How to combat gamer attrition.
The Silverado-Franklin Historic Hotel and Gaming Complex is the gambling and hospitality anchor in the historic mountain town of Deadwood South Dakota. Being the largest casino in Deadwood and offering full-service amenities, two restaurants, two bars, and an 81 room hotel, a night-on-the-town always includes a visit to the Silverado. Directly across the street from the modern Silverado casino, lies the historic Franklin Hotel.
Upon stepping into the grand entry of the historic Franklin Hotel you are transported back in time to the turn of the 20th century.
For nearly 25 years, we have partnered with the Silverado on their advertising efforts. Those efforts have primarily been focused on a traditional strategy of print advertising, billboards, television and radio spots to reach an older audience.
However, the marketing landscape has shifted quite dramatically over that timeframe and as a result, our recommended executions have shifted as well.
The Aging-Out of Traditional Gamers
The Silverado-Franklin’s primary audience is older, more affluent and regionally based. However, that older audience isn’t being replaced by a younger audience with the same spending habits, at the same rate. That begs the question, how can the Silverado-Franklin appeal to new, younger gamers.
Hedging Bets on a Younger Clientele
Since there’s more to the Silverado-Franklin than just gaming, we decided to target a younger audience and promote to their interests via the channels they follow. Given that this demographic are “digital natives”, refining the campaign with all the technical “bells and whistles” allowed us to optimize our messaging and ad targeting. Our goal was to create a super productive ad buy.
We implemented a Google AdWords SEM pay-per-click advertising campaign to drive traffic to the client’s website focusing on dining and poker.
The Result
The Silverado-Franklin saw an astounding 26% interaction rate (rate people clicked compared to total impressions) with their Google Adwords buy. To put things into perspective, the average rate for these types of ads is 2%. The efforts resulted in more dining conversions to their buffet and steakhouse.
