stay of unlucky participants, wildcard places were drawn immediately prior to the final round. As an added incentive to stay, a “second chance� drawing for five $1,000 prizes was held immediately after the awarding of the $100,000 top prize. The event generated $15.1 million in slot handle (108 percent positive variance from proforma), more than $756,000 in table drop (247 percent positive variance from proforma) and more than $495,000 in actual profit.
Silver Award:
Picture Perfect Players Promotion
—Barona Valley Ranch Resort & Casino
The Picture Perfect Players Promotion was created to achieve the strategic objective of acquiring headshot images of our most valuable guests to allow Barona’s executive hosts to better serve guests while protecting valuable benefits. Diamond-level members received one entry into a drawing for their share of up to $20,000 for having an updated picture taken for their Club Barona card. The promotion generated 660 new photos. At the promotion’s finale, 10 members names were drawn and received $1,000, which was doubled if the patron was present during the drawing. The promotion generated a 74 percent profit margin of over $110,000, and it improved guest loyalty and player development.
Small to mid-sized casinos (Less than 1,000 gaming positions)
There were no Diamond Awards presented in this category
Gold Award:
Club 55 Champagne Brunch
—Northlands Park
Once a month, Northlands Park invites 90 of its top jackpot-winning Club 55 members—and a guest—to its exclusive Club 55 Champagne Brunch. The promotion focuses on continuing to build relationships with the property’s loyal Club 55 guests. The brunch costs just under $5,000 to put together and is held on what is projected to be the weakest Monday of each month. The brunches average a 21.5 percent increase in total slot cash played compared to the average of all other Mondays in a calendar year. Since no other competitors offer such a brunch, the event has gone a long way toward player development and retention for Northlands Park as well.
Silver Award:
VIP Special Dinners
—Fort McDowell Casino
Free breakfasts, lunches and dinners are held during each month for Fort McDowell Casino’s VIP players and one invited guest each. VIP players also receive discounted coupons at the property’s Peaks Steakhouse. The free dinner nights, property officials said, have been a huge success, as hundreds of customers visit the casino and play. Revenues on the dinner nights increase by up to 34 percent. Revenues also increase in other areas of the property as well, including the bingo hall and gift shop.
DIRECT MAIL MARKETING
Large casinos (1,000 or more gaming positions)
Diamond Award:
Global Cash Access Winter 2006-2007 Prospecting DM Campaign
—Barona Valley Ranch Resort & Casino
Barona’s Global Cash Access Prospecting Campaign targeted suspected high-worth players in the markets of Los Angeles County, Orange County and San Diego County, with the goals of acquiring and developing new high-value Club Barona members and driving incremental casino visitation and revenue during the slower winter season. Global Cash Access operates ATM machines in Las Vegas and San Diego casino properties and sells trans-actional information for ATM customers to complete cash advance transactions on credit cards. Assuming those advances are used for gaming and tat each player’s ADT would be calculated based on a percentage of their average cash advance and/or aggregate 12-month transaction total, Barona was able to develop a list of 45,500 individuals in these target areas that appeared to offer quantifiable propensities to gamble and are close enough to visit with some frequency. The campaign generated 2,142 new Club Barona members in just four months with an average daily theoretical worth of $162. These patrons have averaged 1.6 gaming days and thus far have generated $665,000 in actual win. By the end of 2007, those patrons are expected to have averaged 4.1 gaming fays and generate more than $1.3 million in total incremental theoretical win.
Gold Award:
The Pirate’s Booty
—Feather Falls Casino
The goal of Feather Falls Casino’s Pirate’s Booty campaign was to surpass the success of the April Green box campaign it held a year earlier. So the property started simple—with a teaser. The direct mail piece was little more than a personalized treasure map. Next, the property mailed out customized treasure boxes with the Feather Falls logo. In each were booty coins and an insert explaining that players were eligible to receive $7 in free play every day in April. The free play was automatically added to player cards eliminating the need to wait in line to redeem the play. To encourage interactivity with club guests, the property added the booty coins which could be redeemed at players’ convenience for entry tickets to win the Big Booty, which was a $20,000 cash giveaway. The results were that daily carded play increased 18 percent, while drop increased 15 percent. On Big Booty Day, the overall response rate was 56 percent. The promotion was so successful that new member signups have also increased by nearly 17.3 percent.
Silver Award:
Club Barona Bi-Monthly ‘Newsletter’ DM Campaign
—Barona Valley Ranch Resort & Casino
This 1,650-plus segment campaign is a retention and loyalty effort designed to inform and reward players with the offers and content they care about most. It carries relevant, one-to-one variable content to Barona’s most valuable active players, as well as a large portion of retention-based cash, hotel, free entry, food and other offers. These offers are designed to drive business during specific periods. All of the pieces are digitally printed and allow for complete personalization of offers, content, images, messaging, etc. An average round of this campaign generates a gross margin of 76 percent from tens of thousands of offer-redeeming players. It has also successfully increased player/trip visitations to the property.
Small to mid-sized casinos (Less than 1,000 gaming positions)
There were no Diamond Awards presented in this category
Gold Award:
Warm & Cozy Promotion
—Sky City Casino Hotel
Sky City’s Warm & Cozy Promotion was designed to increase visitation and spend with high-value casino customers. The promotion’s “build a gift� set included merchandise with Sky City logos, featuring a fleece tote, scarf, gloves, hat and jacket. Premier players received a coupon sheet with one item of the Warm & Cozy set available each week. The promotion lasted five weeks. The finale was a drawing for an electric free-standing fireplace. Entries for that grand prize were based on the number of Warm & Cozy items that players redeemed. Return on investment for the promotion was 904 percent. Total tracked casino net win for the target market was $64,416. The campaign was also successful in “stealing visits� from competing casinos.
Silver Award:
Mad Money Postcard
—Oaklawn Jockey Club
Oaklawn’s marketing team described its postcard promotions as “embarrassingly simple, yet consistently effective.� For the Mad Money effort, the property targeted 10,000 players—each which received a postcard that doubled as their entry slip for a one-day cash drawing. To enter, players simply had to visit the casino and drop their entry into the barrel. To keep the crowds around, Oaklawn spaced four separate drawings throughout the day, with the biggest coming last. The drawing created near-capacity floor occupancy and targeted players generated $547,855 in incremental coin-in. Incremental revenue for the event was $43,828, more than four times of the promotion’s cost ($9,989). CJ
