In Business Las Vegas, April 27th, 2007
All casino leaders know the promo guy.
Bill
Paulos
, who runs the Cannery and Rampart casinos, did an impression of him: "I've got watches. I've got keychains,"
Paulos
said, opening up his jacket to reveal invisible wares.
It tickled the audience — a crowd of more than 100 from mostly tribal casinos across the country, in town for the Gaming Operations Summit at Wynn Las Vegas.
Paulos
, speaking on marketing, advised the audience not to take promotional item purchases lightly. Promos rank in the top three demands (with looser slots and giveaways) that Rampart Casino customers noted in a survey several years ago.
At Rampart, the managers set out 10 or 20 promo items on a table — then let the players choose which ones they want to play for in the next months.
"Listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen to other people besides your marketing people,"
Paulos
said.
He went on to reiterate the point.
The two-day summit, April 23-24, gave insider tips about catching cheating gamblers, improving human resources, problem gambling and raising profits from the floors.
The Wynn may have been a rare showcase of luxury to some attendees. Before the speakers, one tribal casino official mentioned: "I was glad to see some
Las Vegas
casinos have duct tape on their carpets, too."
Paulos
spoke first, right after an entertaining welcome from
Mayor
Oscar
Goodman
.
The casino owner is a
Las Vegas
veteran, having managed casinos since 1971, including in the top ranks of Circus Circus and Excalibur. Currently he and partner
Bill
Wortman
run the Rampart under the company Millennium Management; they also own Cannery Casino Resorts, Nevada Palace (which will soon be remade as another Cannery property) and a racino in
Pennsylvania
.
He professed that marketing is simple and, as he believes, "as much a company philosophy than anything else."
The key is tuning in to the audience, he said. Do regular surveys, but also keep an ear on the floor: Ask slots managers what they know, and invite them to marketing meetings.
"We may have a marketing meeting with 20 people in it," he said.
He told a success story: As a newbie in the business he suggested that Circus Circus increase its buffet price from
Paulos
' colleagues feared losing the volume.$2.99 to $3.99. The buffet had been bringing in 12,000 people each day, and
That is exactly what happened. The 12,000-person queue went down to 9,000 per day. But slot revenues were up 15 percent.
"People playing slots could get into the (less-crowded) buffet and go back to play slots,"
Paulos
explained.
Many marketing ventures will be trial and error, he advised. Tracking and analyzing the effect of coupons or promotions can make experiments less likely to produce wild results.
If a casino gives a 2-for-1 food coupon, then a coupon for a free drink at the bar, it may see overall gaming revenue increase and bar traffic increase. Assuming the bar coupon drove the business may be wrong.
"Next month there are only beer coupons and business goes to shiii-nola,"
Paulos
said. "Turns out it's the food coupons that bring in the players."
He stressed the importance of giving away quality products. The Cannery lost money but gained prestige by hosting a concert by former Eagles member
Glenn
Frey
. The Rampart gifts $110 Tommy Bahama shirts.
"The worst anybody can do for me is give me a T-shirt that, after the second time I wash it, looks like what the girls wear now,"
Paulos
said. "There's nothing worse than bringing something home and it breaks. It doesn't cost that much more for quality. It's a matter of how much you want to reinvest."
