New Success Story: Talking Stick Resort
SCARLET PEARL
Scarlet Pearl Resort & Casino
Scarlet Pearl Casino Resort is a privately held company based on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in D’Iberville. The casino resort opened on December 9, 2015 and features 300 hotel rooms, a miniature golf course, an event center, a luxurious pool and multiple restaurants. The casino is home to DraftKings at Scarlet Pearl Sportsbook, over 900 slot machines, including over 50 live video poker machines and over 30 table games.
"We were unable
to change things on
the fly for our music or messaging...
The logistics and technology would
not allow us to do that."
THE CHALLENGE
Zero Flexibility
With nearly three decades of experience in the casino industry, Vicki Haskins was hired by Scarlet Pearl Casino Resort to be its Director of Promotions, Events and Entertainment months before the property’s grand opening.
“Music and messaging is very important. I was not on the panel to choose what provider we would use, so I was basically handed a music vendor and was tasked with making it work for our casino,” Haskins says. “This particular provider had zero flexibility, so on our own we had to go through and figure out who our demographic was going to be and what we wanted them to hear.
“We chose a lot of jazz and Rat Pack-type music because we knew our demo was going to be in the range of 48 to 65 year olds. The problem was that because our provider didn’t have any flexibility we had to literally go through and set up the music hour by hour. As you can imagine, if you’re a dealer or another associate on property, you are ready to kill me because you’re hearing the same song at the same time every single day, even though the demo of our guest fluctuates.
“We were also unable to change things on the fly for our music or messaging. So, say we decided that we were going to have a Senior Special on Tuesday afternoon, we wanted to be able to switch up the messaging and promote that all day on Monday and Tuesday morning. But the logistics and technology would not allow us to do that.”
"Our approach is to get
a baseline of who’s in the property, why they’re in the property, how long they’re in the property and who the ideal customer is for that property."
THE SOLUTION
Create a Marketing Vessel
New Level Radio Vice President Nathan Green, who helped launch the company in 2007, has seen this kind of problem hundreds of times over the course of his career, particularly with casino properties.
“The most common problem that businesses have is they don’t care, or they don’t take the time, to figure out who their demographic is and what they want to hear. Our approach is to get a baseline of who’s in the property, why they’re in the property, how long they’re in the property and who the ideal customer is for that property. We take that blueprint and start to analyze based on that demo. We look at transition time. We take into account how different the client is on weekends compared to weekdays, or at night compared to the day.
“The whole idea is to dovetail the music to coincide with who’s in the space at a certain time. Then we add the promotional capabilities with a call-to-action that really allows for a monetary return on investment. If you’re running an in-house message, for a ticket promotion, for example, that’s not playing anywhere else, you can track it and see what it’s doing for you, and we encourage that. We use the program as a marketing vessel rather than just a background music provider that aimlessly plays songs without taking anything else into account.
“With our on-going consulting and personal attention, each program is constantly evolving and changing. We know the intricacies of each property and all of our clients have direct contact with a real person from our company.”
"The product Nathan and New Level Radio brought
in was perfect ... We’re just so happy with the way the casino sounds on a daily basis. It’s been a huge
part of our success."
THE RESULT
One Extreme to Another
Vicki says as she started to seek out a new provider for Scarlet Pearl, she was “fortunate” to get introduced to Nathan.
“The product Nathan and New Level Radio brought in was perfect. Almost immediately, it sounded like ‘Scarlet Pearl Radio’ because it was made with us in mind. Instead of looking to kill me, our associates were now applauding me. They were out there jamming and dancing on the floor, enjoying the music as much as the guests.
“Being a smaller boutique property, our guests are more like family rather than customers, so they let us know all of the time that the music they’re hearing is great and that it always makes them feel good when they come in. Nathan and his team are very good about coming to you and asking a lot of questions. Everything has data to support any of their decisions on what to play and when.
“We don’t have the big video screens and we don’t offer live entertainment any more. Our casino sound is our entertainment. So, it’s very important for the music to have the right transitions. It’s remarkable how smooth, subtle and effective the messaging is. And to be able to change things on the fly is a great advantage. With our other provider it was a real task to switch things out. It took weeks. With New Level Radio, it takes minutes.
“It’s remarkable how we could go from one extreme to another. We’re just so happy with the way the casino sounds on a daily basis. It’s been a huge part of our success.”
