MGM Resorts International announced last week that it would invest millions of dollars into its ‘Welcome To The Show’ marketing campaign that would be launched across television, digital and social media platforms. MGM Resorts owns some of the most well known casino resorts in America and Macau and is one of the premier casino operators in the world today. The company is looking to transform its image from being one of the major gaming operators into a company that provides world class entertainment throughout all of its 27 properties.
Welcome To The Show
The company hired advertising firm McCann New York to handle its ‘Welcome To The Show’ campaign and they have already launched a 60 second video that has started to air across the country on television. The minute long video focuses on MGM’s vast portfolio of non-gaming offerings which includes entertainment shows, sporting events, nightclubs, restaurants and bars. There is no reference made to its casino floors, gaming tables or slot machines.
MGM is investing millions of dollars into this campaign and is still not promoting its massive casino portfolio, which shows that the company is serious on rebranding itself. MGM has more than 2 million square feet of combined gaming space across all of its properties. That is the equivalent of nearly 35 football fields and is the one common threat that links all MGM properties across the world.
Focus On Entertainment Activities
However it makes sense that MGM is highlighting its non-gaming offerings because non-gaming entertainment brings in more than 60 percent of the total revenue generated in Las Vegas. Macau’s gaming regulator has also asked the six major casino operators in the region to diversify their portfolio and concentrate more on non-gaming offerings. MGM Resorts addresses both markets with this marketing campaign and also positions itself to be one of the main casino operators that is likely to win a casino license in Japan as the country is in the process of developing integrated resorts – which is a combination of gaming and entertainment facilities.
McCann New York will run the 60 second television ad till the end of this year and will also release another 160 second video that will run across digital platforms such as YouTube. The longer video has a 2 second reference to the gaming industry but the focus is once again on the entertainment available at MGM properties. The video shows scenes of a crowded nightclub with confetti dropping, dancers performing on stage, acrobats swinging in the air and sparks flying out of champagne bottles.
Millennials Targeted
Casino operators across the world are targeting the lucrative millennial market segment that have preferred to stay away from traditional forms of gaming such as casino floors and have expressed interest in shows, nightclubs, concerts and sports. MGM is also reaching out to this millennial market segment through its new campaign and McCann New York has used a number of catchy slogans such as ‘The world’s leading producer of OMG’ and ‘We are in the holy sh*t business’ to appeal to them. MGM is also promoting heavily on the SnapChat app which millennials use extensively.
Marketing Analysts Share Their Views
There are some marketing analysts who say that MGM’s marketing campaign may not have the impact that they expect due to the use of explicit or implied profanity. Aimee Drolet Rossi who works as a marketing professor at the University of California believes it’s a mistake for MGM Resorts to promote itself as being in the holy sh*t business’ as the company does a lot more than that. Rossi also states that campaigns which use profanity capture their audiences attention for just a moment and then quickly fade.
However some marketing analysts disagree as they say that profanity will not have that much of a negative impact since it’s the Las Vegas market. MGM is also using Twitter to promote its marketing campaign and so far the stats from Twitter show that the marketing campaign is creating a lot of buzz. MGM’s marketing tweets received as many as 150 retweets each during a 24 hour period – which is close to 10 times the average of regular MGM tweets. Marketing analysts believe that if MGM is to successfully transform its image into an entertainment company, then it needs to run a multi-year marketing campaign.