During a recent panel at the Casino Marketing & Technology Conference in Temecula, California, American Place Casino Vice President and General Manager Jeff Babinski admitted operators are dealing with the same issues.
Every operation holds events, does promotions and gives away gifts. They have slots and table games, restaurants and events centers.
And all of them, inevitably, have to deal with igaming potentially poaching customers. That’s why it’s critical to provide patrons with memorable experiences.
“If we’re just giving them a gift and they don’t have an experience, they’re just walking out,” Babinski said during the session “The Future of Casino Marketing: Executive Insights and Research for 2025 and Beyond.”
“At the end of the day,” Babinski added, “guests want that involvement. They want that community, they want that experience.”
“They can walk out with a few less dollars in their pockets,” said Playground CMO Phil Sabbah. “But if they had a good time, it was worth it.”
“It’s easy for me to sit up here and say, ‘we’re going to get involved, and we’re going to have every team member make sure that our guest has an amazing experience’,” Sabbah added. “That’s where it’s at. That’s what (customers) are looking for. Otherwise, they will go to their couch and play online. But if they have a great experience, they’re coming through your door.”
Moderator Deana Scott, Raving Consulting CEO, noted that marketing teams also need to take advantage of new technologies, notably artificial intelligence. But in order to deploy AI, it first must be promoted to employees.
Mohegan Vice President of Corporate Marketing Erica Tessier Hunt said the resort started using AI for its call center in 2022. Mohegan was initially hesitant to deploy AI with Meg – the name given to the new feature –because it seemed to go against the casino’s philosophy of promoting authenticity.
But some people, post-COVID, didn’t return to work and the volume of calls increased.
“We did have some concerns, obviously, when we were starting this project with just the team members and being sensitive to that,” said Tessier Hunt. “But they really embraced it. They helped formulate all of the questions we had, about 100 FAQs that we built to start Meg, to kick her off. They participated in the naming of Meg and were really super involved in the process. So that created a lot of team member engagement as far as using as far as using Meg.”
While AI is being used more and becoming more useful, patron’s might not notice the difference. Carnival Corporation AVP Global Gaming Marketing Martin van der Merwe said while AI serves as a type of concierge, helping customers find the cruise that best suits them, it’s used more frequently behind the scenes.
“Where AI is starting to make a difference in some of the teams is in the back end, empowering our front-end team members,” said van der Merwe. “Giving them information that’s more relevant quicker.
“Going into those different systems now, you’re able to kind of make that go faster. Some of the call centers are doing that. We’re doing it with our procedures and our policies. None of us want to talk about it but trying to just make those easier to access rather than having to read through, a 17-page document compliance put together.”
