Evaluating creative; rules have changed

      December 22 2006:      The headline in DM News read, "How to evaluate creative." All of us who are in the creative business have different opinions on this and we never hesitate to inflict them on others, most of whom are puzzled that we should get so crazy about headlines and copy and such. Anyway, the author points out three ways to "evaluate creative." Does the ad have information about the product and its unique selling proposition? Does it state this information clearly and concisely? Is the execution intrusive and compelling?" This is straight out of the general ad agency playbook, circa 1965, BDM (before direct marketing). "Concisely" is code for "Keep the copy short." In direct marketing you keep writing until you've pointed out every benefit--which is why some DM copy runs hundreds of words. "Intrusive" used to be a creative watchword 45 years ago because writers were trying to bully everyone who picked up the magazine into reading the ad. DMers know that you never write for everyone; you write only for those who have a need or a predisposition for the product. Nobody else matters. More next month.

What makes Ira run? It's hard to explain

      December 11 2006:      One guy I really admire is Ira David Sternberg, who is a Las Vegas Hilton PR executive until he dashes in to the nearest phone booth and emerges as the host of "Lunchtime With Ira." It's hard to explain exactly what this Monday show is because it's on television, radio and the Internet. It's on channel 777 in Hawaii, on KDWN in Las Vegas, and on KFNX in Phoenix. The thing is webcast, podcast and archived. Did I mention that it's live at the Hilton? But wait! Here's comes Ira again--out of one phone booth and into another. This time he emerges as the "Las Vegas Notebook," a weekly humor piece, and I must say that he consistently amazes me with one-liners. Examples: "The National Finals Rodeo is the one event in Las Vegas that ropes everybody in." (Give me a rim shot, Tommy.). "The Society of Seven were inducted into the Las Vegas Walk of Fame. Will the walk feature 14 feet?" Ta-DUM-bum. Well, you get the idea. The guy does everything,and your faithful reporter may have helped him along by suggesting he should write a book about Las Vegas. I'm still waiting.

He's still "stoked" by the casino biz

      December 1 2006:      I gave a talk to an audience of Denver business types yesterday. They were hungry for news about casinos--and I find the same eagerness wherever I go in the country. We're in a magic business that enthralls and fascinates the average person. They just can't get enough of it. I described how Las Vegas casinos used to be so dead in December that they canceled their shows and sent out press releases with the word "Dark.," after the dates. I told them about the rise of tournaments, the shift from mechanical slots to electro mechanicals, then to electronics, and finally to the modern computer games. I described how my partners and I brought the cash advance business out in the open in 1980, and gave rise to the forest of ATMs and cash machines you see clustered around casino cashier cages these days. I told them about the first casino floor promotion at the Sahara in 1962 (your faithful reporter organized and directed it). And to tell you the truth, it was fun to relive all of that stuff. After 46 years in the casino business (and counting) I'm still as stoked as ever. (Thanks for lending me the word, Don.)

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The Internet as seen from 10 years ago

      November 22 2006:      What well-known prognosticator wrote this about the Internet almost ten years ago? "The Internet stirs the imagination. It stomps its foot and demands attention. It simply won't be ignored...Some casino Web sites look like the hotel brochure chopped up into screen-sized pieces. Same old shots of buildings, logos and happy people. Same language, too. The shows are 'fast paced,' the food is 'fabulous' and 'experience' is always used as a verb...But there's a sameness out there. You expect more (from a casino Web site) and there's a letdown because it's all so traditional...Advertising on the Internet is still new and we have time to improve. The bad news is that we're moving at the speed of a glacier...Not so with e-mail. In 15 or 20 years the receipt of a personal letter will incite the same delighted amazement that overwhelms you today at the sight of a 1932 Ford roadster trundling along in the slow lane...E-mail is fast, efficient and cost effective. But it's the essence of high tech without the charm of high touch, Handy it is. Personal it ain't." Okay, I confess. It was your faithful reporter in my second book, "Secrets of Casino Marketing." Fun to look back.

Time has changed the press release

      November 11 2006:      Columnist Richard Levey, writing in Direct magazine, tells of an ad agency that offered a $2,000 cash prize (to charity) for the best story about the agency's reopening. Not a word saw print--no surprise there. But the truth is, reporters and editors roll their eyes at many of the PR releases that cross their desks and in general have a low regard for the people who write them. Sure, they may use the information in a press release, but the release is almost never printed word for word because it's so loaded with fancy adjectives and shameless plugs for the company. It wasn't always like that. The first PR people were ex-reporters who wrote releases just like they formerly wrote news stories. They plugged the company but the mentions were fact-based and the leads always had a hook. In short, the "press releases" were written as news or feature stories and often saw print exactly as they were submitted. True story: in my first newspaper job (with the Las Vegas Review-Journal) we had an entertainment columnist who used to "write" his column by pasting together press releases from the casinos. Wasn't bad, either.

Telly took big gamble, got us off the ground

      November 1 2006:      I get fifty or sixty e-mails a day, many of them newsletters that deal with online marketing. So when I saw an ad for Business-to-Business lead generation on a "pay per lead" basis, I took a look. They lost me with a dumb first line in the copy that told me it was an "exciting" online product. But it did remind me of Telly Savalas. How so? When my partners and I started Players Club International in the 80s, we needed a celebrity spokesman--someone who could give us instant recognition. So after careful planning we launched a thorough search for just the right person. That took about 30 seconds. Someone said, "What about Telly Savalas," and we all said yes and we phoned his agent and got the deal in ten minutes. Since we had no money to speak of, we used the TV version of "pay per lead." They call it "PI" or "per inquiry." We paid the network or station per phone call and since Telly really drew the calls, everyone wanted our spot. We generated tens of thousands of leads and paid the lowest rate possible, "PI." Telly came out okay, too. He gambled with us by taking Players Club stock instead of cash. Our stock wasn't worth much then, but later zoomed to $35 a share. Telly had 200,000 shares. "Pay per lead" indeed.

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Facts alone are cold; use a personal touch

      October 21 2006:      When you're writing to casino customers and trying to persuade them to visit your store, does it take anything more than just the offer to get results? Get set for a long and involved answer. First, offer alone might be good enough if that's all you wanted to accomplish with your mail. But with an opportunity to talk one-to-one with a customer, why stop there? Would you tell your convention sales people, for example, to present "just the facts" when selling? They'd revolt. Sales people make friends, establish themselves as honest and dependable and truly concerned about making your meeting the best ever--and the sale is half made.Letters can speak with the same warm and personal tone, and they can reach thousands in one mailing. But what makes the personal letter work? To start, it reads like I'm writing now. It's short on adjectives and long on benefits. It uses contractions, which is the way we all speak. It's written first person. It favors "talking" over"writing" and in doing so wipes away the stale claims and unimaginative verbiage that infests too much of casino mail. And finally, it often makes you smile at statements you never expected to hear from a casino.There's much more, of course, but I'll cover it in a future piece.

Art directors on top; coupons long gone

      October 12 2006:      Seen any coupons in casino advertising lately? Nope, the coupon is long gone, even though studies show that ads with coupons draw more readers than ads without them. A coupon tells the prospect that you have something to offer her and that she can get it with a phone call. For years most advertising companies understood that and took advantage of it. But that was before art directors, not writers, became the favored creative force in the ad business. Notice I said "favored," which in no way should be construed to mean "best." Many art directors hate words because they clutter up the page. That's why they make design elements out of them. But coupons they really hate. They're offended by anything that gets in the way of their design or that tries tries to sell anything. The latter is what coupons do best. But never mind. The design is king. You'd think art directors would have at least a nodding acquaintance with reading comprehension. But no. Hard-to-read sans serif type, reverse outs and weird combinations of yellow copy on magenta rule the day. The art director is king. Too bad. Maybe it's just a cycle we're going through. Or sun spots. Or pole shift.

Tables need Win Cards more than ever now

      October 1 2006:      Ted Gottlieb phoned the other day to remind me that we used to meet once a month for breakfast in the Bistro of the old Sahara-Tahoe at Lake Tahoe. The topic was always the same--Ted' s driving desire to increase casino BJ play by the simple act of educating the players (he was a dealer at the time for Sahara-Tahoe). The players at his table, he told me, would stick around longer if someone taught them the damn game. One day he brandished a prototype of a handsome teaching aid he named the "Win Card." A turn of the dial, among other things, told the player when to stand or ask for a hit. I told him I liked the idea but convincing casinos to educate their players might be a tough sell . "I'm persistent," he said, smiling. He sure was. Last month, "Win Cards",turned 20 years old. Says Gottlieb, who has installed his invention in more than 165 casinos, "I hoped to provide an industry standard for teaching players the games. The future of tables demands it. Win Cards should be cross marketed to slot players, for example. Poker proved that card games are still popular, but we have to educate the players first."

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Oyster slurping? It's on the menu at G2E in Vegas

      September 22 2006:       I'm speaking on a direct mail panel at G2E in Las Vegas on Nov. 13. After that I'll wander though the exhibits to see some old friends. Then, Shazam! It's off to the Food & Beverage displays in another part of the hall. Heck, I still have stuff I picked up at last year's F&B show, including a bottle of instant hand cleaner. My pal Larry Close dragged me into the F&B show and once inside my eyes widened. Never saw so much food--and everyone wanted to give us a sample (we took them). We sipped wine (I forget how many kinds), sampled new drinks, and even watched pastry chefs compete for a title. I'd guess we saw about 50 or 60 booths. This year there are 120. They include cooking demonstrations, wine tasting, cocktail demonstrations, a uniform fashion show, Neon Chefs Culinary Competition, and something named the Mohegan Sun Oyster Open featuring the Oyster Virgin Sacrifice Slurping Competition. I'm not to sure how close I'll get to an oyster slurping match, but I'll be there. You can bet on it.

Bye-bye slot machines, hello to the AUGDs

      September 12 2006:      That was a neat piece of work by Patrick Leen and Tom Nelson in the August issue of Casino Enterprise Management magazine. The two former Michigan gaming regulators seek the demise of the term, "slot machine." They write, "Despite a quarter century of technological advances that have morphed low stakes, coin-operated mechanical devices into large jackpot, computer driven cashless systems, many cling to a belief in the archetypal slot machine." Of course, they have a point. But it reminds me of the guy who said, "Everyone complains about the weather but nobody ever does anything about it." I mean, if Pat and Tom want a change in terminology maybe they should start a contest to rename the, uh, unknown objects that stand around by the thousands in the big joints. They actually had a ghost of a new name in their fourth paragraph when they referred to those, uh, unknown objects as "automated gaming devices." That's not bad. We could call them AUGDs for short, pronounced, "Aw, God." (All right, wise guy, suppose YOU try.)

Turning bathrooms into profit centers

      September 1 2006:      Chief Marketer, an online Prism Business Media property, publishes a feature named "Choice Links of the Week." Included in the Aug. 22, edition were links to stories on advertising that make you wonder just what in hell is happening to the profession. Play-Doh is experimenting with aromas, including a "limited edition" of Eau de Play-Doh. The Starwood Hotels are working on "olfactory branding." And a US company has announced a patented system to print ads on grocery store conveyer belts. A friend of mine, Nate Ortiz, came up with that same idea in 1999. Did he patent it? Not sure, but I do know that Safeway turned him down. Meanwhile, the Brits have clinched the no-class award with ads on the mirrors of public bathrooms. Little do they know that Danish comedian Victor Borge came up with a much better idea to turn the bathroom into a profit center. On stage at the Las Vegas Sahara in the 80s, Borge joked, "I had to use the toilet here last night, and it took three cherries to get in." Pause. "And three oranges to get out."

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Word genius Ogilvy didn't know grammar

      August 24 2006:      The late David Ogilvy has always been a favorite of mine. If you're a direct marketer you have to love the guy "Send us your copywriters," he once told general ad agencies. "We will each them how to sell." Ogilvy wrote wonderful copy that sold everything from Hathaway shirts to Rolls Royces, and this is how he explained it: "I don't know the rules of grammar. If you're trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think. We try to write in the vernacular." See, that's what I mean about Ogilvy. The guy was a maverick. He wrote copy, he wrote books, he gave the best speeches on direct marketing I've ever heard, and he didn't worship the celebrated "creatives" of Madison Avenue. "In the modern world of business," Ogilvy said, "it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create." And for ads that didn't fit his standards, he had a particularly icy put-down: "Some manufacturers illustrate their advertisements with abstract paintings. I would only do this if I wished to conceal from the reader what I was advertising." You were so right, Mr. Ogilvy. R.I.P.

The do-not-call list now at 107 million

      August 13 2006:      In October, the population of the United States will reach the 300 million mark, highest ever. But what's just as remarkable is that more than 107 million persons have signed up for the national do-not-call registry. Melissa Campanelli of DM News reports that Americans have "embraced" the registry. The rush of signups hit 10 million in the first four days after the registry's launch on June 27, 2003, Campanelli writes. By Sept. 30, nearly 52 million had joined and the numbers have crept steadily higher ever since. To look at it another way, the 107 million represents 76% of US adults. The FTC apparently was delighted because it received "just" 1.2 million complaints in 2005, indicating "a high degree of compliance" by the telemarketing industry. I pass these figures on because major casinos do a ton of telemarketing, and if more than three fourths of adults hate to be called, it should give you pause. Maybe you don 't have a problem. But it wouldn't hurt to review the rules and regulations your people use on the telephone, then check when they call and how often they call. Just a thought.

Romero comments on the Romeros

      August 1 2006:      The second annual Romero Awards for casino marketing were handed out on July 20, at the conclusion of Casino Marketing the 2006 National Conference, at Paris las Vegas. And once again your faithful reporter was honored to be part of the process. It's still a bit strange to see my name on an award and to hear my work extolled in such fancy phrases. One gentleman, on stage to pick up his winning submission, said, "It's an honor to meet you." That impressed me, because I don't think I'm anyone special. But I certainly was obsessed with the idea that advertising should be measurable and accountable (the basis on which the Romeros are judged). In the beginning of my casino marketing career in 1960 at Del Webb's Sahara Las Vegas, it worried me that I committed company ad money without knowing exactly what it accomplished. By the second year I started to find out--and some of the results dismayed me. About that time I did my first large mailing, and measured expenditures against results. What a revelation! After that, I was sold on direct marketing--and I pushed he industry to adopt it at the expense of general advertising if necessary. When I began to write my marketing column in IGWB in 1985, I wrote that I still didn't know of a single casino with a direct marketing department. I pounded away at that theme for the next 20 years. Well, you know what happened. If I have a legacy, it's the swing to database marketing.

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Don't discount friendship; it's a key marketing tool

      July 24 2006:      Why, when your casino doesn't have all the jazz and perks of your competition, do your regular players keep coming back? There are several reasons, of course, not the least of which is what syndicated columnist Harvey MacKay calls "Likability." MacKay believes that people buy from people they like--and while it may sound simplistic, it's not. The plain fact is, your key people are (as MacKay says) genuine, pleasant, sincere, easy to talk with and friendly. Those kinds of people not only draw customers from the competition--they hold them as well. In a recent column MacKay quotes Lee Iacocca, who said, "Anyone who doesn't get along with people has earned the kiss of death...because all we've got around here are people." As a newcomer in the casino business in the early 60s, I worked for the late Herb McDonald at the Sahara in Las Vegas. The guy was a genius at making friends. I saw him in action enough times to know that being interested in other people (in this case our customers) was worth millions to our casino. I've been a believer ever since.

Forget those keywords; search by using images

      July 12 2006:      An article by Gary Stix in the current Scientific American magazine could signal the beginning of the end for the way we search the Internet. And when changes in the Internet are about to happen, my casino marketing genes always kick in. Stix names his story, "A Farewell to Keywords," and makes the point that "content-based image retrieval"(using images to search for images) is surging due to "Intriguing advances that sidestep the need for keywords." Microsoft Research, says Stix, has already identified a list of uses for Web-enabled camera phones. For example, a prospect in a department store could photograph a stove and relay the image as a file to a server that shoots back a Web page from Consumer Reports. A Microsoft spokesman says the company wants to assemble a database of billions of images captured by a search engine--and be able to retrieve them in a fraction of a second. Google is in the act, too, but rarely if ever comments on future plans. So what say you, casino marketers? Can you find a use for the new technique. I came up with a couple just writing this--which means you should have no problem.

Play with casino money;Survey: 52.8 million of us
gambled in the past year

      July 1 2006:      A household income of $95,000 a year doesn't mean the family is set for life, but it certainly allows for enough discretionary cash to hit the slots and tables. And as the latest Harrah's gaming survey shows, casino visitation was highest among adults with a 95-Grand income (31%, to be exact). Harrah's calls its survey "Profile of the American Gambler," and every casino should write the company a thank-you note. Some of the findings were lower than popular perceptions I've seen in the public prints. Seems that 52.8 million Americans age 21 or older (25 % of the US population) visited a casino to gamble at least once during a year. I've read estimates up to 90%. It's popularly reasoned that the North East region of the nation produces the most gamblers. But the North East had 28% versus 33% for the West. In the introduction to my first book, Casino Marketing, I said the industry was "...outrunning its memories,"and that it was "...in the stretch and sprinting hard to take over America." I wrote that in 1994. Close, but just a touch exuberant.

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Play with casino money;Casino creatives nailed;
John on the warpath

      June 24 2006:      Bob Bly, the most prolific "how to" writer in the history of direct marketing (more than 60 books) and a super-smart guy, says his chosen field "isn't what is used to be." in DM News, Bob blames mediocre creative, clutter and credibility. I don't know about the rest of the businesses out there, but I can tell you what's wrong with casino direct mail. To start, most copywriters in our business are a mass of clichés and worn out words. It's not uncommon to find "exciting" four and five times in one letter, as if it were mandatory. And I'm beginning to see "hopefully" creep in as well. I didn't think a single writer would ever use it to mean, "I hope," after the famous Strunk and White putdown ("To say 'Hopefully, I'll leave on the noon plane' is a to speak nonsense."). Then there are a few more problems with casino creative, starting with a lack of selling skills, no understanding of reading comprehension, body copy set in stupid sans serif type faces, no idea of proper paragraph length and ignorance of the value of lead sentences, final sentences and the P.S. No! Stand back! Don't try to stop me. I'm just warming up. Could be another book coming.

Play with casino money;The global Internet:
694,000,000 a month

      June 12 2006:      An outfit named comScore World Metrix says that 694,000,000 persons used the Internet in March, 2006. DM News says it's the first estimate of global online audience size, and that the number represents 14 percent of the world population, age 15 and older. While most print media continue to lose circulation, the Internet is in full charge and about to make good on the claims made for it in the mid 90s. My slot genius pal Gary Harris predicted the surge 10 years ago, but he was just a bit early. Now he's dead on. Peter Daboll, CEO of comScore Media Metrix, says 10 years ago the online audience in the US accounted for two-thirds of the global audience. Now we represent less than 25 percent. The major Asian countries (China, Japan, India and South Korea) have about 168 million users. The US has about 152 million. More stunners: Israel leads the top 15 countries ranked by average hours online per visitor. The US failed to rank in the top 15. Finally,Yahoo led all global properties in page views with 137.2 billion in March, followed by Google with 108.7 billion. Anyone doubt the Net now?

Play with casino money;
better odds than Vegas

      June 1 2006:      It came in a window envelope, 9 1/2" wide and 5 3/4" deep, without a word of copy on either side. And when you picked it up you felt something solid inside. A CD, maybe. The indicia announced it was presorted, US postage paid, from Elaine, WA. Uh, oh. Must be foreign stuff. So I opened it and found a one-page letter I could have written myself--and a CD. The second paragraph started with the word "Imagine." The short copy included terms such as "risk-free," and the writer announced she (maybe he) didn't want to use "a penny of your money." Hey, these people have been reading my mail!. All I had to do was "pop" the CD into my computer and start playing with $500 of the casino's money. A blurb on the back of the CD-holder read "Enjoy better odds than you would find in Las Vegas." Under that were phone numbers in the UK, Denmark, Israel, Canada--even the USA. As you've guessed by now, it was a lead generator for an online casino (Casino Classic). Did I pop the CD into my computer? Hell, no. How do I know what they built into it? And it didn't say it was Mac friendly. Maybe it works in Israel. Not in the Rockies. Sorry.

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We're gambling more!
Did you realize that?

      May 22 2006:      Americans are gambling more than ever. Wow! Such thrilling news a 10-year study at the Scripps Research Center at Ohio University has turned up. I never would have guessed. Hold it a second: I've got to sit down and catch my breath. Now, I imagine this story got good play in the public prints when it broke recently, but it comes under the heading of duh. I mean, what happened in the last 10 years? Did the number of casinos decline? Did Native Americans decide it was a losing proposition and pull out? Of course not. It's been a free-for-all to see who can open the most joints. Hundreds of thousands of new slots were built; live Poker went crazy; players have been throwing money at the games in record numbers. But apparently we needed a research outfit to make it official. I've always maintained that you could take any good slot manager or pit supervisor, feed them all the questions on your survey and take the results to the bank. No one has ever proven me wrong.

Tracking viral ads:
But do they sell?

      May 11 2006:      As you know, I'm not a fan of advertising that can't be measured for effectiveness. So when "Viral marketing" (word of mouth) aimed at young people and the entertainment business surfaced a few years ago I yawned and rolled my eyes. Just a bunch of nutty creative junk that will add up to zero. Now comes Anne Holland, president of the research firm MarketingSherpa, who felt pretty much the same way until she judged the "Viral Marketing Hall of Fame" contest this year. She found that some tiny, unknown shop wrote a special rap song for techies, then sold it to SAP Japan, which counted more than 20,000 downloads. Another team of marketers with a $1,000 budget launched a campaign that "Swept the blogsphere," says Anne. Then along came AT&T with its "Virtual forest" campaign to encourage E-billings. If you sign up you get to plant your own virtual tree--and watch it grow. Silly, right? But more than 500,000 customers responded. Bottom line: word of mouth ads, if you can get them started, can help build wareness. But do viral ads actually sell anything?.

Authenticate E-mail now;
Check these 3 methods

      May 1 2006:      Attention casino marketers: DM News warns E-mail marketers to "Authenticate now!" And Microsoft has released new information showing that Sender ID has improved open and delivery dates. At last the business is serious about derailing what DM News calls, "Spam, fraud, phishing and ID theft." About time. There are three main methods used to authenticate E-mail and stop spam, starting with SPF (Sender Policy Framework). Chris Beers, writing for Information Week, says SPF records are specially crafted Domain Name System text records that let your E-mail servers share information with other E-mail servers on the Internet. A second method is Sender ID, which checks the "From" addresses. A third method is DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail Validates) that requires both outbound and inbound DKIM-aware E-mail servers and will add overhead to E-mail processing. Beers says that SPF is winning the early battle as the industry standard among the three sender-authentication methods. And he adds, "Anything that trips up spammers is progress." True.

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Translators attention:
Take a shot at this

      April 21 2006:      For several years in my marketing columns in IGWB magazine I wrote an annual piece named "Translations From the Upper Casino Management." I maintained that when casino corporations became big deals on Wall Street, the bosses adopted the convoluted language of big ad agency creative directors, baffling their subordinates. I'd comb all the marketing magazines for the most perplexing paragraphs I could find. Then I'd attribute them to a casino boss speaking to the stockholders and translate them in the following paragraph, named, "What he meant." In that paragraph he was the old boss--speaking the tough language of a guy who has to make forecast each month. The other day in an online newsletter I came across the following paragraph: "Creative is the idea vs. the execution It starts with a solid idea that lives in the heart of the brand. It doesn't have to merely look like the brand. It has to feel like it came from the soul of the brand. That doesn't come from a graphics manual. It comes from knowing your brand." Say what? If you want to take a shot at translation, send it to me at romeromkt@aol.com.

Buckley's annual letter
is a direct mail classic

      April 10 2006:      As a subscriber to National Review, I have the pleonastic pleasure each year of receiving an (almost) personal letter from William F. Buckley Jr., founder of the magazine. It is direct mail as only Mr. Buckley can write and I have kept every one (they are set always in the Courier type face that was standard for most typewriters until they were vanquished by computers). His letters thank the subscribers and ask for a donation from $100 to $1,000. "In my farewell address last Fall," he recites in this year's letter, "I made one jocular point. Our cumulative losses, over fifty years, I estimated at roughly $25 million. I said then that our loyal and generous readers have conveyed to us, every year, just about exactly what we needed." His letters violate every rule of direct mail. The latest starts, "It came--and went! Our 50th anniversary." There are no benefits there, no promises and nothing at all to compel the subscriber to read another word--except Mr. Buckley's almighty persona. For writers, each of Mr. Buckley's letters is a classic in persuasion. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

Bandleader Jack Eglash:
One droll cat passes on

      April 1 2006:      The old Sahara crowd dwindles. From the 50s through the 70s they were the sharpest, most inventive team on the Strip in Las Vegas. They helped make casino marketing what it is today. Now another has passed on. Jack Eglash, the Sahara musical conductor, died on Feb. 11. Jack was one droll cat, and he played for some of the best comedic minds in the business, including Buddy Hackett, Don Rickles, Dave Barry, Sid Caesar, Victor Borge, Johnny Carson and all the others, night after night. Everyone who worked at the Sahara during those 30 marvelous years remembers Jack, and when he died, his son, Ryan, carried on in the best Eglash tradition. He organized a tribute to his father and presented it on March 26, at the Las Vegas Country Club. He named the tribute, "Blame the Band, adapted from the book and a lifetime of excellence, starring Jack Eglash." (Now there's a title that sounds like Jack wrote it himself.) Ryan reached out to the old Sahara crowd for remembrances and the guys responded with enough comments to fill three hours. I was proud to be a part of that Sahara gang and to have known and worked with Jack Eglash--the best bandleader of his time. R.I.P.

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Diabetes can't conquer
this tough Olympian

      March 22 2006:      Do you remember Kris Freeman from the Winter Olympics? He's the best American cross country skier, but unfortunately failed to medal. Here's his story anyway, one that would make any of us proud: In 2001, during a routine medical checkup, the doctors told him he had Type 1 diabetes. Here's a guy who won the US junior championship at 15 and had worked himself up to a world ranking, and they tell him his ski career has ended. Although Type 1 diabetes can be very nasty, Freeman refused to give up. He trained harder than ever. A few months later he made the 2002 US Olympic team, and finished 22nd in the Olympic 15K race. He won the world Under-23 champion ship in 2003, finished fourth at the world championship the same year, and finished fifth and sixth in a pair of World Cup races last year. And he'll be chasing Gold at Vancouver in 2010. So why did I tell this story? Our youngest son developed Type 1 diabetes at age 27, but he also refused to give in. Troy was a marvelous wrestler, football player and body builder, and like Freeman, now monitors his glucose intake, watches his diet, and injects himself with insulin daily. Like Freeman, he says "It's no big deal." It is to me.

Ad agencies attacked,
this time from Dilbert

      March 12 2006:      I had to laugh. A cartoon in the financial section of the Rocky Mountain News needed only three panels to sum up my thoughts about some of the TV "branding" ads you see these days. The first panel in "The Dilbert Zone" by Scott Adams has the boss telling his team, "I hired the Amorphous Ad Company to do our new campaign." In the next panel the ad guy says, "I see a gaseous cloud and some music...no, just a noise," to which the boss replies "Excellent." In the last panel the boss says, "And then we say the name of our company?" to which the ad guy says "Sure, if you want to ruin the ad." You have no idea how much truth there is in those three panels. Just as bad are the commercials that throw away the last line on some goofy stunt instead of mentioning the product. A new McDonald's commercial leaves you with a scene in which a guy's cell phone emits a very square ring just as he's trying to impress the cute girl at the next table. He's digging in his jacket to shut if off as the spot ends. The lesson (once again): It's not the advertising that should be memorable. It's the promises the ad makes that should be memorable.

A man ahead of his time:
my friend Herb McDonald

      March 1 2006:      Some casino guys are ahead of their time, and I was lucky enough to work for one of them--the late Herb McDonald. He brought me into the casino business at the Sahara in Las Vegas, and his mind spun out an astounding series of business-building promotions. His most famous was the World Airline Christmas Party--14 straight days in December (when we really needed the business). Each night was sponsored by a different airline and to this day they were the wildest casino parties I've ever seen. He also invented the World Fast Draw Championship, the National Bellmen's Convention, The Indoor Archery Championship and the Sahara Invitational Golf Tournament, a PGA tour fixture from 1959 to 1979. He assigned me to head every one of them, and the business lessons I learned stay with me to this day. I thought of him when I learned that GM will build a driving track on Sahara land at the corner of Paradise Road and Sahara Avenue, just back of the Sahara. Herb had a vision for that land in the 60s--a second Sahara with a park, sports attractions and huge underground tunnel connecting the two. Herb was the Steve Wynn of his time--without the money.

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New McDonald's promo;
What can casinos learn?

      February 20 2006:      McDonald's is overhauling its in-store promotional style. Some 50 separate advertising agencies were called on to implement the new strategy named "Simple Bold." Can casinos learn anything from a hamburger company? Well, maybe, even though "Simple Bold" looks like a make-work project that will benefit the agencies more than McDonald's. In short, the chain threw out its old-style food ads, canning the obviously doctored food photos in favor of more realistic photos surrounded by bold, easily-read type. Will it boost sales? Who knows? There's no way to track it. But it might wake up a few casinos who do dismal in-house promotion jobs. I mean, if you walk into a casino and can't remember a single promotional sign after you leave, that's dismal. But it's common. That's because the designers subordinate copy to art. Which means the benefits (if any) are buried. Using a bold, black-on-white, all-copy poster will not only grab attention--it will sell. Copy is king; don't let anyone tell you different.

Those Super Bowl ads:
who sponsored them?

      February 11 2006:      Forget that it was a boring game. Forget the Seattle receivers dropped all the important passes--or pushed off and got stupid penalties. In THIS Super Bowl a few advertisers actually ran commercials that sold. You know, the old fashioned kind. But we're interested only in those that were for laughs. I'll describe the commercials; you tell me the sponsor: (1) Stunt men go to a meeting. Some jump out of windows, others dangle from a helicopter, some crash through the ceiling; (2) A guy carrying a bottle tries to get through an airport line. An alarm goes off. A security guy threatens to strike him; (3) Two doctors about to give a patient an electric shock treatment test their paddles on a fly. "That killed him,"says one, as the patient's wife and daughter stroll in; (4) A girl catching a pass in a touch football game gets flattened. Later, when the guy who flattened her is having a drink at the bar, she flattens him; (5) Monkeys with Champagne celebrate a successful sales graph. The party stops when a guy flips the graph to show them sales went down, but resumes when he flips it back again. Sponsors, in order were Degree Deodorant, Sierra Mist, Ameriquest Mortgage, Michelob Ultra Amber, and CareerBuilders.com. A waste of money? Of course, but amusing.

Online casinos flourishing;
6 million of us are betting

      February 1 2006:      Online casinos are flourishing. Christiansen Capital Advisors, LLC, estimates the take by global Internet gambling houses will be $20.7 billion by the year 2008. But where does the money come from? Internet gambling sites and sports books are illegal under federal law. Yet analysts estimate that six million of us risk jail time by jumping in with both feet. Okay, so prosecution is rare, but there are REAL casinos all over America now, in something like 39 states the last time I counted. In many parts of the country it's a short drive. But still the online casinos rake it in. Now, according to Jeff Smith of the Rocky Mountain News, one sports book reports that 40 percent of its customers place bets on celebrities But how do you make odds on when Angelina Jolie will marry Brad Pitt? Smith also points out that Colorado law prohibits intentionally aiding or encouraging an offense--which means a site may be legal in Antigua but you won't find their ads in the Rocky. It all reminds me of Heywood Broun's famous line, "The urge to gamble is so universal and its practice so pleasurable that I assume it must be evil."

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Emotional vs. intellectual;
Change "begin" to "start"

      January 24 2006:      Do you see these lines in your casino mail? "Complimentary room, food and beverage will be provided." "We are pleased to extend an invitation to..." "Upon your arrival..." "Should you desire to extend your stay..." If you said "No," your mail is rare indeed. Most casino mail is filled with a clumsy, awkward, superfluity of words like these. How much more simple and direct to say, "Your room, meals and drinks are free," "You're invited to..." "When you arrive..." and, "If you're staying longer..." The problem is that many casino writers have no idea how to sell anything, so they invariably fall back on pomposity. English is a wonderful language because there are two ways to say almost everything--an "intellectual" way and an "emotional" way. Unfortunately, many casino writers prefer intellectual words over emotional words. Here's what to do when confronted with such ostentation (intellectual word first): Change "begin" to "start." Change "receive" to "get." Change "fond of" to "like." Change "inquire" to "ask." Change "choose" to "pick." Change "purchase" to "buy." Change "observed" to "seen." The best sales writers in the business fill their copy with emotional words. Why don't you?

The demand for "creativity"
works against advertisers

      January 12 2006:      Common sense has left the building. Advertisers have been conned for so long by advertising agencies that there doesn't appear to be a single client left who has any idea of return on investment. Instead, "creativity" has settled like a dark and impenetrable fog over the great unwashed; it has become the "McGuffin" of the plot, the driving force. Among the newest ideas, the following: (1) Let the consumer design the ads (2) An Internet "floating" ad that has a 15-second life span and appears only now and then (3) Word of Mouth advertising spread by thousands of low-paid talkers (4) CD-ROM magazine inserts (5) Print ads that are fortified with embedded microchips, and (6) text messages relayed to cellphones. The problem with all this "creativity" is that it can't be measured for effectiveness. The advertiser can't say, "I paid $22,000 for the ad and I made 2,500 sales at $19.95 each." What kind of advertising can deliver such certainty? Direct marketing, of course. But its enemies work overtime to convince advertisers that DM is not "creative." And the dark ages continue.

Gaming icon Kerry Packer
passes at 68 in Australia

      January 1 2006:      Despite the growth of legal gaming, the average American probably couldn't name one prominent figure in our business. Steve Wynn, maybe. But Kerry Packer? Not a chance. Yet Packer's death from natural causes on Dec. 26, ended an amazing run of luck that made him an international gambling icon. Forbes magazine ranked him the world's 94th richest person, which is where a fortune of $5 billion will get you. Packer, an Australian, owned Publishing & Broadcasting, Ltd., which owned the Nine Network and Melbourne's Crown Casino. He had recently partnered with Asian gaming figure Stanley Ho to build casinos in Macau. Packer had a reputation as a tough bargainer and a shrewd operator; he bet millions at racetracks and casinos and lived a flamboyant life. In 1990, while playing polo in Sydney, he suffered a heart attack and doctors proclaimed him clinically dead for nearly eight minutes. But he revived, and uttered one of his famous lines: "The good news is that there is no devil. The bad news is there is no heaven. There is nothing." Mr. Packer was 68. R.I.P.

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