best of the best: 2011 sherpie award winners

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THE BEST OF THE BEST IN CASINO SOCIAL MEDIA//

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Mohegan SunBest Use of Facebook Connect


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Best Use of Facebook Connect:Mohegan Sun -“Shine Maker”Facebook Connect is a way for you to login to a regular website using your Facebook profile, allowing it to pull some of your personal content such as photos and friends’ names. Mohegan Sun used this platform very effectively for their new app, the Shine Maker, which creates custom user-generated experiences that’ll leave you feeling like a star. Imagine creating your own unique Shining Moment: inviting your entourage of Facebook friends, and customizing how much you want to relax, socialize, savor, splurge, rock, and of course, game. These selections lead you to a custom video catered specifically to you, showing what kind of excitement is waiting for you at Mohegan Sun. The Connect platform makes it easy to share this video with your friends on Facebook and Twitter, spreading word of the casino’s brand even further across the web.

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CosmopolitanBest Use of Twitter



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Best Use of Twitter:The Cosmopolitan of Las VegasThe Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas uses Twitter for what it’s truly meant to be: a two-way conversation directly with their consumers. They recognize that Twitter is essentially a vehicle for customer service, and that you must take the time to respond to your patrons, even when the comments are negative. The Cosmopolitan makes their followers – a group they call the “curious class” – feel appreciated and exclusive. This group is interested in art, photography, film, music, food, wine, cocktails, design, architecture, and travel, and they would much rather read “stories worth sharing” than see an unending stream of self-promotion. The Cosmopolitan continues to engage this audience by tweeting a distinct balance of questions, promotional posts, VIP deals and interesting tidbits that pertain to their followers. With a mix of clever content, Retweets of positive mentions, and ongoing personable interactions, Cosmopolitan has truly humanized their brand in the social space. The young Vegas casino earned a well-deserved following of over 9,000 in the six months prior to opening, and they have since reached over 25,000 followers to date. Now that’s something worth tweeting about.

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Caesars EntertainmentBest Use of Geo-location Platforms



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Best Multi-Property Branding Initiative:Caesars Entertainment - “No Resort Fees/Angry Showgirls”Caesars Entertainment set themselves apart from the highly competitive gaming market by eliminating resort fees at all of their Las Vegas properties. Rather than simply announcing this change, they built an integrated social marketing campaign around it, incorporating all nine of their Vegas casinos into a social movement. The campaign started with an “Angry Showgirls” rally, in which Caesars closed the Strip to traffic as over 50 showgirls marched up Las Vegas Boulevard with signs supporting the “No Resort Fees” rallying cry. During the stunt, #NoResortFees and #AngryShowgirls trended locally on Twitter, with USA TODAY and MSNBC among the media outlets who covered the event nationally. Next, Caesars Entertainment banded together their nine properties online to pose the question, “What If Real Life Had Resort Fees?” A user-generated video contest allowed Facebook fans of each casino to voice their own opinions and join the conversation. All nine properties echoed the “No Resort Fees” message in their Facebook profile pictures and in the content they posted. A true team effort, if you ask us. Collectively, this campaign received nearly 6,000 “Likes” on Facebook, over 14,000 YouTube views, and an impressive amount of engagement among Caesars’ social media community.

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River CityBest Online-Meets-Offline Promotion



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Best Online-Meets-Offline Promotion:River City Casino -“Hide-and-Go-Eat”River City Casino leveled up their social interaction by creating a scavenger hunt involving twenty double-sided paper coins hidden throughout the property. They asked their Facebook fans to step away from their computers and come into the casino in search of one of the gold coins, which would win them a dinner for two at 1904 Steakhouse. This hide-and-seek promotion not only created awareness for the restaurant, but also added a little excitement for the casino’s flock of Facebook fans. During the two weeks that the promotion ran, River City gained hundreds of new Facebook fans and received over 120,000 page views. It also turned online engagement into real-life interaction, followed by more online engagement as fans returned to the Facebook page to put their coins up.

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Tropicana Atlantic CityBest Social PR Stunt



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Best Social PR Stunt:Tropicana Casino & Resort -“That’s Bull! (April Fools’ Hoax)”This past April Fools’ Day, Tropicana and AC Weekly teamed up to stage a bullish stunt that would generate a lot of online conversations. But the stunt alone wasn’t what won them a Sherpie – it’s the way they integrated it into their social media outlets that amplified the buzz exponentially. Tropicana published a realistic photo of a bull standing in the casino’s mecca of shopping and dining, The Quarter. They knew that Facebook was the perfect place for exclusive, real-time content, so it was only fitting that this breaking news story would be leaked for their 25,000+ fans to see first. This fun and shocking buzz builder not only drew attention to the Tropicana brand, but also created chatter about the rodeo that was in town for April Fools’ Day weekend. The post on Facebook received over 45,000 impressions, and the article bucked its way into the number one spot of AC Weekly’s Most Popular Articles on their entire website. Trop followed the story up with fun appearances by a cute costumed bull all over the property, posting these photos on their Facebook page to create even more conversations.

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Caesars EntertainmentBest Multi-Property Branding Initiative



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Best Use of Geo-Location Platforms:Caesars Entertainment -“The Great Race to Rewards” and “Top Guest”Caesars Entertainment was an early adapter of the geo-location platform Top Guest, in which patrons can earn points by “checking in” to various Caesars properties across the country or by sharing photos with their social networks. In addition, Caesars infused the location-based craze into their Total Rewards program by creating “The Great Race to Rewards.” This multi-faceted promotion encouraged Total Rewards members to check in to their favorite Caesars properties, find secret codes on Facebook, and enter them into the mobile site to win prizes. The microsite was easy to use, easy to share, and offered several ways for visitors to win. Caesars’ geo-location strategy succeeded because they tied in a game dynamic that every casino-goer loves: incentive. From badges to reward credits, gift cards to getaways – there was a little something to win for everyone involved. The result: web traffic turned foot traffic, followed by even more web traffic as patrons sustain a perpetual cycle of online and on-property interaction.

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PechangaBest App / Interactive Game



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Best App / Interactive Game: Pechanga Resort & Casino -“Slot Wars”

Pechanga Resort & Casino has become quite the leader in the social gaming space. Their latest go-round, called Slot Wars™ is an interactive Facebook game in which fans can customize their own slot machines and “battle” other players to see who has the highest scoring creation. This has not only engaged Pechanga’s Facebook fans significantly – it also got them thinking and talking about the casino’s primary product, and sharing it with their friends. At its peak, Slot Wars had 10,000 active players from Southern California (one of Pechanga’s core markets), and fans spent an astounding average of 40 minutes per session playing the game. These players also significantly increased their slot play on-property, and 75% of them felt more positively about the Pechanga brand than before they played the game. Overall, a win-win for this West Coast resort.

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MGM Grand Las VegasBest Viral Video Campaign



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Best Viral Video Campaign:MGM Grand Las Vegas -“You Decide”MGM Grand Las Vegas opted to make their ‘traditional’ media social by producing a series of choose-your-own-adventure-style TV spots specifically for YouTube. The videos start out with a couple or a group of friends checking into the casino’s hotel. Sounds pretty normal, right? Here’s the twist: you get to click and decide whether the characters will have a good experience, or a bad one. This creative use of YouTube annotations kept MGM’s audience engaged in the storyline of the commercials, because they got to participate in what happened next. Not to mention, an exclusive room rate deal was revealed at the end of the “Good” video, giving viewers even more reasons to share this experience across their social networks. These ads helped MGM Grand develop stronger brand recognition, engagement, and true ‘viral” status, reaching well over 200,000 views in only a matter of weeks.

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CosmopolitanBest in Show

Best Overall Use of Social Media



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// Best in Show

MASTERMINDS

CASE STUDY #1

Noah BesheerInteractive Media Specialist

Lumiere Place Casino & Hotels / River City Casino

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“Hide and Go Eat”

River City Casino Noah Besheer

Re-‐launch of 1904 Steak House

•  Create an@cipa@on for the re-‐launch of 1904 Steak House.

•  Give people the chance to try the food.

Execu@on

•  We hid 20 golden coins all over the property.

•  Customers who found a coin received a free dinner for two.

•  We also asked them to post a picture of the coin on Facebook.

Where did we promote it?

•  Facebook •  Signage on casino floor •  Website •  TwiNer •  Digital screens •  Direct Mail

Results

•  Drove customers to the property. •  More than 200 new fans in two weeks (over 2x our average).

•  120,000+ Facebook page views (over 5x our average).

•  300+ Facebook comments on the promo.

Takeaways

•  The “game” concept works well. •  Keep it fun. •  Keep it simple (golden football).

MASTERMINDS

CASE STUDY #2

Ryan ChartrandSocial Media Strategist

Pechanga Resort & Casino

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http://youtu.be/OnroWUMEB3A

http://youtu.be/oWV7egROMvY?hd=1

MASTERMINDS

CASE STUDY #3

Eric PetersonManager, Social Marketing Strategy

Caesars Entertainment Corp.

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