The article below is one I wrote for the most recent issue of the Raving Consulting Newsletter. Needless to say, I feel strongly about this topic, so I’ve decided to publish it here on our blog as well.

Two days ago my creative director and I were discussing ideas for a potential client, and we were arguing. We had a great business idea for the client, but the business idea didn’t match up with the advertising solution I was convinced the client wanted to buy from us. The client was looking for a new brand solution, and they very much liked our Grand Casino “What’s Your Grand Casino Story?” campaign. And so I thought the answer was to find a Guest-centric testimonial-like branding idea, but Cathy felt her idea — which was not a Guest-centric testimonial branding idea — she felt her idea was something better, something bigger, and something that could reposition the client and drive huge business. I said, “The client wants a brand campaign that looks like this.” And she said, “No, our job is to help our client use their marketing dollars to drive more business. And this idea is bigger than advertising. It’s a positioning idea that is something more. Remember, an ad is only as big as the billboard, but an idea can be much, much bigger.”

She is right, of course. I was just being stubborn, wanting to give the client what they asked for.

Here’s a perfect example of the power of great creative. The following was taken from the Sept/Oct issue of Communication Arts magazine. The agency work highlighted is from BooneOakley, an agency from North Carolina, and describes their first campaign project. It’s genius…

…Its first project — a single billboard with a picture of George W. Bush next to the Gore 2000 campaign logo — went up just two weeks prior to the 2000 election.

“It went up on a Friday and within an hour it was media bedlam.” said David Oakley. “I got calls from CNN and the Today Show asking, ‘How could you do this?’ I said, ‘We just opened this week, we’re a new agency, we’re aware of the mistake.’ They asked, ‘Who hired you the Democrats or Republicans?’ I said, ‘We’ve been instructed not to say, we’ll have the mix-up fixed on Monday.’”

“People were telling us that local radio DJs were trying to find out who the idiots were that put up that billboard,” John Boone said. “On Saturday, every major newspaper in the country and CNN Headline News had a story on the big billboard blunder.”

“We put out a press release stating the billboard would be corrected at 11:00 A.M. on Monday,” Oakley said. “At 11:00 A.M. there was an NBC News helicopter hovering and filming as it was being put up.” The “correction,” “Today’s job opening: proofreader,” earned a ton of free publicity for 123hire.com, a regional career site competing against Monster and CareerBuilder for market share. …

…it’s about using creative leverage to the client’s advantage. Doing work that gets noticed and talked about makes marketing dollars go farther and work harder.

There are a thousand ways to design a billboard to market a job finder website product. But BooneOakley found a creative solution that was a thousand times bigger than that one billboard. Likely half of America heard about 123hire.com’s clever billboard that week. How many tv ads and magazine ads and newspaper ads and web banners and billboards would be required to reach that many people? Do the math…it’s millions of dollars. BooneOakley’s creative IDEA saved 123hire.com millions in media costs. That’s the power of great creative.

So here’s my questions: As you contemplate which path to take as you explore your next round of creative, have you thought of any ways that you could make a bigger bang than what you’re currently making? Is the agency you hired willing to stretch a bit to deliver this kind of work?

When a business wants to examine where the money is going at any given time, the business owner calls accountants to do an audit. Those auditors are there to find discrepancies in what’s being paid for and what’s being delivered. The same can be true for your advertising.

And I am not talking about a Media Audit. You can always audit whether or not the media services you are paying for are performing as promised — that’s pretty clean math, and we will talk more about Media Audits in another posting.

For now, in this article, we’d like to encourage you to be asking the folks who do your advertising some important questions. You see, even though most people consider the creation of advertising to be an art form, there really is a good deal of science to it. There are certain “must do’s” that we believe you should be insisting on. The point of giving out rules for something as creative as advertising is that it is an investment like any other. You spend money to air it or print it. But first you spend money to create it – whether it’s the dollars paid to an ad agency or the time your team spends to help create it; once finished, it is a straight-up cost.

And you deserve to know that what you’ve paid for is doing the job you want it to do.

Part of the problem lies in the fact that many marketing groups and ad agencies are structured differently — and this makes it hard to compare the output of these competitors.

Here’s one little secret most agencies don’t like to talk about: they make the lion’s share of profit from selling media. That might mean that they care more about the quantity of ads they sell you than the quality. We look at things differently. We have studies that show that a few good ads work the way a lever does heavy lifting: they provide your property with a ton of measurable brand awareness, and leave your competitors outspending you 3-1, just trying to catch up.

Is auditing your creative a “hard science?” Hardly. The answers will never be a, b, c or 1, 2, 3. But when you look at — and produce — as much casino advertising as Red Circle does, you come to see that there are truisms for all great ads which can be observed and measured by more than a few peoples’ opinions. Good ads deliver far more than their media weight because people like them. And over time, (if your property is a good place) that attraction to those ads translates into brand loyalty.

Conversely, media dollars spent to air ads which are generic, hokey, condescending, unrelated to gaming/fun, or poorly produced actually cost you far more than the production expense because they are a drag on your media. It’s like pouring water through a leaky pipe — it will never get where it’s supposed to go.

So here are 6 questions you should ask of your ad resource. The answers they provide will likely help you evaluate if you are getting the best, most effective product for your advertising dollar.

1.) Is there an idea? Is there a story? All good advertising has a concept underneath it — a concept rooted in something true about your property. Think of it the way one talks about a great film. One might relay details of the plot, but in the end it is a story of “how, in the future, robots become so smart that they mark the smartest humans for extinction” (Terminator) or “How a great crime family has at its core, an intact old-world-style nuclear family.” (The Godfather) An idea is something that helps a viewer connect on an emotional level with your advertising — and therefore with your property. Without an idea, your ad is a video brochure that sells the generic idea of gaming. It may be doing nothing to promote your property. Does your advertising have “its own story” or is it a series of random film clips?

2.) If it has an idea, is that idea borrowed interest? Maybe you answered “Yes! I have an idea — the idea is all the funny things people might be doing instead of going to my casino.” If you have a comedy idea for your advertising, ask yourself (or your agency) does this idea really remind people of what is great about casino gaming? Or does it spend 20 seconds making a joke about something unrelated to gaming? If it is humor, is the humor juvenile or mean-spirited? If your ads are using borrowed interest to communicate all that is great about gaming, you might be surprised someday to find that many viewers don’t even know you advertise.

3.) Do your ads make your property seem unique? If you are showing people winning, spinning slot reels and blackjack dealers, you may be selling your competitor’s property. If you haven’t identified something that people associate (or could be taught to associate) with your property and no one else’s, charge your ad agency with finding out what that special something might be. Then say it in your ads like you really mean it.

4.) Does the advertising have a distinct personality? Although this is similar to the above question, it gets at something else: maybe you have a western decor while your competitor has a more Vegas-feel. Maybe you are known for your superior customer service. These things make a lasting impression on people – and these impressions mean memorability. Skilled agency strategists can help you get at what is your property’s “specialness” (it may not be what you think it is!) This distinctiveness of personality is the first step toward a competitive advantage.

5.) Are you penny wise and pound foolish with your ads? Lots of ad managers get brownie points with their GM for making bargain basement ads. The only trouble is that often those ads make your property look like the bargain basement. You almost always get what you pay for with creative. And the creative is one thing that everyone sees — it’s like your face. If you have gotten a real bargain from the local TV station then you may have same shooter who shoots footage of your local city council meetings. Is that really how you want to show your property’s best face?

6.) Are you underestimating your customer? Often advertising lets customers know what sorts of people the marketer wants as a customer. The marketers of BMW and Mercedes customers seem to know the style of advertising their customers are attracted to – their ads speak in a voice that appeals to the target. And though your property’s guests may be locals (which is true of many Indian casinos) those same people travel beyond your county. They fly to Vegas. They travel to larger cities. You may think they can’t tell the difference between a professional looking ad product and the one your videographer shot on a slow Tuesday night, but the fact is that they can. They know that smart professional-looking ads are a sign of a well-run professional property. So you may want to ask yourself, are my bad ads talking down to my good customers?

Here’s the one thing I would like you to remember: Most casinos are feeling the economic pinch these days so they’re looking for waste wherever it may be. It’s a great time for those who recognize that doing things the same old way is not going to change the outcome. It’s a great time for those who can spot the lazy ads, lay claim to that 250K -1M of waste in their ad budget and put it to better use. 90% of the time, it costs no more to create a great ad than it does to create a “me-too” ad.
And you deserve to get the full value of what you’re paying for.

Auditing your creative is a great place to start.

There is a lot of great stuff in this article about service, by Dennis Conrad of Raving Consulting. I believe few businesses truly understand just how important these things are and how much impact this makes. We respect and value the expert advice from Dennis and recommend Raving highly. Reading this article got me thinking further about the actual club structure and benefits, the meat and potatoes of a players club? When you’re comfortable with your service what else is going to increase the revenue generated from players? What benefits are most valuable, what should the overall reinvestment be and what about tiers? At Red Circle we start every club restructure with research. Without first examining the strengths and weaknesses of your database, your analysis and reporting, your history, your competition, your company structure, your technology, your capabilities and your guest feedback making changes is a stab in the dark. The condition of your database and your casino will be a large indication for the foundation of your new club. Be cautious of the people that tell you what structural or benefit changes you should make without first understanding the unique aspects of your business. At Red Circle our goal is to fully maximize your revenue and create efficiencies that make our business partners look like rock stars to their executive board and their guests. At Red Circle you won’t get the “everybody does it this way” approach, you’ll get fresh concepts that are focused on your needs and your guests feedback.

Last time I talked about how breaking the rule that says “watch what your competitor does and make sure you do that too” is the critical first step in creating a brand that gets people out of their houses and into your place. Now I will share with you a little secret. 

There is one rule that I believe in NEVER breaking. In fact it’s more than rule – it’s almost like a system of beliefs about what makes ads good.

Of course there are some basics: 1) good brand registration, 2) quality look and feel – after all, you can’t really expect people to look at a commercial that was shot at your local TV station for 500 dollars then somehow think that same ad makes a good stand-in for your multimillion dollar property; and 3) uniqueness of concept and 4) memorability of concept.

Once you’re kept true to the four basics, I would add this as a rule that one should never break: Respect your viewer and treat him/her as a friend. The ad you develop should create a friendship with the viewer – and because of that friendship, you have certain responsibilities. If it is a target customer you don’t know yet, you have to be especially sensitive to the rules of friendship. You do not make fun of your new friends. Even when you do comedy, you do not portray people in your ads as objects of ridicule – even if they are meant to be caricatures of people who are not in your target. Insult NO ONE with your ads. It’s just basic good business. I am constantly amazed by the tonnage of ads that air everywhere every year which make fun of people the way a 9th grade bully does – laughing at them, not with them. 

It also makes sense that if you agree that you should not insult or degrade people in your ads, that it might be a good idea to establish an emotional connection with them. That’s why most of our favorite campaigns we’ve done for our Red Circle clients use some core truth-of-the-heart about gaming to show how a guest feels about a great experience at casino. What makes it memorable and, just as important, what makes that memory proprietary to your place. Take a look at our work for Grand Casino and Kewadin Casinos, especially.

If you ever meet anyone who says that people who work in advertising have no souls or convictions, would you please send them my number? Or write to me at cathy@redcircleagency.com. I would beg to differ!

While a recent gaming survey touts happy casino employees, how does your company rank? Would the employees surveyed in your casino lower or increase the averages and how does that affect your business?

I believe that good employees are your number one asset, even more so than slot machines. You’re probably thinking that yes, good employees are important but let’s not get crazy and say they are more important than our gaming devices. Well, if you’ve ever listened to Steve Browne you’ve heard that your customers come to your casino hoping to win, expecting to loose and wanting to have a good time. It truly is a good time that you are selling and I’m a firm believer that gamers have too many options to spend their money in a joint that doesn’t treat them well or show them a good time.

I’m also a firm believer that you can train the necessary job skills to an employee that has a great attitude but that you can’t train a great attitude to most employees regardless of their job skills. Finding the right job fit for each employee might be tough and may even seem impossible but the benefits will reach every realm of your operation. A happy employee is often contagious and so is an unhappy employee.

Yet, we can’t stop with just hiring great employees in the right job we also must understand that good leadership is essential. Poor management cripples great employees. Managers must be dedicated to leading by example and truly willing to stand in the trenches alongside their employees when the going gets tough. There are also a lot of great employee recognition and reward programs out there. I would suggest that if your company isn’t offering one to your employees that you look into one soon. Yes, I know that we are in times that require the cutting of programs and not the creation of them; however, how many customers can you afford to lose due to a negative interaction or heck even just a better interaction at your competition?

So where are you going to get all of these good employees and great managers? Are fair wages and good benefits enough to attract and make happy and loyal employees? I will agree that they are a good start but after time they will be unable to combat the pressures of a negative work environment. In my opinion in order for casino employers to ensure that the workforce of good employees is large enough to support business and expansions we must simply strive to be the best employer in not just our markets but within our states and even our regions.

What does it take to be the best employer? To me it is simple but yet very difficult for most businesses to achieve. Every employee must believe that they are very valuable to our company and treated fairly. They must know that they are valuable to the management team, the executive team and even the owners or band members at large, whichever it may be. Employees must know that your business is successful because of their great efforts. They must feel that you’ve been fair and honest with them. Allow them opportunities to make decisions and even mistakes for the guest’s benefit. Employees should not only be able to treat every customer as a guest in their own home they must also want to.

A good employee can make you millions of dollars and a bad employee or a good employee in the wrong job can cause you to lose millions of dollars.

Have you ever had this happen? You call a customer service line at some big company with a problem. And a miracle happens: you get some wonderful person on the line who says to you something like “I’m not supposed to do this but…” and with that phrase you realize that something unique and memorable just happened. You are someone for whom a rule has been broken. You have been singled out as someone who is special. I would suggest that it works the same with what many would consider to be the “rules of advertising.”

Ad agency creative people love to extol the virtues of rule breaking. They’ll tell you about how breaking the rules is the only way to make an impact on customers. I can’t say that I disagree totally. If the rules you are breaking are things like “always show people with big toothy smiles, playing cards or dice,” then yes, these are rules ripe for breaking. If you don’t believe it, try this experiment: get a clipboard, and spend an afternoon at your local mall interviewing people who might be your gaming target, and ask them the following questions: tell me the name of a casino whose advertising you remember. Now tell me what do you remember about it? Don’t be surprised to learn that most people think casino ads are a blur of sameness and they can’t remember a single distinctive ad from a property, not even one that spends 100s of thousands each year to run advertising.

So if your rule is to always show the same sorts of things your competitor shows (if he does it, and his business is good, it must be working RIGHT?) I would say respectfully that your logic is wrong. You must break your rule — and start creating messaging that is unlike what your competitor is doing. Failure to break this rule will result in sending your customer out for an evening of gaming somewhere/anywhere. However, if you give them a reason to remember and resonate with your brand, they may decide that your place offers something different. If it’s a powerful enough reason, (and your operation lives up to some key customer service and experience promises) you may find that they become loyal guests.

But you need them to look, consider and purchase your product. Or you go out of business fast. So what’s the trick?

The average American is hit with over 3,000 marketing messages every day. We see so much of it, day in and day out, that we learn to tune it out. It’s a skill, and we all learn it by about age 4. By the time a person is of an age to become a consumer — a target for your business — they have become masters at ignoring advertising. And that is your challenge, that is the challenge of all entrepreneurs and the challenge of all businesses both new and old: How do I engage the consumer when they are completely uninterested in anything I have to say?

The trick is to reach into their hearts and touch them where they feel something. You can use whatever medium you want. Television works well, although the internet — and especially social media like Facebook — has the power to connect very directly with your consumers, to literally have a dialogue with them. Which is often what you want. A dialogue is good, but the dialogue is good only in that it allows you to connect your brand, your product, with them in a way that pulls at their emotions.  The only thing that matters is emotional connections.  Information is great to have, but no one buys against information. Emotion is required to make a sale. Think about Sally Strothers asking for money for starving African children. She could have spent her 30 seconds of TV advertising listing off all the many horrible statistics about the millions of poor children in Africa. The numbers and the facts are staggeringly tragic. But she’s a smart marketer, and so she didn’t do that. Instead she showed you a sad, little child. She told you her name. And then let you know that with just 29¢ per day you could feed the little girl and send her to school. I’ll ask you, because we’ve all seen the ads: Did that pull at you emotionally, to see that little girl’s hungry face, to know that the change in your pocket could save her?

There are many different marketing tricks you want to keep handy when you are trying to wrangle customers, but at the core you’re trying to do something rather simple. That’s not to say it’s easy, because it’s not. But it is simple. You are trying to capture the consumer’s attention, then you want to communicate to them why your product/services are different from others in your category, and then show how your product is the right product for them — and then if you want to make the sale, if you want to make the cash register ching-ching, you need to find a way to connect your particular brand, the choosing of your product over another, to something emotional. You need to reach into their chest and place some little mark on their heart that says, “This product is for people like me. I need that to make me complete.” That’s the magic right there. Nike, Apple computers, Coca-cola, my daughter’s American Girl Doll — they all have the magic. Find your magic. It’ll make all the difference. Ching-ching.