New Level Radio Vice President and Co-Founder Nathan Green was recently a featured panelist at the Southern Gaming Summit in Biloxi, Mississippi at a seminar titled, "Not Your Grandfather's Elevator Music: Dive Into the Power of Curated Sound and Sight at Your Casino."

During the session held at Beau Rivage Resort & Casino on May 8, Green explained how the idea for New Level Radio spawned and why a curated messaging strategy is vital for casino properties. He also spoke about how technology has evolved over the years and why the right music and messaging at the right time helps enrich the customer experience at not just casinos, but inside all types of businesses.

“What we have found, especially in casinos, is that the environment is vitally important, as far as scent, sound and visuals and how the floor is dictated,” Green told the audience. “But a lot of the time, the music is an afterthought...We wanted to take a different approach and essentially go with a more of curated environment in which the guest and the casino have a lot of input into how everything is played and why it’s played.”

Green was joined on the panel by Vicki Haskins, Director of Promotions from Scarlet Pearl Casino, and moderator Gary Trask from Casino City Press. Scarlet Pearl is one of the more than 40 casino properties that works with New Level Radio and Haskins described why a new music and messaging strategy was needed for the casino, which she helped open in nearby D'Iberville in December of 2015.

“Because our system didn’t have flexibility, we had to set up our music hour by hour, so the same song was played at the same time every hour all day long even though it wasn’t the same customer,” said Haskins, who has worked in the casino marketing industry for over 25 years. “Fortunately, I was able to bump into Nathan...We’ve been so impressed. I couldn’t be happier...There’s a lot of thought and a lot of data you have to refer to when deciding what music you are going to play and when.”

Green reiterated Haskins’ point that time and effort that need to be put into the decision on what music and messaging a casino property plays and when, and added that the No. 1 mistake he sees businesses make is not caring what their customers are hearing, and instead relying on background music.

“Our approach is to get a baseline of who’s in the property, why are they in the property, how long are they in the property and and who the ideal customer is for that property,” Green said. “We take that blueprint and start to analyze it based on demographic and then we can start to build a playlist.”

“Being a smaller boutique property, our customers are more like family 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,” said Haskins. “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.”

As Green explained, if the rodeo is in Las Vegas, New Level Radio client MGM Grand is going to play more country music, even though that property usually trends toward a younger demographic. When the Billboard Music Awards came to the MGM in May, New Level Radio programmed a set list full of the artists that were performing.

“The idea is to dovetail the music to coincide with who’s in a certain space at a certain time,” he added. “And the specificity of each location is so important. Each market and each property is different. Beau Rivage isn’t the same as MGM Grand. And even just across the street from MGM, New York New York is so different. Something that might work in Denver, may not work in Spokane or Biloxi. Being able to curate things for specific properties just makes so much sense.”

As for the messaging that’s mixed into New Level Radio’s programming, typically every four to seven songs, Haskins said that it’s effective because it’s almost “subliminal.”

“The way they incorporate the messaging is so seamless, so smooth,” she said. “The promotional capabilities allow for a monetary return on investment where you can run promos on the casino floor that talk about what’s going on and provide a call to action,” Green added. “If you’re running an in-house message, for say 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.”

The first Southern Gaming Summit took place in 1994 and it remains the premier casino industry conference and convention for the South, offering attendees the opportunity to learn from an extensive roster of conference programs and earn an understanding about industry-best practices, the latest technologies, products and services.

Next up for New Level Radio and its vice president is the Casino Marketing & Technology Conference at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, July 23-25, where Green will be a panelist on a session titled, “The Power of Music.”Held on Thursday, July 25 at 3:45 p.m., the panel will share their love of music, success stories, and how casino properties are finding new ways to add to the guest experience and boost employee satisfaction by leveraging the “power of music.”