Sneak Preview! Here's an excerpt from our July 2005 edition:

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CALIFORNIA
Thunder Valley Casino (Lincoln) – Thunder Strike Jackpot

Thunder Valley Casino has added two more ways to win more money with its very popular wide-area progressive jackpot. The Thunder Strike Jackpot is a wide-area progressive that can be hit by anyone playing any machine at the casino with a club card inserted. You do not need a jackpot to win. It starts at $50,000 and is guaranteed to hit by the time it reaches $150,000. Now players at Thunder Valley can add an additional $100,000 to the jackpot in one of two ways. First, by playing between midnight and 8 AM, a winner will add $50,000 to the total jackpot. Secondly, if a player wins while playing at a dollar denomination machine (or higher) they also add $50,000 to the total jackpot.

“This is a good example of using promotional jackpots and give-aways to target and achieve specific marketing goals. In this case, the targets are slow periods of play (trying to drive incremental revenue) and profitability (driving higher denomination, and therefore higher profitability, play from customers).

·        Slow Play Periods – We all know about them, hassle over them, struggle to fill them, and watch helplessly as our capacity goes unused and underutilized. And what more slow period than graveyard? For the almost thirty years we have been in this business, casinos have been trying to come up with successful ways to pump up graveyard business. And this looks like one of the better ones. First off, any player who has found themselves playing during the quiet times of graveyard knows that there aren’t many people around. And that means you have a far better chance of hitting the Thunder Strike Jackpot, especially when it is getting high and ready to hit. More than likely, this promotional amount add-on will drive a lot of incremental revenue during those periods when everyone is gunning for the top jackpot (when it is close to $150,000 and getting ready to hit). So hats off to Thunder Valley for zeroing in on a specific and worthy marketing objective, namely incremental revenue on the ‘QUIET’ shift, graveyard.

·        Top Denom Players – We constantly obsess over our $1, $5, and greater denom players. Do they have an assigned host? Are we doing all we can for them? Are we going to lose them to the casino down the street? Hey, these are our best, and most profitable, slot players, right? Well, maybe. But one thing is certain. Using promotional strategies that either reward, or incent, $1 or greater play on slots is an effective and highly profitable marketing strategy. As long as you have the capacity and facility to handle that kind of play. Thunder Valley does and this promotional add-on is a very targeted attempt to both reward and incent higher denomination play from customers. Several already play over $1 a spin on the multi-line videos. So getting them to move up, as this jackpot gets ready to hit, should not be that hard a task. And for many, we suspect they will be chasing the jackpot with dollars they were saving for another casino or possibly a trip to the movies. And that is the very definition of incremental revenue; discretionary dollars going to you that were earmarked for the competition. So once again hats off to Thunder Valley for a very targeted promotion. 

“We often talk about making our promotions highly targeted to specific segments of our database. But this promotion shows the value of not only targeting specific types of customers, but targeting specific marketing goals and building strategies around them. There is a lot of learning here for any casino that wants to start strategically driving their business rather than just letting it ‘happen.’” – S.B.

COLORADO
Riviera (Black Hawk)– Get Into The Prize

A while back, the Riviera Black Hawk Casino held a casino promotion called the $100,000 Motorhome Giveaway.  The promotion was conducted in fairly typical fashion – by drawing, with more drawing tickets earned based on casino play.  The actual motorhome was parked near the entrance to the casino and for three separate one-hour periods throughout each day, guests were allowed to tour the motorhome to be given away.  The tours were given by a Riviera Black Hawk employee stationed at the motorhome and signage alerted guests to the fact that tours were available at certain hours.

“Let’s not question whether a $100,000 motorhome is an appropriate casino promotion prize (might be in Colorado), or the philosophy of ONE BIG PRIZE versus lots of smaller prizes (hey, they can’t put the motorhome back into a slot machine!), or the rather limited hours of the motorhome tours.  Let’s focus on what’s important in this Riviera Black Hawk example and why it’s featured here – TANGIBILITY and SALESMANSHIP.  Casinos give away loads of different kinds of prizes that are meant to drive the desired gaming behavior – cars, trips, jewelry, RV’s, homes and more often than not, cash.  But it’s fairly rare for the great prize to be won, to actually be displayed, to be made, TANGIBLE, at the casino.  Oh sure, occasionally you’ll see a new car parked in front of the casino saying ‘Win Me,’ but for the most part, we do a pretty poor job of making our great prizes TANGIBLE for our customers or we relegate the job to sign makers or creative designers.  If these great prizes are meant to motivate our players, shouldn’t they be packaged and presented in an as enticing way as possible?  Isn’t that why car dealers try to get potential buyers into cars for test drives?

“The other example here involves SALESMANSHIP, which casinos (for the most part) have yet to embrace as part of their marketing culture.  I mean, if your business was giving away a $100,000 promotional prize, wouldn’t you want every one of your employees hyping it to your customers?  Typically, we’re lucky if we can get our employees to understand that there IS a promotion going on, what one or two key details are, and where to send guests for more information.  But wouldn’t it be great if casino employees could actually get ENTHUSED and telling guests things like, 'Hey, we’re giving away a top of the line motorhome, are you sure you have all of your tickets in the barrel?!?!!'          

“Although in this case I’m not suggesting the Riviera Black Hawk was super effective in 'selling their promotion,' at least they did put an apparatus in place to allow them that opportunity–the motorhome tours.  While I didn’t personally take the tour, it did create the perfect opportunity to not only show off your great prize, but also to encourage your customers to ‘go for it.’  This is the perfect time to show them how to get their free entries, how easy it is to get bonus entries, where the drawing takes place (so they can return), and how many secondary prizes there are and how easy they are to win.  Allowing motorhome tours should also give you leverage with the vendor who provided it, and give you some price discount (or at least free flooring), for providing all those ‘free test drives.’ 

“Casino promotions can drive business. But if you are giving away a big prize, act like it, and let your customers touch it, drive it, taste it – whatever.  It can only get them more excited – and more willing to participate!” – D. C.

Special Feature Section
Reflections From Abroad

By David Kranes

I recently returned from two weeks in Russia.  It wasn’t a casino trip, but the hotels we stayed at in Moscow and then – at the end of the trip – in Tallinn, Estonia were hotels with casinos.  Moscow casinos – from an American perspective – are rather unwelcoming, customer-unfriendly and worlds unto themselves.  Baltic casinos use American models, are light and contemporary and work hard at customer service. 

My own conclusions were that Russian casinos appeared to be trapped in the more-than-century-old amber of Dostoyevsky – mired in some prehistoric tar-pit conception of “The Gambler.”  The Baltic casinos of Olympic Casino Group, on the other hand, embraced the widening and diversifying of gaming’s core demographic and were looking toward the future.  It was hard to imagine Russian casino executives landing at McCarran to attend G2E in the fall.  Whereas I know the Estonians look forward to this trade show as a major annual event. 

Here’s what happened in Moscow.  The casino at the Hotel Cosmos spilled about fifty “teaser” slot machines out into the hotel lobby area.  Anyone having a “favorite” slot was not going to find it here.  There was no video poker product and the list after that is endless as to what you were not going to find – including Wheel-of-Fortune and Double Diamonds.  The gesture made to slot players was token.  Management didn’t appear to believe the machines were important other than to catch the hotel-guests’ eyes and serve as a kind of marker to the entrance to the casino. 

When I went to check out the casino, a man in a suit gruffly stopped me from entering and told me that I should talk to the girls at the casino reception desk.  These girls – more cordial than the suit but marginal in their command of English – informed me that there was a fifty-dollar “entrance fee.”

 “I work in the casino industry in America.  I just want to look around.” 
 “Fifty dollars.”
 “What do I get for my fifty dollars?” I asked.
 “Chips.”
 “Okay.  So, then, what I’ll do is: Buy my chips; walk in and look around; cash my chips out and leave.”
 “No.”
 “No?”
 “No.”
 “Why?”

I was told that the chips were non-negotiable.  I had to play with them.  If I won, I would receive real chips in payment, chips I could cash out when I chose.

The casino was dark, murky.  Its atmosphere was hard-core and compulsive.  The men in suits all frowned.  The women all looked like whores.  As I write this, it occurs to me that I might be overdramatizing.  But the point is: it was like a bad dream that I would not choose to go back to.

“Why do they do that?” I asked some Russians and then, later, some Estonians.

“The players who they want playing there don’t like to be watched by tourists.”

“But – during the short time I was there – no one was playing.”

“They depend on their Whales.  Everything is for the Whales.”

I thought:  You know, if Miami Beach depended on the whales for their tourist trade, their economy would plummet.  But perhaps I observe this out of ignorance.  Perhaps there are pods of enormously wealthy Whales whose table-game play and habits allow Moscow and St. Petersburg casinos to thrive.  Perhaps Russian disdain for the serf/working class is so powerful that any notion of including the bourgeois in casino activity offends them.

The opposite was true in our hotel in Estonia.  The casino was easily accessible – both from the lobby and from the dining room.  All staff warmly greeted those entering the casino area.  All forms of customer service were attractively offered by both men and women employees.  The casino was light and spacious and contemporary in design.  Staff were friendly and customer- sensitive.  The casinos of Olympic Casino Group have learned all their Steve Wynn lessons and learned them well.  In some ways – because the casinos are more boutique than mega – this group may be at the edge of “out-Wynning Wynn.”

The point is: because of these policies and approaches, Baltic casinos find their customer-base expanding, enlarging.  They find a greater call for slot play and do their best to provide the trendiest and most popular slot product.

The CEO of Olympic Casino Group with whom I met asked me, “What about creating a St. Petersburg themed casino – resort in Las Vegas?  Do you think it would be popular?”

“I think it might catch the American eye,” I said.  “I think it might be very popular.  Just don’t use the Russian model.”

HOW TO CONTACT RAVING CONSULTING COMPANY

If you are interested in securing the services of Raving Consulting Company or in implementing a Raving Promotion, please contact:

Dennis Conrad, President and Chief Strategist
Raving Consulting Company
475 Hill Street, Suite G
Reno, Nevada 89501
Phone: (775) 329-7864
FAX: (775) 329-4947
email: dennis@ravingconsulting.com