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Archive 2000 *
Archive 2002 *
Archive 2003/4
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Dec. 23, 2001: Casino ad spending is down, but the
decline is even steeper in travel advertising since the November Airbus crash
in New York's Queen borough. Travel ads rebounded in October, but the new
crash (ruled an accident) resulted in a huge ad cancellation by most major
airlines. Delta pulled a big campaign that had started only a few days earlier.
For major airlines, it's standard policy to vacate the marketplace following
a crash. |
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Dec. 12, 2001: It's not bad enough that advertising sales
on the Web have dropped like a stone. Now desperate Internet publishers are
struggling to find a consistent way to count the number of people who actually
see online ads. The Wall Street Journal says the board of the Interactive
Advertising Bureau (a group that includes Yahoo, AOL Time Warner and Disney)
are trying to work out a "single method" for measuring viewers. Some publishers,
says the Journal, count the number of times an ad is "sent" to a computer
screen. Others count only the number of times the ad shows. Good luck to
us all. |
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Dec. 1, 2001: Casinos in South Africa have been scrambling
to satisfy their smoking customers since tough new regulations went into
effect on July 1. Smoking has been banned in public places and in 75 percent
of restaurants, bars and casinos. Smoking is allowed only if casinos take
special precautions. Several casinos including Caesars Gauteng and Montecasino
have installed transparent partitions and separate air circulation systems,
reports the magazine, "Gaming for Africa." Others have converted private
rooms and restaurants into smoking rooms. Several have installed smoking
lounges. |
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Nov. 22, 2001: The advertising industry has a real
problem. The murders of Sept. 11, combined with a slumping economy, have
put ad spending in the tank. A Merrill Lynch analyst forecast a decline of
3.1% for 2001 and continuing weakness in 2002. Magazine advertising has been
particularly hard hit and several publications have folded. Some companies
demand their ads be distanced from articles about the terrorist attack, and
have pulled ads from publications that can't guarantee it. TV advertising,
which is expensive to produce in the first place, has been hit with a double
whammy as advertisers complain it's too hard to measure. Ad agencies have
laid off thousands, with no end in sight. Welcome to the new economy. |
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Nov. 12, 2001: The Anthrax scare has frightened direct
mailers and both the Post Office and the Direct Marketing Association have
hustled new rules and procedures into place. The PO says it will install
special machine that irradiate incoming mail and kill Anthrax and every other
harmful bacteria known to exist. The DMA is urging members to make sure their
mailers are plainly identifiable, and carry both corporate logos and return
addresses. An effective direct mail tactic is to send a letter with no return
address, thereby forcing the prospect to open it to find out what's inside.
No more. "A plain envelope...is silly at this point," says the DMA's Bob
Wientzen. NOTE: Casinos that send their customers birthday cards with flakes
of glitter enclosed could frighten them to death. Besides, they're messy
to clean up. |
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Nov. 1, 2001: The ad business may never be the same.
It was slumping before the mass murders of Sept. 11. After the attack, the
business dropped like a stone as advertisers pulled their ads and cut their
budgets dramatically. Now comes a blow from the Nestle Corporation that may
change the way agencies charge clients. Nestle, which spends $2.2 billion
a year on its various brands, has notified its agencies that they will no
longer receive the 15% commission that has long been standard in the business.
Instead, Nestle will pay agencies a flat annual fee based on the time it
takes the agencies to develop advertising, and no commission on ad placements.
Nestle said its agencies could earn bonuses, but only if the advertising
they produce increases sales or market share for Nestle products. Look for
other large national advertisers to follow Nestle's lead. |
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October 23, 2001: The McDonald's sweepstakes scam hurt
sweepstakes and contest marketing in general--and it's only going to get
worse. Eight people were arrested in August on charges of stealing $13 million
from two McDonald's games. One of those arrested was an employee of the company
that administered the games for McDonald's. He allegedly stole winning game
pieces and passed them out to associates who claimed the prizes. McDonald's
was not part of the scheme but took a PR hit anyway. Publishers Clearing
House, American Family Enterprises and Reader's Digest recently made settlements
totaling more than $60 million with states who sued over their marketing
practices, says DM news. Can the anti-marketing forces in Congress be far
behind? |
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October 12, 2001: The privacy racket now threatens to
cut off a source of data used by casinos and other marketers. The Consumer
Product Safety Commission (CPSC) proposes elimination of all marketing questions
on product registration cards, reports Direct Magazine. "It would start with
only two product areas--juvenile products and tabletop appliances--but even
that has data suppliers worried," says the magazine. The CPSC complains that
retail consumers are not filling out and returning the cards because the
"marketing questions" make them nervous. The Direct Marketing Association's
Patricia Faley disagrees, claiming the CPSC should test ways to improve response,
not just eliminate the questions. The bad news for marketers, says the magazine,
is that the CPSC has the power of Congress behind it. |
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October 1, 2001: I loved the one-word headline on the
front page of the San Francisco Chronicle on Sept. 12. Bastards! My sentiments
exactly. My favorite print ad (from General Electric) appeared in the Wall
Street Journal on Sept. 21. It showed a stern-faced Statue of Liberty striding
from her podium and rolling up her sleeves. Most companies (including casinos)
pulled their ads after the cowardly attack and substituted flags or other
symbols and messages of American defiance. Look for a series of TV spots
featuring First Lady Laura Bush talking to children about the attack. The
Ad Council, a public service group, is providing them to the networks. Will
any of us ever forget Sept. 11? Will any of us ever forget exactly where
we were and what we were doing when we saw the WTC towers burning?
Bastards! |
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September 21, 2001: Direct Magazine reports that consumers
still prefer snail mail over all other forms of communication when it comes
to building relationships. A Pitney Bowes survey, says the magazine, found
34% picked direct mail. Print ads ranked next at 30%, followed by television
at 25% and radio at 5%. Hey! What happened to E-Mail? Well, it limped in
at 4%, followed by the Internet at 2%. Telemarketing, says Direct, drew a
fat zero. Mail was chosen ahead of the other mediums because 82% of respondents
said they liked the control it gives them in deciding when to open an envelope.
In addition, 78% said they also preferred it because it was non-intrusive.
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September 10, 2001: Michele Comeau, the author of "Customer
Service--The Win Win Game" and featured in the video "Tips for Turning Around
the Customer from Hell," works with a select group of casinos and businesses
to successfully increase profits by turning shoppers into buyers and buyers
into life long advocates. Her "Five Quick and Easy Relationship Building
Tips" include the following: (1) Ask open-ended questions and let the caller
talk. If you listen carefully you will discover a wealth of information.
(2) Match the caller. People like people who are similar to themselves. If
they talk fast, speed up. If they are a slow talker, slow down. (3) Bring
your personality to work with you. If the caller is excited about a long
weekend coming up, it's OK to spend a bit of time talking with them. (4)
Make note of key information. Recording the data enables us to learn more
about our customers with every interaction. (5) Do what you say you are going
to do. I know this sounds basic, but if you can't deliver on a promise,
immediately call with an update. This goes a long way in developing trust.
Michele can be reached at:
comeau@xtra.co.nz. |
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September 1, 2001: The US Postal Service has changed
the timing on mail deliveries in the western United States. What used to
take two days to deliver now takes three because the USPS is relying less
on commercial airlines and more on trucks to move mail. The USPS says 1.5
billion pieces of mail, most of it west of the Rockies, will fall into the
new three-day zones. Casino mailers take notice. Move those deadlines back,
and while you're at it, make your mail more relevant and appealing to customers.
After all, you're fighting for attention with those 1.5 billion pieces. |
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August 22, 2001: Ohio State University professor
of marketing Roger Blackwell's intriguing story in a recent Wall Street Journal
was entitled "Why Webvan Went Bust." Professor Blackwell writes, "If you
take a survey, many people will say, sure, they like the idea of having someone
pick, pack and deliver their groceries. The problem is that few are willing
to pay the true costs associated with such a service...such a limited market
couldn't generate enough revenues to cover Webvan's cost of doing business."
Change "survey" at the beginning of his quote to "focus group," and you'll
see why relying on focus groups to dictate strategy is a mistake. They're
only one of many resources--and deserve to be viewed with caution. |
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August 10, 2001: It's a bird...it's a plane...it's a
pteranodon? Yep, you're checking the stock market quotes in your newspaper,
or maybe you're reading the weather reports, and zooming across the page
is the shadow of one of those weird flying dinosaurs. A joke, right? Nope,
an ad for Jurassic Park III, the movie - and quite a clever tactic. No copy,
just a shadow. But it has news editors and advertising salespeople glaring
at each other. They've never been pals, but this time the editors claim the
ad people have gone too far. It's only running in a handful of newspapers,
but the very idea of advertising superimposed on editorial matter is shocking,
shocking! What's next--the shadow of a slot machine on the sports page? |
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August 1, 2001: Now comes confirmation that the last
thing on the minds of the producers of major television commercials is selling.
As commercials get more expensive and marketers demand more sophisticated
story lines, says the Wall Street Journal, Madison Avenue is calling in big-name
Hollywood directors. Some directors, says the Journal, say shooting commercials
is a good way to keep their skills sharp, and as director Ben Younger says,
"to try out all the new goodies as far as cameras and new technologies...I
have to stay sharp in between movies." More sophisticated story lines? Staying
sharp between movies? What about increasing sales of the product? |
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July 26, 2001: "They were known as 'nerds' and 'geeks'
in high school, "writes David Lake in July 2 issue of The Industry Standard
Magazine, "but now we call them friends." It turns out geeks are rich, says
Lake. Some 44% have household incomes of $75,000 or more. Not only that,
writes Lake, they participate in more leisure activities than US adults overall.
The Standard compiled its figures after identifying a group of high tech
adults from the Mediamark Research consumer study. It found the techies are
big readers, travel a lot, and invest. Their favorite sports include
snowboarding, scuba diving, downhill skiing, rafting, golf, racquetball and
martial arts. The revenge of the nerds, indeed. |
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July 19, 2001: The year 1991 was an awful one for the
hotel industry. It lost a record $5.7 billion. This year also looks
depressing--but not quite that bad. A PricewaterhouseCoopers study released
in late June predicted that revenue per room will fall 1% when second quarter
figures are in. It doesn't sound like much but the drop off will make it
the worst since the third quarter of 1991. In that year, a combination of
too many rooms, high interest rates and a recession killed the business.
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July 12, 2001: Robert J. Porsch, Jr., a regular columnist
for Direct Marketing magazine, is one of the truly impressive experts on
marketing and the law. Every casino marketer should read his piercing comments
on the privacy "crisis" that threatens our First Amendment rights as marketers.
Here's a sample: "If the Direct Marketing Association and its allies abandon
a 30-year fight to uphold our right to market, then society and the industry
will be the losers...the US leads in every area of the information economy
because we take the long view and put free speech over privacy...we should
stop whining and using 'privacy' as another form of victimization...shopping
today is much more private than at anytime in history. The Internet has only
made it moreso." Porsch says privacy laws are promoted "to justify the privacy
cottage industry's seminars, newsletters and professional perches." Keep
giving 'em hell, Bob. |
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July 1, 2001: Every wonder how unsolicited and unwanted
e-mail became known as "spam?" The Wall Street Journal says the term was
inspired by the British comedy group Monty Python. In an MP skit, says the
Journal, a group of Vikings mutter, "spam, spam, spam" with increasing volume,
drowning out normal conversation. Increasing use of the offensive word has
been challenged by Hormel Foods, Inc., makers of the canned lunch meat that
carries the same name. Hormel says it's okay to use "spam" without capitalizing
the first letter. But if you're referring to the meat, it should be written
SPAM. |
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June 21, 2001: The government has hit Trans
Union, Equifax, Lexis Nexis and other large consumer-data companies right
between the eyes. In a ruling in May, Federal Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle said
that data firms such as these may no longer sell names, addresses, Social
Security numbers and phone numbers from credit records unless the consumer
gives consent. The companies must obtain written permission from about 200
million consumers on whom they have already collected data. Judge Huvelle’s
ruling goes into effect on July 1. |
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June 12, 2001: June 12, 2001: Teri Dahlbeck, writing
in iMarketing News, points out the top five direct e-mail mistakes. The first
is “Sour subject lines,” says Teri. “You Can Make Millions”
is a loser. but “Experts Share E-Mail Secrets” is a winner. The
next mistake is “Lousy return address name.” If the return address
looks like a spammer, recipients hit the delete key. She also condemns text-only
messages (get the piece designed if possible), hates corporate-speak copy
and deplores e-mails without a call to action at the close, Good advice.
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June 1, 2001: In May, BarnesandNoble.com ranked "Secrets
of Casino Marketing" and "Casino Marketing" first and second based on nationwide
sales in the casino marketing category. 'Secrets" was ranked number 66,424
in overall sales from more than a million selections. "Casino Marketing,"
published in 1994, ranked 151,205. In the small press world, a book that
sells more than a thousand copies is officially designated a best-seller.
Both books, published by small press American Eagle Arts &: Letters,
have exceeded that figure. Combined, the two books have sold more than 5,000
copies in the casino industry. |
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May 22, 2001: Is e-mail advertising too much of a
good thing? Jodi Mardesich in The Industry Standard magazine says "Yes!"
She cites a study by eMarketer, a New York market research firm, that claims
22 percent of the e-mail received by an average user is marketing-related.
"Roughly half of those messages are opt in," she writes, "meaning recipients
gave vendors permission to send them. The rest are unsolicited." By 2003,
says eMarketer, 97 percent of the e-mail you receive will be marketing of
some sort, and three quarters of it will be unsolicited. "It’s easy
to see why marketers love e-mail," she writes. "For starters, it’s cheap."
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May 11, 2001: Oh, oh. As if online advertising isn't
already struggling, more and more Web users are turning to software that
blocks out ads completely. Terry Lefton, writing in The Industry Standard
magazine, says the use of ad-blockers such as AdKiller, AdSubtract, Junkbuster
Proxy and WebWasher is going mainstream. "More than four million people have
downloaded WebWasher, a Siemens spinoff" writes Lefton, "and InterMute’s
AdSubtract expects to have two million users by the end of the year." Lefton
blames Disney’s "big unit" ads that fill a third of the screen and the
full-column "skyscraper" ads on the New York Times site as examples of the
new ads that irritate Web users. Makers of ad-blockers are now on the verge
of bundling their software with some of the largest PC brands, says Lefton.
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May 1, 2001: Denny Hatch, who once published a truly uncommon
direct marketing newsletter called "Who's Mailing What?" now writes a column
named "Famous last Words" for Target Marketing Magazine. The guy is simply
terrific. In a recent issue he described his fury with 800 numbers and Web
sites that make it hard to do business. Sample: "I tried Barnes & Noble
and got started on the order when suddenly it wanted my e-mail address and
and my site password. I gave the wrong password and was told to fill in my
name and e-mail address and it would e-mail me my password. I waited 30 seconds
and I was out of there." Here's how Denny closed his column: "I am reminded
of Robert Benchley, who, when he once was under deadline, sat at his desk,
inserted a clean sheet of paper in his typewriter and typed the word "The."
He stared at this word for a half hour. Finally he completed the sentence:
"The hell with it." We went downstairs...for martinis and lunch." |
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April 24, 2001: In a recent telephone conversation
with my good friend Larry Close, GM of The Mill Casino in North Bend, OR,
we wondered what had become of a mutual friend. A day or so later Larry sent
me the friend's home address and phone number. How, I asked him, did you
get it? Amazingly, it took only minutes. Larry said he went first to
www.refdesk.com, clicked on "phone
book" and scrolled to "The Ultimate E-Mail Directory." From there he simply
typed in our friend's name, took a guess he still lived in Las Vegas, s earched
through "switchboard," and got the information. If you're the least concerned
about your privacy, might as well forget it. They know where you live. |
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April 12, 2001: Planning on running a sweepstakes promotion
using direct mail? Better take note: In March, the Readers Digest Association,
Inc., announced it had voluntarily signed an agreement with 32 states and
the District of Columbia because of its sweepstakes promotions. The Digest
will pay $6 million to 7,500 customers who spent more than $2,500 in the
past three years on subscriptions, books and tapes in sweepstakes mailings.
The Digest also will pay $2 million in attorney fees and other costs. The
magazine says it will phase out aggressive sweeps mailings. |
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April 1, 2001: Will casinos soon be reaching customers with
wireless ads and messages? Maybe, but let's hear two wides of the story.
First, the favorable side: A company named SkyGo, described by iMarkerting
News as "a marketing firm," announced that a test of wireless ads in Boulder,
Colorado, was successful. SkyGo said 64 percent of consumers opened ads received
on their mobile phones after receiving a wireless "alert." Fifteen percent
took action or planned action, and 2.9 percent bought the product online
or offline. Better than banners, right? Now the unfavorable side: The March
28 Wall Street Journal reported that 90,000 wireless phone users received
messages from a mortgage loan company. One was so irate he plans a class
action suit, says the Journal. The SkyGo case was permission-based. The mortgage
company message, apparently, was not. |
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March 22, 2001: Did you hear about the MasterCard
commercial that was yanked off the Grammy telecast at the last minute? According
to the Wall Street Journal, a dad takes his young son shopping for his first
guitar. As they stroll through the music store looking at various items a
voice-over says, "Your first amp, $200...your first strap, $30...your first
guitar, $450." Slash, once lead guitarist for the rock group Guns N' Roses,
plays the dad. The boy finally picks up a new red guitar and says to the
clerk, "Mind if I try it?" He then strums a few notes and smashes the guitar
to bits. A voice-over then intones, "Rock and roll, priceless." Mastercard
pulled the ad because of "technical issues," says the Journal. Yeah, right.
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March 11, 2001: Casino e-mail marketers may soon have a new
weapon from a company named LifeFX. It's called Facemail. Here's the way
it was described by the Associated Press: "LifeFX is using image-morphing
computer technology to bring faces to life on the screen. The company's Facemail
program offers generic models who gesture and move in at least semi-realistic
form as they read e-mails using voice technology from IBM." The AP says the
free Facemail program has become a popular download since it went online
in December. The company has just signed a deal with Kodak. Microsoft and
Apple are working on similar technology. |
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March 1, 2001: I take a dozen e-mail newsletters on marketing
and sales, but the one that stands out is The Raphel Report, produced by
Murray Raphel and his partner and son., Neil. I thanked Murray in "Secrets
of Casino Marketing" for teaching me so much about selling. The guy is simply
terrific. He's one of the truly inspiring direct marketers of our time. You
can get his newsletter free by punching up
http://www.raphel.com/newsletter/subscribe.html.
I recommend it. Here's an excerpt from his latest newsletter: Understand,
as marketing guru Ed Matthews says, "Every one of your staff is a representative
of your company." If you know, believe, and emphasize that fact you can avoid
a situation that recently happened to me while grocery shopping. I never
saw the face of the cashier. She was so busy scanning all the items, her
head was constantly bowed down looking at the scanner. I had to pack my own
bags. I was about to leave when I turned back to her and said, "At least
you could say, 'thank you!'" She looked up and replied, "Hey--it's printed
on the bottom of the receipt!" |
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Feb. 21, 2001: Are slot machines with touchscreens
about to become wildly popular? You'd have to bet on it if you followed the
wireless telephone revolution. Samsung Corp. has unveiled a new telephone
that has a much larger screen but no keypad. Handspring, Inc., also is shipping
a phone attachment with no keypad. Jeff Hawkins, chief product officer at
Handspring, says. "Keypads just won't be the main interface on phones anymore.
You can provide a better user experience with screens." Slot manufacturers
take note. |
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Feb. 10, 2001: In his new book, "The Amazing Kreskin"s
Future With the Stars," Kreskin devotes a chapter to John Romero, tracing
John's long run in the gaming industry. The book, Kreskin's 10th, deals mainly
with predictions from 84 sports, entertainment, science and business stars.
It includes chapters on Tom Hanks, Jerry Seinfeld, Dick Clark, Mike Piazza,
Whitey Ford, Buzz Aldrin and Alan Greenspan. John's predictions and Kreskin's
involvement with gaming occupy the final chapter. "It is interesting," writes
Kreskin, " that Romero does not avoid the critics of the gaming industry
who describe gambling as an addiction." |
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Feb. 1, 2001: At a tab of $2.3 million per 30-second spot,
you'd think Super Bowl advertisers would at least tell viewers what business
they're in. Remember "the running of the squirrels" in the just-concluded
Super Bowl? Quick--who was the sponsor and what do they do? Adman Jerry Della
Femina, writing in the Wall Street Journal, said "I'm convinced the end of
the dot-com economy came not when NASDAQ nose-dived in March and April of
2000, but at last year's Super Bowl. On that afternoon in January, 88 million
Americans saw the spotlight shining on the dot-com economy and found it to
be bankrupt intellectually, long before it was bankrupt financially." Memo
to Jerry: Maybe the dot-coms realize their mistake, but the other advertisers
still don't have a clue. |
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Jan. 22, 2001: Dennis Conrad has just released
his new book, "Conrad's Corners: Common Sense Thoughts on Casinos, Marketing,
and Life." Published by Aart Vark Publishing, it's a compilation of his articles,
columns and papers written over a 25-year casino career. Price, $39.95. For
information, call Raving Consulting, 775-329-7864. Meanwhile, Ian Brooks
and Michele Comeau have released "How to Turn Complaints into Cash: Five
Steps for Transforming Unhappy Customers into Raving Fans." This is a 35-page
pocket workbook emb racing the philosophies of Brooks, a leading New Zealand
business speaker, and Comeau, the recognized expert on casino customer service.
Price, $9.95. For ordering information, send a fax to "Working Ideas," New
Zealand (from the US, dial 011-09-476-6951). |
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Jan. 12, 2001: Will the recent high tech slump affect
casino marketing? Not much, in my opinion. Computer experts point out that
practically everyone who wants a PC, has one. Prices plunged in 2000, putting
the machines well within even modest family budgets. Internet Service Providers
have discovered that the bulk of their clients use fairly slow machines of
modest capability, so their content is designed to accommodate that. That's
good for casinos because they can deliver e-mail quickly and easily to
practically all their customers without requiring them to own jazzy new software
and powerful machines. Now the trend is toward smaller, cheaper, hand-held
devices that will assume many of the roles the PC once held. Prices of these
machines will drop steadily while capabilities improve. Remember hand-held
calculators? Expensive at first, they're now giveaway items. It may be so
with Palm-style devices soon. |
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Jan. 2, 2001: Some casino marketers go after the senior
market halfheartedly. They cater to older Americans simply because everyone
else does it. Comes now a federal study that may make them pay closer attention.
It shows American seniors as a group are more prosperous than any previous
generation. The study, named "Older Americans 2000: Key Indicators of Well-Being"
can be found at
www.agingstats.gov.
The study shows that as recently as 1959, some 35% of the 65-plus population
lived in poverty. Now the figure has dropped to 11%. The study also shows
that since 1984, the median net worth of households headed by an older person
has increased 69%. (Households headed by persons ages 45-54 fell 23%). Source:
The Wall Street Journal |
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