MRI Casino Marketing Blog
Optimize Your Casino's Success

The ability to optimize comes from experience and understanding your guests. Casino players vary in their frequency and spend, and the first step to optimization comes from analyzing both the guests’ behaviors and the attributes of your casino to understand the changes that lead to achieving your goals - whether that be growth, loyalty or a combination of both.

For over thirty years, Marketing Results, a casino marketing agency, has provided analytical tools, accountability and transparent results to ensure improvement. And in that time, we’ve seen numerous casinos find success through optimization. 

In one case, MRI was hired to assist a predominantly locals’ casino located in Eastern Washington. This casino had plans to expand the current local gaming operation into a resort-style property with four-star accommodations, meeting space, a spa, multiple food outlets and an expanded gaming facility. To achieve this, property management would need to show there was significant revenue potential to justify the expenses associated with this endeavor.

Marketing Results was hired to develop strategies and communications to attract a greater number of customers to the property and to expand the reach of current programs to attract customers from a wider regional area. 

We then evaluated each element that could be optimized to reach the casino’s goals. Here’s what we found:

• Player Defection - Although the property was attracting a fair amount of new members, the influx of customers was offset by declines in the active casino database due to customer defection. These database trends caused the number of active customers to remain stagnant for a period of several years.
• Players Club - An operational assessment revealed that the players’ club enrollment process was lengthy and impersonal. The casino database reported a significant number of high-end players, however the system issues limited the property’s ability to create a premium club level to appropriately reward high-end players
• Player Development - Player development efforts consisted of informal communications between upper management and the casino’s highest value players. There was not a defined comp policy, department structure or host goals.
• Database Marketing - The casino database marketing programs focused heavily on active customers and made little attempt to differentiate communications and strategies to specific segments. 
• Advertising - Casino advertising messages emphasized entertainment rather than messaging that could truly differentiate the property from competitor casinos in the region.  
• Analytics - Monthly reporting for customer database trends, campaign results and event performance did not exist.

First things first, as a casino marketing agency, Marketing Results implemented a monthly set of management reports to review database and campaign performance, illustrating database segments that were growing and areas in decline. A bi-weekly meeting was established with upper management to review findings and discuss strategies for future growth. This collaborative look allowed for quick iteration to what we were seeing in the reports.

We then implemented a structured database marketing program with specific campaigns to address customers in each stage of the customer life cycle (prospects, new customers, retained customers, defectors and reactivated customers).  

Marketing Results, working alongside the casino marketing team, developed a multi-tiered players club structure to provide incentives and benefits to current high valued customers and to attract new high valued customers. This was done through steady incremental changes that resulted in gains. 

The property was expanding in phases so we knew many of the amenity-based benefits would not be available immediately.  We used the same approach to roll out the club tiers in tandem with the property development.  This phased approach enabled property marketing to introduce new player benefits in a series of player events over the course of a year.  The end result was that both players and front line staff were well-informed of the new club structure.

To keep things consistent and educate on the changes being made for growth, Marketing Results provided player development training to managers and staff within the host department. The AIM® Player Development management system was implemented, host goals established with comp guidelines and monthly progress was measured to gauge success, all through the casino marketing software.

In advance of the hotel expansion, Marketing Results initiated database growth strategies to build a strong regional database of players to increase market share and revenue, ensure yield management of the hotel, and achieve occupancy goals.

Step by step, strategy by strategy, the casino saw growth.

• During the first 12 months the property experienced 29% gains in active customer accounts and 22% gains in total casino win over the prior year. The property experienced a year-over-year increase of 98% in the number of new members.
• The property exceeded its goal of increasing the size of the 12 month active player database from 70,000 players to over 110,000 to support the property expansion.

This multi-faceted approach of optimizing for growth required a structured plan to ultimately achieve the results the property was seeking.  This included property development, business intelligence, targeted database strategies, a restructured players club, player development and a yield management strategy. The education of players and staff on the changes to the rewards system and property enabled us to survey guests to ensure satisfaction and make course corrections along the way.  

Are you looking to optimize growth for your property in the next 12 months?  If so, our team would love to talk to you about how we can help.