Tuesday at ICE VOX brought an array of exceptional speakers to the ICC (International Casino Conference) element, primarily focusing on how operators can enhance their offer by catering to the increasing trend of customers wanting experiences, rather than to just purchase “things”. In the casino world, this is reflected by offering options other than simply gaming, but doing it in an innovative way to differentiate your offer from those of your competitors.
Attendance was a little light all day, which was both a shame and an opportunity; one felt that the quality of the discussion was so high that those present would be likely to develop strategies that their missing competitors might not pick up.
The session started with a simple lesson in semantics, but a fascinating one. When you bear in mind that Las Vegas has long since shifted to an income split that favours “non-gaming” revenues, how truly focused can we be on a key part of our businesses when we refer to it not by its name, but by what it’s not? For the rest of the day, elements of the casino offer that weren’t gaming were referred to as “hospitality”.
First up with a presentation was Robert Marick, VP Global Customer Products for MGM Film Studios. The presentation was genuinely fascinating, coming from a representative of a master storyteller, and Robert spoke of how good stories transcend platforms. While it may feel like a reach to equate making movies with opening casinos, he highlighted how the most recent shopping malls are also diversifying away from the core offering – retail – to becoming destinations worth travelling to; in some new cases, retail represents less than half of the square footage. The rest is composed of entertainment options, such as cinemas, skating rinks, indoor theme parks, even indoor ski centers.
The bottom line seems to be offering an authentic memorable environment, which can clearly apply to all leisure options. As all operators know, every conceivable leisure option is both a potential inspiration and a potential competitor to casinos, so understanding who’s doing what and why can pay dividends. Location-Based Entertainment (LBE) comprises a huge range of different types of leisure offer, but all strands have something to learn from one another.
A second panel discussion returned to the them of the desirability of offering experiences over products, and how that might change the way we run casinos.
Simon Thomas, CEO and owner of Hippodrome Casino in London (arguably the closest thing the UK has to a resort-scale casino in terms of overall offer), made some fascinating points during this debate, initially focused on avoiding negatives. Inefficient hand dryers came under the spotlight, as well as lines at coat check, and the innovative solution to deploy mobile phone-based tech to cut them down; both are good examples of how a small detail can derail the customer experience.
Sal Scheri, COO of Agua Caliente, spoke of how they had augmented their layout to add a cigar bar, but critically had fitted a top-of-the-range ventilation system in order to enable a group of non-cigar smokers to enjoy the environment.
Time and again, the same concept came up during the day: that experiential fans want something that they can enjoy as a group, with that group often comprising people of all ages. While on the face of it, this might not seem relevant to the casino environment, Bobby Soper of Sun Gaming and Hospitality related a story from his Mohegan Sun days of a One Direction concert on property. This would clearly be classed as an event targeted at the (low-spending) younger element, but the combination of a very high-demand event and the proximity to the casino led to a significant revenue increment – having a genuine and premium differentiator pays dividends in a world where people want those experiences, and want them as a group.
