At Choctaw Nation Casino in Durant, Oklahoma, one of the most desired locations for photo opportunities is the parking garage. Indigenous fashion shows have been featured, vintage cars have been displayed, and high school students seem to gravitate to the spot where the grand Sky Tower looms in the background.
“No one planned that. No one thought that this would be a popular photo backdrop, but it is,” said Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma Executive Director of Communications Shauna Williams during the session “Built to Be Shared: How Casino Design Drives Social Media Engagement, Brand Reach, and Guest Loyalty” at the Indian Gaming Association Tradeshow & Convention in San Diego.
Moderated by JCJ Architecture Principal/Director of Hospitality Design Robert Gdowski, the panel illustrated how important social media influencers have become to promote design aspects of casinos.
Jamul Casino Resort Director of Advertising Katherine Hoppe said adding influencers to the casino’s raft of marketing tools has been a humbling experience. “You think you’re so smart. Then you learn maybe not.”
Hoppe cited a recent lobster buffet the casino hosted. The idea was to promote the space, which has floor-to-ceiling windows and a “spectacular bar.” Then came an influencer who couldn’t stop talking about the lobster.
“We cared about the space, but they just looked at it,” Hoppe said, “and they’re like, oh, pretty. But really, it’s just the lobster. We had to shift and instead of elevated endless dining, our campaign became two words: just ‘lobster buffet.’” And that’s really all that we needed, with a picture of a lobster.”
Luis Guison, a San Diego–based social media and digital-content specialist best known for his work at Jamul Casino, said he’s not thrilled to have to track engagement rates, because it’s “an all-day task and just a bunch of numbers and it’s just not exciting for me.”
But Guison admits he’s thrilled to keep track of how much his engagement grows from month to month.
“I feel like we need to be reporting more often, because we want to be thorough,” Guison said. “We get a lot of influencer requests asking for comps, like free playing or room space. We want to have the stats to back it up. That’s real value.”
Gdowski noted that influencers help promote the casino on multiple levels. They can advance tribal storytelling, culture, revenue issues, brand identity, and engagement of guests.
“Casinos were designed for foot traffic. Now they’re designed to capture traffic,” Gdowski said. “Everybody is taking pictures. Everybody is a content creator now. We engage that. We have the opportunity to expand our influence far beyond the walls of the casino.”
Williams has 10 people on her social-media team who cover the tribe’s commerce and gaming properties. But despite that number, Williams feels that they can’t stay abreast of every development.
“We still feel like we’re behind,” Williams said. “We cannot stress enough to leadership, to operations, how vital that storytelling component is, how proactive, to drive the narrative about what’s going on the property, to tie it back to those cultural storytelling moments.”
Memorable moments take time to develop. Hoppe explained that some projects can take two years or more to be accomplished. When they are realized, it’s satisfying.
“When you see the space being used the way you did it in your TV commercials, or the way you did it in your social media ads, and you see your guests, new guests and VIP guests, enjoying it the way that you intended and the way that you traded in all your advertising,” Hoppe said, “for me, that’s when I know I nailed it.”
