The Casino Journal community has spoken and the Platinum, Gold and Silver winners of the first-ever GameChangers Marketing Awards have been determined
FULLREACH, a continuous digital gamification engagement system developed by Engaged Nation in use at The Meadows Casino Racetrack Hotel, and Oasis Loyalty, a single database marketing systems solution from Aristocrat Technologies used by Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma properties, where the top vote getters and Platinum Award winners for the attendee and readers voting divisions of Casino Journal’s inaugural GameChangers Marketing Awards.
GameChangers Marketing Awards recognize innovative marketing-oriented products and services for their real-world impact. Participants in the contest were asked to submit their entries in a case-study format that showcased the results they have generated for a specific property or operator. Two different audiences were tapped to determine Platinum, Gold and Silver award winners—the attendees at the Casino Marketing & Technology Conference (CMTC), which took place this past July in Las Vegas, and the readers of Casino Journal who voted online.
The Oasis Loyalty product was the top choice of CMTC showgoers. This group also tapped Everi’s TournEvent 4.3, the latest version of the company’s successful slot tournament management system in use at Cache Creek Casino Resort, as the Gold Award winner. Aristocrat also captured the contest’s Silver Award for its Actual vs. Theoretical Bonusing, a product that allows operators to reward slot players who lose more money on a given day than they theoretically should, which is currently in use at Sycuan Casino.
In addition to bestowing Engaged Nation’s FULLREACH with a Platinum Award, the Casino Journal online voters gave Gold Award honors to SSNAPP Casino, a customer engagement platform created by Social Media Gateways and currently in use at Prairie Band Casino & Resort. The Silver Award went to Wilkin Marketing’s Zero Rings, a proprietary platform that manages cell phone-based marketing that is used by Casino Del Sol.
The entrants to the GameChanger Marketing Award were written up in the July issue if Casino Journal; a brief recap of the winning products is provided below:
CMTC ATTENDEE VOTING
PLATINUM AWARD: OASIS LOYALTY
Company: Aristocrat Technologies
Operator: Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma
Oasis Loyalty is a systems solution that allows enterprises or single sites to issue one card for a universal database, eliminating the need for individual databases at each property. The system includes promotion and marketing tools that allows operators to contact their patrons through the web, SMS and e-mail with marketing and promotions. This expands the enterprise to patron touch points beyond brick and mortar and encompasses both gaming and non-gaming revenue streams. To this effort, the single database also collects patron spend in retail outlets as well as the casino floor. The administrator tools are accessible through web UI and mobile platforms.
Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma was managing loyalty clubs for 21 properties and travel plazas at the property level. This limited its visibility to patron loyalty across the enterprise and limited the ability to reward patrons that frequented more than one of the properties. Oasis Loyalty, installed in September 2016, allowed Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma to offer their patrons one card to use across all their properties. The company has changed its processes to view the patron spend at a regional level rather than at the property level.
GOLD AWARD: TOURNEVENT 4.3
Provider: Everi
Operator: Cache Creek Casino Resort, Brooks, Calif.
TournEvent continues to revolutionize slot tournaments for both slot operators and players with the release of TournEvent 4.3. At the simple click of a mouse, operators have the ability to seamlessly switch from in-revenue gaming to out-of-revenue tournaments within seconds. TournEvent 4.3 increases operator efficiency, while eliminating operator headaches, with the updated features in scoring, reporting and round management.
The Cache Creek Casino Resort has had TournEvent since 2011 and is home to the largest installation of the product with 60 units. At Cache Creek, TournEvent 4.3 automates the tournament function, eliminating the need for manual scorekeeping and the errors that can occur with a manual system. Operators have the ability to seamlessly switch from in-revenue gaming to out-of-revenue tournaments within seconds via wireless capabilities.
SIILVER AWARD: ACTUAL VS THEORETICAL BONUSING (AVT)
Provider: Aristocrat Technologies
Operator: Sycuan Casino, El Cajon, Calif.
Actual versus Theoretical Bonusing (AvT) is an innovative product that allows the operator to reward patrons for losing through Aristocrat Technologies’ mobile app, PlayerMax. AvT allows an operator to award slot players who lose more money in a given day than what they should have lost theoretically. This highly customizable solution gives the operator the flexibility to customize the AvT Bonus to their business by configuring the following criteria: minimum daily theoretical loss, minimum player actual loss, maximum player award per period, reward type, free slot play in dollars or by percentage and maximum reward value.
Sycuan Casino installed AvT in January 2017, and the property uses it as intended—to trigger a reward to players when their actual loss is greater than the daily theoretical loss in slot play. This is delivered via an in-app notification through Aristocrat’s PlayerMax mobile application. By utilizing AvT, Sycuan can deliver awards to its most loyal customers to keep them returning to the property.
CASINO JOURNAL ONLINE VOTING
PLATINUM AWARD: FULLREACH
Provider: Engaged Nation
Operator: The Meadows Casino Racetrack Hotel, Washington, Pa.
The digital marketing and communications landscape is a rapidly evolving, complex topography that is challenging for many casinos to negotiate. That’s why Engaged Nation developed REACH—a suite of high-impact, holistic digital gamification engagement solutions that generate significant, measurable results. Designed by a casino operator for casino operators, REACH provides a customized, perpetual engagement experience that educates, entertains and motivates consumers and drives profitable, incremental business.
The Meadows Casino utilized the entire Engaged Nation product suite over the past year, achieving startling results. The property utilized a combination of strategically timed and customized programs, including the FULLREACH continuous engagement system. By utilizing gamified marketing products that were integrated into the property website, e-mail, social media and property collateral, these systems created a holistic experience that engaged, entertained and educated customers, increased brand loyalty and drove significant, measurable traffic and revenue.
GOLD AWARD: SSNAPP CASINO
Provider: Social Media Gateways
Operator: Prairie Band Casino & Resort, Mayetta, Kan.
SSNAPP is the first platform that provides social intelligence, engagement automation, gamification and predictive intelligence for optimizing customer engagement in a single solution. The platform has grown beyond hospitality and gaming to work with some of the biggest brands, Fortune 100 companies and firms as an omni-channel marketing and communications solution.
SSNAPP has enabled Prairie Band Casino & Resort to have a central social media engagement and loyalty solution to keep the guests constantly promoting the brand and allowing their networks of friends to organically engage. The platform gives the property the ability to automate incentives and activities based on the guest’s engagement in real-time. SSNAPP, installed in 2015, provided the property with a social media engagement and loyalty platform that increased social media and online conversion rates.
SILVER AWARD: ZERO RINGS
Provider: Wilkin Marketing
Operator: Casino Del Sol, Tucson, Ariz.
Wilkin Marketing has developed proprietary technology called Zero Rings. This platform is utilized by the gaming community in multiple ways for the casino as well as for hotels and resorts. Zero Rings allows for casinos to have their VIP host staff, PR staff or executive leadership team record custom and personal voicemail messages to be dropped directly to a player’s cell phone. Casinos can drop hundreds, even thousands, of voicemails in an instant, inviting players to call for more information or to book upcoming events.
Casino Del Sol utilized Zero Rings this year for several events and has been able to invite guests to reply and book seats at a slot tournament in April, as well as reserve spots for a special Mother’s Day event, and also offer their guests to receive free and/or discount tickets to their Oscar De La Hoya/Golden Boy Fight Night in May. All of the events were big successes due to their use of the Zero Rings tool.