Casino Artist
Casino is probably best known for turning peanut shells into pop culture icons, but he also works with everything from deodorant tubes to Tic Tac boxes. As Casino describes in his Instagram bio, he. Resorts World is a casino and resort currently under construction on the Las Vegas Strip across the street from the Encore Resort. It is owned and operated by the Genting Group, based in Malaysia. It is owned and operated by the Genting Group, based in Malaysia.
The Joyful Combination of Art & Gambling
One may not immediately recognise the joyful combination of art and gambling when touring the world’s most luxurious casinos, but you can be sure that these fantastic and sought after pieces go a long way in creating an atmosphere within a casino. The abundance of fine art can be found across the world of gambling, and curators are hired and paid enormous amounts of money by casino bosses to deck out their venues with the most exquisite pieces. Throughout this article, we’ll explore five casinos across the world that offer patrons an unrivalled art experience, whilst exemplifying the very best of gambling. Before we get into the top five venues for casino artwork, we would like to remind you that you can always check out the best online casinos from your own home, if venturing out to a fancy art gallery isn’t your thing.
The Bellagio in Las Vegas
The Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art is a world-famous art gallery in its own right, but just so happens to be situated inside one of the best and most iconic casinos on the planet. When it was launched in 1998, the concept of having an art gallery inside a casino was completely unprecedented, and the calibre of artwork including Monet, Hockney and Picasso really shocked the art purists and gambling business elite alike. But the art gallery is not the only artistic aspect of this casino, the botanical garden known as The Conservatory is another mesmerising component.
If you’re planning on a visit to Las Vegas and looking to escape the plastic materialism of the main strip, the Conservatory at The Bellagio provides a tucked away cornucopia of natural beauty. The sensational experience at the Conservatory is due to its passionate display of nature in the botanical garden, and fantastic attention to detail with the fine art on display. There are many expeditions taking place at The Conservatory, with Picasso art regularly on display, it is worth planning ahead your trip to make sure you can take advantage of this astounding location. Known for bright colours and expert curation, the Conservatory brings a wide array of flora, trees and plants from around the world together in a joyful collaboration with awe-inspiring sculptures, lighting and paintings. This is a must-see if you’re an art lover stopping in Las Vegas!
The Hippodrome Casino in London
Long considered to be a dingy, smoke-filled distasteful location, The Hippodrome Casino at Leicester Square in London has undergone a massive transformation in recent years. Over £50m has been spent revitalising this venue, and the casino art has also been majorly overhauled. The Hippodrome Casino commission the country’s first digital artist-in-residence to revamp the atmosphere inside the casino floor.
The results have been phenomenal, and the Edwardian building has truly been adapted to the 21st century with a 57-panel digital artwork display creating a unique atmosphere that is rarely experienced inside a casino. The piece inside Hippodrome is a melding of that represent the identity of the building from the past and presents. This unique type of public art has caused punters to state, “you don’t need to gamble to enjoy yourself here”, as the Hippodrome lives and breathes art, both internally and externally.
If you would like to get a touch of the glamor of this London casino from your own home, the casino does actually have gambling site, which is one of the best casino sites UK.
Palms Casino in Las Vegas
For our next location, we’re back again in Sin City, the casino mecca has many fantastic venues filled with entertainment and various means to gamble, but there are few that offer visitors visual delicacies of such fine curation quality like the Palms Casino does. The organisers of this venue abandoned the idea of a dedicated art space and instead turned the entire venue into an art gallery. There are many priceless pieces of art lining the walls of this casino, with original works from Andy Warhol, Richard Prince and Jean-Michel Basquiat just to name a few.
But the most celebrated artist by far at the Palms Casino is British artist Damien Hurst, his controversial 1999 sculpture, The Unknown, which is basically an arrangement of three giant water tanks each with a section of a dissected shark is proudly mounted above the main bar inside the casino. Much of the art is visible from all corners of the casino, so whether you find yourself at the blackjack table, the roulette wheel, or at the slot machines, you’ll be able to capture this delightful visual sustenance.
Venetian Casino Resort in Macau
Stepping away from the west, we look east towards the coastal city of Macau. This legalised gambling oasis in the heart of Asia is known for its exuberant displays of wealth and glamour, attracting some of the biggest and most notorious Asian gamblers to its casinos. But what of the art deco casino within, and the casino paintings that do so much to enhance the experience of its patrons. The Venetian Casino Resort is without doubt one of the most iconic venues in the city, with a huge array of artwork lining the entire venue.
The architecture of the building alone is enough to leave a lasting impression on visitors to this wonderful location. Moreover, the canals surrounding the venue allow guests to truly feel they are part of a Venetian fairy-tale, making this such a wide-arching experience that transcends the pure buzz of casino entertainment.
Casino de Paris
The French capital of Paris is a centre-piece of the global art world, and has for many is home to some of the world’s most prized and celebrated pieces. The iconic Louvre Museum in the city centre houses the most famous piece of art ever created, The Mona Lisa by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, it is considered an archetypal masterpiece from the Italian renaissance, and in this same spirit, the Casino de Paris has strived to curate similar masterpieces of their own.
The venue is packed full of wonderful sculptures and oil paintings that will leave punters feeling that they have been entertained far beyond the activities of the casino floor. If you’re looking for one of Europe’s most vibrant and aesthetically pleasing casinos, then the Casino de Paris casino wall art will achieve this.
Casinos Employ Various Forms of Art
Casinos are always going to be venues that attempt to inspire higher moral philanthropy through the natural senses. This emotional benevolence materialises in fantastic artwork, blending together elements of entertainment and human artistic brilliance makes the case for land-based gambling even stronger. We can only recommend opening your eyes to the impressive skill of art curation that has gone into the décor on your next visit to one of the casinos we’ve listed here today. And let’s not forget that some of the games at the best roulette casinos and top slots online casinos are almost artworks in themselves.
When I started my adventures on the vendor side of the casino marketing equation, I often found myself trying to describe a typical day to other business owners trying to get in the door.
The truth is, there’s nothing standard about a day in casino marketing. Our days are influenced by fellow department members, bosses, little old ladies out for a day of value and fun and high-touch VIPs—sometimes all at once. We work crazy hours, and sometimes those hours may find us in a costume.
But I wouldn’t trade my time in this industry for anything in the world.
I decided someone should mirror the “Casino Gaming Executive Satisfaction” study, by Bristol Associates Inc. and Spectrum Gaming Group, but with a specific focus on casino marketers. I kept this on my wish list, and then mentioned it to Mary Loftness of Profitable Customers and Michael Meczka of MMRC, Inc.—both experts in the industry.
Along with our ongoing businesses, all of us are deeply involved in training and educating the casino marketers of today and the future. We pooled our contacts, dug for a few more and sent an extensive survey to a wide swath of casino executives to create a baseline for future studies and deeper cross-tabulation.
The result is the Casino Marketing Monitor, born of a desire to examine the casino marketing environment across all gambling enterprises in the United States. At this point, we can only guess at the impact the Covid-19 pandemic will make on Year 2 responses.
Life as a Casino Marketer
Casino marketing is a team sport. A majority of respondents (58 percent) informed us they have six or more direct reports, with another 34 percent having one to five. Marketing executives balance responsibility for the development of their teams while working closely with the highest decision-makers to grow revenue.
And, like the vast majority of full-time employees in the U.S, they look for ways to find a seemingly elusive work-life balance.
As a casino marketer, I always thrived on the fun we had working together and hitting our goals. Our baseline responses showed I was never alone. A whopping 83 percent of those surveyed pointed to their contribution to the property’s success as the No. 1 driver of job satisfaction, with the fun environment coming in second (60 percent) and salary a distant third.
As referenced previously, the Casino Gaming Executive Satisfaction report has become a benchmark for the U.S. gaming industry. It’s interesting to note that, of the eight choices given to respondents in that study, opportunity and growth were prioritized. Compensation placed second, with culture third. However, while Monitor respondents place salary and growth as lower factors in satisfaction, they still play a significant role in dissatisfaction.
Eighty percent of respondents reported being somewhat to extremely satisfied with their work, despite working many hours. Twenty percent reported working 44 hours or less a week; the extended work week comes as no surprise, as respondents report some level of participation in nearly all aspects of marketing.
Unsurprisingly, when asked to provide the single most significant challenge, respondents said growing revenue, followed at a distant second by developing their teams.
Clams Casino Artist
Areas of Responsibility
As of this writing, nearly half of U.S. casinos have reopened. The casino marketers associated with these openings have already started to experience shifts in their reliance on specific tools. What follows is a mix of what was learned from the study and what we’re seeing as the future of the casino marketing toolbox, in order of the currently unfolding priority.
Database Marketing
It’s often said that the battle for the casino customer is fought and won or lost in the mailbox. Nowhere is this key battleground more important than in regional markets, where only a very few continue to benefit from monopolies.
Although optional market share answers were only provided by about half of respondents, we clearly see that 85 percent are competing in the mailbox for that precious local business. Sixty-nine percent of respondents see more than half of the casino’s revenue from locals. Only a small minority have what was once considered a monopoly (8 percent) or duopoly (6 percent). Half of the respondents reported they share the market with two to four competitors within an hour’s drive. Thirty-six percent battle for market share with five or more competitors.
As many databases in the hospitality industry migrate to digital, the casino industry continues to see its most significant returns from dear old snail mail, but growing use of email. The database continues to be the primary channel that we use to create visits, and we’re using it pretty regularly. Sixty-one percent are sending a high-value player more than six messages a month. Forty-four percent of mid-value range players are getting more than six.
Analytics and Key Metrics
This dependence on mail and reinvestment makes it essential that marketers have access to critical metrics and the tools to assist them in making decisions that will drive revenue at an appropriate investment. The casino industry has seen a veritable explosion of third-party tools to assist them in this process.
Respondents are confident in their access to key metrics and the analysis of drivers of the business, utilizing tools ranging from third-party tools to in-house data warehouses and desktop tools. It’s interesting to note that, while the majority of respondents use third-party tools to gain insights into key metrics, properties using in-house and desktop tools (Excel, Access, SQL, Tableau) rate the quality of the information at a consistently higher level.
Player Development
Person-to-person contact with the most valued players has been a long tradition in the industry, and shows no signs of being replaced. Most respondents reported six or more employees with that responsibility. While the median number of players for each host ranges from 151 to 400, the majority are responsible for building personal relationships with up to 800 guests.
Advertising
The majority of respondents (77 percent) were involved in or had a responsibility for advertising of the property. Although respondents expected budgets would remain flat or grow, very few planned cuts for 2020. Now we know that, because of the closures prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic, many of our expectations for both revenue and expenses have been revised. We will have a clearer picture of the impact in the 2020 version of the Monitor report.
Additionally, although 2019 advertising budgets were spread over all media forms, the change in communications channels brought on by the pandemic should likewise be reflected in revised budget allocations. Of interest is that while some industry pundits continue to look to millennials as a prime target audience, often advising a change in message and strategy, a large majority of respondents have not chosen to view their messaging and marketing in terms of audience age.
Creative design and online work continued to migrate in-house, further adding to the workload we see in the number of hours worked per week.
Entertainment, Promotions and Events
As we begin to return to our operations, a few marketing tools have been put on hold for the time being: entertainment, promotions and events.
Entertainment has been a standard casino offering since the days of Elvis and the Rat Pack. As regional markets developed their offerings, the ability to provide headline entertainment became a must. In 2018, respondent properties hosted ticketed shows at a nearly monthly rate, if not more often. Marketers were generally on pace to increase this frequency in 2019 and to carry the pace into 2020. Today, we’re restricted in capacity and encouraged to stay a safe distance—two things that will surely dampen the energy of concerts.
While smaller draws may still be a possibility, they won’t have as great an impact on the customer experience or profitability, as comps to high-worth guests have traditionally been a significant part of the attendee equation.
Eighty-four percent of respondents saw promotions as essential to meeting revenue as well as creating energy on the gaming floor. While properties have seemingly found a thriving calendar of events, marketers are now faced with the challenge of meeting these expectations in ways that don’t draw crowds, are touch-free and are still engaging.
The good news is, we know what prizes gaming patrons are looking for— prizes that keep them in play, rather than big-ticket items. Ninety percent of promotions are under $50,000—not life-changing prizes. Promotional awards are being spread over multiple winners. Seventy-eight percent of impactful promotions are based on player value and delivered one to one.
The challenge today is not the development of promotional ideas. The community of casino marketers loves to share best practices through platforms such as trade shows and conferences, our Casino Marketing Masters Facebook group and spotlight events like the annual Romero Awards. Additionally, casino promotion vendors have been quick to adapt existing programs into touchless and touch-free options.
Knowledge Enhancement
As mentioned earlier, after growing revenue, casino marketers view staff development as the second most significant challenge they face.
As a lifelong student of marketing, this was one of the areas I was most interested in, because while I love to attend and participate in many casino marketing gatherings, it’s that moment when a marketer clicks with a concept or idea that makes the effort worth it in so many ways.
The opportunity to provide relevant, accessible training is what we noticed when we created Casino Marketing Boot Camp, and it’s why we continue to develop programs to enhance marketer skills and ready them for advancement. With most training coming through self-service options such as books, webinars and newsletters, only 11 percent give high marks to the training currently available. Considering the challenges respondents have identified, training programs and options need to help them grow revenue and develop their staffs.
Casino Royale Artist
The pandemic has forced many in-person opportunities to reschedule or cancel, but we must not lose sight of the need to create great marketers.
A Look at the Future
Casino Artist
Casino Marketing Monitor remains committed to the development of an accurate portrait of casino marketing in the U.S. The next survey will be out in the fall, and I expect that we’ll see quite a different picture in terms of the reliance on certain tools. Still, the goals of growing revenue and developing staff will continue to be of significant importance to us as individual marketers and as an industry.
Casino Con Artist
Visit casinomarketingmonitor.com to download a copy of the topline report of the inaugural study and to add your name to the 2020 survey pool.