Another fact we learned from our casino marketing survey was that  most casino properties stuck with their existing db marketing strategies, even with the downturn. Basically, we found that:

• Despite the status of the business, almost 40% (39.1%) of properties are not changing their db marketing strategies.

• About a fourth of the industry is simply adjusting their marketing budget.  More properties are increasing spending (17.4%) than decreasing (8.7%) marketing spending as a response to the situation.

• Another quarter (26.1%) are mailing different individuals with the same budget.

• Another  8% of  properties are dealing with industry situation by buying new machines.

Strategies for db Marketing

The survey revealed that the gaming industry moved toward more tiering.

• 27% used Three-tiered database
• 42% mail 4- 12 tiers
• 12% mail at least 25 tiers
• 19% did not use or not known

Opportunity to improve mailing sophistication

Stics believes there is a lot of opportunity to database market more effectively. Based on the survey results, campaign effectiveness can be improved by:

• Trying new things (because 40% were mailing same)

• More complexity (because 69% were mailing fewer than 12 tiers)

• More Sophistication (only 23% using predictive analytics)

At a high level we know that loyal customers do come back, they just don’t spend as much. The problem is knowing which customer are likely to have more money to spend and how to bring back less frequent customers. Stics can help with that. Stics can unlock the power of your current database to maximize profitability and marketing effectiveness. For more information, call us today. We are here to help.

Reduced Revenues from Same Number of Players the No. 1 Pain Point

Casino businesses have diverse pain points, so we narrowed them down to find out which is the biggest source of pain last year. According to our survey, these were the pain points of businesses last year:

• Increase spend of players already coming (28%)
• Get new customers to make up for the deficit in current play (24%)
• Get players to play more since spending less (20%)
• Add other form of spending to mix (12%)—stays, events, food, etc.
• 4% changing reinvestment

With 57% of our respondents in their positions for less than 2 years, companies seem to be making investments in marketing talents to improve results. However, it appears that getting the same number of players to spend more is the top source of pain by their marketing people.

Stics, as your predictive analytics partner, can help you find your pain points and determine effective marketing solutions that can achieve 10x ROI fast.

If you would like to learn more, call us today. We are here to help.

We wanted to know how much the overall business performance in the casino gaming industry has changed in the previous year and our survey reveals that there actually has been more “up’s” than “down’s” as compared to the previous year.

More companies have improved in their performance than those who experienced decline; even so, most businesses yielded flat in their performance. This is vis-à-vis last year; so bottom hit for some.

• Things are better in places than expected (30.8% of businesses are up)
• More are up than down (30.8 up and 23.1 down)
• No improvement for bulk (61.6%) though (38.5% flat plus 23.1% down)

Stics offers predictive analytics to help you derive insights from your current data, make better informed decisions, and ultimately, improve your business performance. Call us if you would like to learn more. We are here to help.

When we asked what are the key metrics used to measure marketing ROI, we found that revenue remained to be the main driver of business assessment in the industry. We also noted:

• About one third of participants use profit
• Most (65.4%) examine gross revenue
• Less than half (46.2%) examine EBITDA suggesting profitability maybe difficult to monitor
• And 34% of the time some additional other variable was also considered

If you are looking to increase revenue and profit at your property, contact Stics. We have solutions that generate millions of dollars each month. Call us if you would like to learn more. We are here to help.

One of the first things our survey revealed was that turnover is very high at the top levels of casino marketing. This is something we already knew from direct experience, but it is worth mentioning as frequent leadership turnover can create continuity and focus problems. Reflecting the seniority of their positions and gaming focus, we found:

• 53.8% of our respondents have been in the industry for more than 10 years.

But we also found that a full:

• 23% have been in their organization (company) for less than a year.
• 38% of them have been in their position (job title) for less than a year.

Considerably, 57% of the respondents were in their positions for no less than 2 years. This leads us to the impression that most companies are making investments in marketing talent to improve results. But it is also apparent that finding and keeping good marketing people is not all simple.

Companies today are looking to keep profitable talents in order to achieve their business goals and to supplement their human marketing resources with better tools and insight.

Call us if you would like to learn more. We are here to help.

Over the past year, Stics has conducted a series of market research surveys to better understand the current challenges facing the U.S. casino gaming industry. There is a lot of research on the U.S. gaming industry, but most of it was done prior to the great recession and did not provide answers that took into consideration the current economic environment.

Stics conducted the survey to better understand our markets’ needs and develop new and innovative solutions to significantly improve the success rates of casino database marketing campaigns. We surveyed U.S. based casino executives (from CEO through director level) across the nation in the functional areas of marketing, finance and IT.

Over the next three blog posts we will explore some of the more interesting results and share our perspective on them with you.

These findings include:

• Turnover
• Measurements of Success
• Change in Business Performance
• Biggest Source of Pain
• Marketing Strategies
• Marketing Investments

We know that the casino gaming industry is set to move forward in a positive direction. But we also know that by understanding your customers at the deepest level and leveraging innovative new technology services your business can get on the fast track to revenue generation success.

Stics, has solutions that generate millions of dollars for our clients each month. Call us if you would like to learn more. We are here to help.

There was a lot to be excited about during the NIGA conference last week in Phoenix!  From Lynn Valbuena, vice chairwoman of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, receiving the Chairman’s leadership award to Danny Glover and Adam Beach opening the trade show floor for business on Tuesday. The buzz at the show was optimistic that the gaming industry may finally be shifting back in a positive direction.

Consider Predictive Analytics to Launch New Growth

Now is a great time for Indian gaming properties to gain a new competitive advantage from Stics℠ Predictive Analytics. Predictive analytics can help you significantly increase revenue and build stronger relationships with your most valuable customers.

Predictive analytics is a form of statistical science that Stics uses to predict a customer’s worth and behavior. It is a cutting edge technology that blends marketing with science to deliver an ROI that exceeds its investment rate by ten times, in less than 90 days, with no software or hardware to purchase.

Make Stics Your Casino Marketing Advantage

Stics works with leading casinos in Indian Country, on the Las Vegas Strip, and regionally throughout the US. We give our clients a significant completive advantage that helps them drive revenue from their existing customer databases.

Contact Stics if you are interested in the most affordable and effective predictive analytics solution for the casino gaming industry. We would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Indian Gaming Still the Recessionary Winner

Indian gaming began its widespread popularity in the States during the late 1980’s and its growth rapidly escalated. Despite the trend, even Indian gaming could not completely escape the impact of the recession, reporting an overall revenue decline of 1% in 2009, as reported in Casino City Press.

Casino City’s latest Indian Gaming Industry Report reveals national Indian gaming revenue declined 1% to $26.4 billion, from $26.7 billion the previous year. This marks it the first year of decline in Indian gaming history. According to the report, the overall slowdown was due to the economy and other factors including, public policies restricting the supply of gaming.

The performance of Indian gaming varied widely across states, California and Oklahoma were the top two states accounting for 38% of the total national Indian gaming revenue.

The overall decline in Indian gaming was much less serious than the commercial casino of the nationwide gaming industry.

Why Did the Indian Gaming Community Do So Well in the Economic Downturn?

Stics believes there are two major factors that contributed to the relative resilience of Indian Casinos over the past few years― and they both relate to location.

High Percentage of Local Gamers

If a property has a higher percentage of local gamers, its resilience in an economic downturn will be greater. Generally speaking:

• In a recession, people travel less.
• If gambling is a preferred form of entertainment, the destination gamble will reduce expenses by gambling closer to home.
• The percentage of gross gaming revenue from local gamers is higher for Native American properties than destination cities.

Less Competition

Native American properties often, but not uniformly, enjoy less competition. This is due to:

• Unique or remote locations
• A scarcity of nearby gaming alternatives

This encourages customer visit stability, as gamblers come back to nearby casinos more consistently over time.  Because of this local access, gambling can become a recurring part of the local entertainment budget.

Should gambling be legal in Texas? That was one of many interesting question in a recent independent poll of voters from the University of Texas and the Texas Tribune. The survey shows gambling has a fair amount of support in the public: The support for gaming is on the rise in Texas with 56 percent saying they would allow full casino gambling compared to 8 percent who want to ban gambling all together.

Details about the push for expanded Texas gambling can be found on the Texas Gaming Association website and is being fueled by the States budget shortfall expected to exceeding $15 Billion.

The casino owners say their plan could produce $1 billion, mostly through the fees that operators would pay for the licenses to operate casinos.

Everybody Wants a Piece of the Casino Gaming Pie

Today dozens of casinos in the neighboring states of Tennessee and Louisiana benefit from a large population of destination gamblers who live in the Dallas metropolitan area. Oklahoma is also gaming on gaming to fill its state coffers with 70 Oklahoma casinos with plans to expand gaming within the State.

Legalizing gaming in Texas would have a significant negative effect on existing regional gaming properties. For that reason we find it difficult to support this push. What are your thoughts? Do we have enough casinos near Texas?

The Las Vegas Sun reported that the gaming industry recovery on the Las Vegas Strip will continue this year and accelerate in 2012 according to a prediction by, Moody’s Investors Service in a recent market update.

Wynn Casinos, Las Vegas Sands and MGM Resorts have all shown huge gains in stocks from their March 2009 lows, outstripping even the solid performance by the broad market. Las Vegas Sands (LVS), Wynn Resorts (WYNN) and MGM Resorts (MGM) are up 3,299%, 722% and 546%, respectively, but they are still not close to their 2007 highs.

Does this prove that people are feeling better and ready to gamble again?